Over the past several years, many NAIFA state associations have been advocating for legislation to allow financial advisors to receive CE credit for their membership and active participation in a professional agent association. We are pleased to say that due to NAIFA’s advocacy, 10 states allow advisors to be eligible for CE credit for their association membership: Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia. Depending on the state and the approval of the respective state insurance commissioner, advisors may receive from 1-6 CE credit hours for this purpose. NAIFA state associations in New York, Tennessee, and North Dakota are pursing enactment of similar legislation.
As NAIFA has argued in state legislatures and before the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, professional insurance associations promote high standards of ethical conduct and provide educational programs and professional development opportunities to association members. NAIFA believes advisors who are active members of an agent association should be eligible for continuing education credit for such membership.
In the fall of 2016, the NAIFA Board of Trustees established official NAIFA policy stating that NAIFA supports state legislation permits insurance producers to receive CE credit for their membership in a professional insurance association, subject to the approval of the Department of Insurance. NAIFA even developed model legislation that would allow for financial advisors to receive up to 4 hours of CE credit per reporting period. Under the NAIFA model, which is based on laws already enacted in the states, members must demonstrate active participation in the association to qualify for such CE credit. The NAIFA model gives authority to the state insurance commissioner to define the term "active participation," specify the associations where membership would be eligible for CE credit, and require any other criteria the commissioner may deem necessary. NAIFA provided a copy of this model legislation to the NAIFA state chapters, which may approach their respective insurance commissioners with this proposal.
We believe that permitting advisors to receive CE credit for association membership both encourages advisors to become members of national recognized professional insurance associations and benefits consumers by ensuring them access to better qualified advisors.