South Dakota: Insurance Continuing Education

South Dakota: Home of Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, rolling prairies, grazing buffalo, and oh so many producer licensing continuing education (CE) requirements. 

Keeping up with resident producer licensing requirements is the key to maintaining nonresident licenses. And CE is a big part of that. 

While we’ve done our research on the nitty-gritty of South Dakota’s extensive CE requirements, we recommend you go straight to the source for the most up-to-date information. Visit the South Dakota Division of Insurance website for all things producer licensing.

What is the due date for South Dakota Insurance CE Credits? 

As with most states, resident producer licenses in South Dakota expire biennially on the last day of the licensee’s birth month. CE requirements are due on the same day as license expiration. 

In the instance a resident producer adds a new qualification to their existing license and that new qualification includes additional CE requirements, those new requirements will be waived until after the next renewal cycle.

 South Dakota allows extensions upon evidence of good cause. The state defines good cause as “death, disability, natural disaster or other extenuating circumstances which makes it impossible to attend a continuing education course or do independent study.” The extension request should be submitted no less than 21 days before license expiration with the producer’s name, address, and phone number. If the reason of good cause is medical, the producer will also need to provide a doctor’s statement. Extensions are no greater than a year in length.

Who’s exempt from South Dakota Insurance CE?

Not a resident producer in South Dakota? Then you don’t need to worry about any of this! South Dakota doesn’t have nonresident CE requirements. Instead, feel free to check out the CE requirements for your resident state. Or, peruse our blog for other interesting tidbits that have absolutely nothing to do with CE. 

On top of nonresident producers, South Dakota also includes a number of other exemptions for: 

• Licensees who hold a limited license to sell only credit life and credit health insurance; 
• Licensees outside of the U.S. and territories;
• Licensees who are resident attorneys licensed to practice law in South Dakota; 
• Licensees who are transportation ticket producers or common carriers who hold a limited license to sell travel accident and baggage insurance; 
• Licensees who are employees of trade associations and who hold a limited license to sell only surety bonds to association members; 
• Licensees licensed to sell only bail bonds. 

If you meet any of the above specifications, be sure to notify the South Dakota Department of Insurance in writing of which exemptions you qualify for.

How many hours of CE are required for South Dakota insurance producers?

Licensees need to complete at least 10 hours of CE every two years for courses in each of the lines of authority for which they’re licensed for. Licensees with both property/casualty and life/health licenses must complete a minimum of 20 hours of CE every two year renewal period. 

Now, here’s where the fun begins. 

If you hold a crop hail qualification and either life/health or property/casualty, then you’ll need at least 10 hours of CE, two of which must be in certified crop hail courses. That said, only two hours of crop hail courses will count toward the required 10 hours of total CE and the other eight must be in approved courses specific to life/health or property/casualty, whichever you hold. So don’t overdo it on crop hail. However, if you hold both life/health and property/casualty and you have a crop hail qualification, then you’ll need to complete at least 20 hours of CE, two of which must be in crop hail courses, with the other eight in property/casualty and 10 in life/health. 

Additionally, if you only hold a crop line of authority, then four hours of your CE credits must be specifically in crop insurance. 

Still following? 

If you have a favorite insurer that sponsors CE courses, be sure to remember that only half of your CE course requirements can come from courses sponsored by a single insurer. 

To get CE credits, students must take an exam at course completion. It’s important to note, however, exams won’t become available to students until they finish all of the course material. Also, for security purposes and identity verification, students should expect to answer bio security questions when they enter their course and before they begin their final exam. 

These course exams are closed book and must be passed with a score of 70 percent or higher. Don’t stress if you have a hard time with an exam, as they can be taken an infinite number of times. 

We know you love your CE and want to take as many CE courses as possible to be the best insurance producer in all the land. That’s awesome and we salute you. Unfortunately, though, South Dakota won’t reward your enthusiasm by allowing you to carry over CE credits. Instead, all CE courses must be completed in the current renewal period. 

Annuity requirements

Before engaging in the sale of annuity products, resident producers must first complete a one-time, four-hour approved training course. This course can be completed either in a classroom or through self-study methods. 

If you complete training requirements in a different state that has substantially similar requirements to these, then South Dakota won’t make you do it again! 

The state will soon adopt a new training course, so beginning Jan. 1, 2023, producers will have to take either a new four credit training or an additional one time, one credit training update.

Long-Term Care Partnership training requirements

If you’re a producer in South Dakota and you’d like to sell, solicit, or negotiate long-term care insurance, then you’ll first need to be licensed as an insurance producer for health or life. Additionally, you’ll need to complete eight hours of training in long-term care. Plus, to maintain that license, you’ll need to complete four hours of follow-on training by July 1 of every other even-numbered year. Lovely.

Flood training requirements

FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program established a national baseline requirement to sell flood insurance of a minimum of three hours of training. South Dakota follows this guideline and doesn’t add any additional requirements on top of it. 
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.

South Dakota Insurance CE FAQs