Alaska: Insurance Continuing Education

Staying up-to-date with modern trends is essential for any industry, and in insurance this means producers commit to maintaining their licenses through continuing education (CE).

In Alaska, this isn’t just about staying on top of changes; Alaska holds CE as a key piece of license renewal. If you haven’t fulfilled your CE requirements by the time your license renewal period rolls around, then you will not be eligible to renew your license.

With that in mind, let’s dive into some of the requirements and exemptions of Alaska insurance CE.

Who is Alaska Insurance CE for?

Like all states, Alaska doesn’t require nonresidents to undergo CE as long as they are maintaining the CE and license requirements of their own resident state. Additionally, any producers who are issued temporary or limited lines licenses are not required to undergo CE. 

Producers who have maintained an active insurance license in the state since 1979 or earlier are also exempt from CE requirements.

What is the due date for Alaska Insurance CE Credits? 

While most of us are fond of our birthdays as a way of marking time, reflecting on life, and celebrating with friends, Alaska also ties license renewals and CE requirements to this auspicious occasion. Insurance producer licenses expire and CE requirements are due on the last day of your birth month, and are tied to whether you were born in an odd or even year.

There is an exception to that: If you got your insurance license less than 24 months before your birthday-based renewal period rolls around, you have until the next birthday-based renewal period to get your CE. For example, let’s consider these folks who obtained their licenses in May 2023:

• Someone born January 3, 1987, will need to complete CE by January 2027.
• Someone born June 3, 1987, will need to complete their CE by June 2025.
• Someone born April 8, 1988, will need to complete CE by April 2026.

If you are a producer in Alaska, the state will send you a notice 90 days before your CE is due – 90 days before your birth month. You have this period to submit your CE and thereby keep your license in good standing.

If you’re super proactive and complete your CE at the beginning of the renewal period and are able to renew your license three months before your birthday month, the state will issue the license for a 27-month period, allowing your renewal date to stay set at your biennial birth month.

How many hours of CE are required for Alaska insurance producers?

Alaska requires licensees to take 24 hours of continuing education courses within each full two-year renewal cycle, and mandates that three of those hours cover the subject of ethics. 

If you plan to sell annuities, the state requires that you must take a one-time four-hour class, and it accepts any comparable class you may have taken in another state, as long as that class didn’t include training for selling, marketing, or otherwise soliciting annuity sales. 

Additionally, you can only count up to eight hours of management, marketing, sales, and training toward keeping your CE current. For those who earn excess credits within a certain CE period, you can roll over up to eight hours that aren’t management, marketing, and sales training to the next CE period. You, of course, can’t take a course more than once in the same CE renewal period, and this does apply as well to rollover credits.

Alaska allows you to take courses online or in other states, and, as long as they’re approved CE courses, counting them toward your requirements shouldn’t be a problem, even if they aren’t related to your particular line of authority. 

If you are licensed to sell flood insurance, you of course must have three CE hours of the training requirements established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Flood Insurance Program, as well.

Alaska recognizes a variety of CE providers, but producers can earn dual-credit CE while also pursuing additional professional designations such as those provided by the College for Financial Planning, which provides training for the Certified Financial Professional designation, among others.

If you are licensed in Alaska to sell long-term care insurance (LTCI), your initial certification will require an eight-hour training course and ongoing CE of four hours specific to LTCI every renewal cycle. You can count those four hours toward your total 24 CE hours required by the state. 

For more information about state-specific licensing requirements, or to find out how AgentSync can make it easier to operate across multiple states, check out our state pages.

Alaska Insurance CE FAQs