Tennessee Insurance Continuing Education

Resident Requirements 

In Tennessee, completing state Continuing Education (CE) requirements is mandatory prior to the renewal of an insurance license. 

Producers are required to complete 24 credit hours of study in approved courses during each license renewal cycle. At least three of the 24 credit hours must be from ethics courses.

Rules for Non-Residents 

A non-resident producer who has satisfied the CE requirements of their home state is exempt from the Tennessee CE requirement. This is contingent upon their home state granting CE credit on substantially the same basis as Tennessee.

Carryover of Excess CE 

A producer is allowed to carry over a maximum of 12 CE credit hours to the next license renewal cycle. However, hours that are carried over may not be applied to the ethics requirement of the next license renewal cycle.

Insurance License Term Renewal Requirements 

The license renewal cycle for Tennessee producers is two years. A license expires on the last day of the producer's birth month. The renewal year is based on the producer's birth year, meaning producers born in even-numbered years will renew in even-numbered years, and producers born in odd-numbered years will renew in odd-numbered years.

The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance sends a renewal notice to the producer's current address on file 45 days prior to the end of the producer's license renewal period.

Rules for Taking the Exam 

All correspondence or self-study courses must include a final exam. No proctor or monitor is required.

Rules for Repeating a Course 

You cannot repeat the same course within 2 years from the original completion date of that course. It is important to confirm that you are not enrolling in the same course that you have already completed within the last two years.

If you are unsure which course you have already completed, please feel free to Contact Us, chat, or email us with your inquiry, we are happy to help!

Credit for Instructors 

Any instructor of a certified CE course will earn two hours of CE credit for each class hour of approved instruction. Instructors will only receive credit hours for the first presentation of a course unless the course has been substantially revised since credit was last awarded.

Reporting Rules 

Each producer is required to submit a signed form, prescribed by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, that describes all of the CE courses in which the producer participated during the license renewal period. 

Providers are required to submit a certificate of completion with credit hours earned to each producer who successfully completes a course. The original certificate of completion for each course shall be retained by the producer as evidence of meeting the CE requirements for the most recent two-year period.

Providers are required to submit an electronic record of students who have successfully completed a CE course to the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance within 30 days of a course's completion.

Insurance CE Requirement Exemptions

There are several conditions under which a producer may be exempt from Tennessee CE requirements.

• Any producer that has been continuously licensed since January 1, 1994, is exempt from the Tennessee CE requirements. This includes the CE requirements for long-term care insurance.
• Any producer who is unable to comply with license renewal procedures due to military service or some other extenuating circumstance may apply for a waiver of CE requirements.
• Any non-resident producer who has met the CE requirements of their home state is not subject to Tennessee's CE requirements. This exemption is contingent upon the home state's requirements being substantially similar to those of Tennessee.

Tennessee Annuity Requirements

Annuity producers are subject to special requirements in the state of Tennessee. Prior to engaging in the sale of annuity products, a producer must hold a life insurance line of authority and must complete a one-time, four credit hour training course approved by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance.

An annuity training course is required to include information on the following topics:

• The types of annuities and various classifications of annuities
• Identification of the parties to an annuity
• How product-specific annuity contract provisions affect consumers
• The application of income taxation of qualified and non-qualified annuities
• The primary uses of annuities
• Appropriate sales practices, replacement, and disclosure requirements

If the producer has completed a substantially similar four credit hour annuity training course in another state, they shall be deemed to have satisfied the Tennessee requirements. An insurer is required to verify that the producer has completed the annuity training prior to permitting the producer to sell an annuity product on their behalf.

Tennessee Long-Term Care Training Requirements

Long-term care insurance producers are subject to special requirements in the state of Tennessee. A producer may not sell, solicit, or negotiate long-term care insurance unless they have been licensed as a producer for accident and health, sickness, or life insurance lines of authority and have completed a one-time, eight credit hour training course. The producer is further required to complete no less than four CE credit hours on the topic of long-term care insurance during each subsequent license renewal period. 

The training for long-term care insurance must consist solely of topics related to long-term care insurance, long-term care services, and qualified state long-term care insurance partnership programs, if applicable. Specific topics include, but are not limited to:

• State and federal regulations and requirements
• The relationship between qualified state long-term care insurance partnership programs and other public and private coverage of long-term care services, including Medicaid
• Available long-term care services and providers
• Changes or improvements in long-term care services or providers
• Alternatives to the purchase of private long-term care insurance
• The effect of inflation on benefits and the importance of inflation protection
• Consumer suitability standards and guidelines

Training for long-term care insurance is prohibited from including insurer or company product-specific information as well as any sales or marketing information, materials, or training.

It is the responsibility of the insurer to obtain verification of a producer's training in long-term care insurance prior to allowing them to sell, solicit, or negotiate long-term care insurance products on their behalf.

The satisfaction of these training requirements in any state will be deemed to satisfy the requirements of the state of Tennessee.