North Carolina Insurance Continuing Education

Resident Requirements

Residents of North Carolina must complete continuing education requirements in order to renew their insurance licenses. Both insurance producers and insurance adjusters must complete 24 hours of continuing education biennially. Three of those hours must be designated as belonging to ethics courses. 

Depending on your specific branch of insurance, you may have additional specific courses you are required to take. These specific courses also count toward your CE requirements. 

Up to four hours of continuing education hours each term may come from participating in approved professional industry or national industry organization meetings. All other continuing education hours must come from: 

• Online courses
• Webinars
• Print correspondence
• Company seminars
• In-person courses
• Computer-based trainings (CD/CBT)

Rules for Non-Residents

In order to meet North Carolina CE requirements, non-residents must meet their home state's continuing education requirements. As long as the requirements in their home state are generally similar to those in North Carolina, the licensee is considered to be in compliance with North Carolina CE requirements.

Carryover of Excess Continuing Education

Any excess continuing education hours can be carried over into the next term. Excess ethics or flood training hours are carried into the next term as general hours, not as ethics or flood hours. This ensures that ethics and flood training are happening regularly. 

Insurance License Term Renewal Requirements

Insurance licenses are good for a maximum of two years. License renewal dates are based on the licensee's birth date rather than on the date the licensee originally filed for their insurance license. 

Licenses expire at the end of the licensee's birth month. If you were born in an even year, your license always expires in even-numbered years, while if you were born in an odd year, your license always expires in odd-numbered years. 

Producers in the following lines will see their licenses automatically renew as long as they meet their continuing education requirements: 

• Life
• Accident and Health
• Property
• Casualty
• Personal Lines
• Variable Life
• Variable Annuity
• Medicare Supplement
• Long-Term Care

However, if licensees in these lines fail to meet continuing education requirements by the deadline, their licenses will expire. Producers with expired licenses have 4 months to meet the continuing education requirements. To have their licenses reinstated, they must also pay a $75 reinstatement fee. 

If the four-month deadline passes, the producer would need to undergo their pre-licensing and state exam again before obtaining a new license. 

Producers with other lines must file online to renew their insurance licenses after fulfilling all continuing education requirements.

Rules for Taking the Exam

Courses that are taken in person and webinar courses do not require an exam. Attendance and participation in the whole course are all that is needed to have those credits count toward the CE requirements for a particular term.

However, for online and self-study courses, passing an exam is required. All exams are closed-book, meaning course materials are not permitted to be accessed while taking the exam. 

Online courses do not require a monitor. For self-study courses, licensees are required to have an impartial monitor who is neither a family member nor has any financial stake in the exam's results.

All exams must be passed with a score of 70 percent or higher in order for credit for the course to be applied. Examinees are allowed to take an exam an unlimited number of times until they pass. 

Rules for Repeating a Course

While it is possible for you to take the same course more than once in a reporting period for your own benefit, you may not count the second pass of the course toward your continuing education requirements. However, you may take the same course multiple times in different reporting periods as long as you're not using the repeated course as part of carried-over credit hours. 

Credit for Instructors

Instructors may receive the same credit for teaching a course as their students receive for attending the course. Just as with students, instructors can only receive credit for a course they teach once in a reporting period. 

Reporting Rules

Once a course has been completed, it must be reported to the state within 15 days. The agent's NPN is needed to report course completion. The North Carolina Department of Insurance charges $2.05 per reported credit hour as a roster fee, which is automatically charged to the last credit card used on your account. 

Insurance Continuing Education Requirement Exemptions

You may be exempt from North Carolina's continuing education requirements if active-duty military service or long-term illness keeps you from being able to complete continuing education requirements. However, even in the case of active-duty military service or long-term illnesses, LTC training requirements must be maintained. Contact the North Carolina Department of Insurance directly to assess your eligibility for an exemption.

North Carolina Flood Requirements

All adjusters, as well as property, casualty, and personal line producers are required to complete NFIP Flood Insurance Certification Training before selling, soliciting, or negotiating flood products or policies. They must retake these hours every other term after their initial training has been completed. 

These training requirements can count toward regular continuing education requirements for the term in which they are complete. However, any extra flood requirements at the end of a term carried over to the next term as general credits, not as flood credits.

North Carolina Long-Term Care Training Requirements

New applicants for licensure must hold the following licenses before they can sell in NC:

1. Accident & Health and/or Sickness

2. Medicare Supplement/Long Term Care

Long-term care (LTC) producers are required to complete an eight-hour LTC certification training before selling, soliciting, or negotiating LTC insurance products or policies. Additionally, LTC producers must complete four hours of continuing training every other term. 

These training requirements can count toward a licensee's regular continuing education requirements for the term in which they are completed.