Vermont: Insurance Continuing Education

Aged cheddar, maple syrup, craft beer. Vermont is home to some of the most delectable treats the culinary world has to offer. Other treats Vermont serves up? An extensive spread of resident producer licensing continuing education (CE) requirements. Yummy.

Keeping resident producer licenses in good standing is central to maintaining all nonresident licenses. And CE is key to managing resident licenses. 

We’ve tucked into the meat and potatoes of producer CE requirements but we recommend you do the same. After all, you’re the one responsible for ensuring you stay up to date with state CE requirements. If in doubt, always go directly to the source, which, in this case, is the big cheese itself: The Vermont Insurance Agents Association.

What is the due date for Vermont Insurance CE Credits? 

Producer licenses expire in Vermont biennially on March 31 of odd-numbered years, and CE is due on the very same day. 

Since the end of March is a busy time of year for Vermonters – peak ski season is no time to be cramming in last-minute CE requirements – the state will send resident producers a reminder to renew CE 85 days before license expiration. That should give producers ample time to brush up on education requirements and ski New England’s finest.

Who’s exempt from Vermont Insurance CE?

If you’re not a resident producer in Vermont then you can just hightail your way out of this blog – that is, unless of course, you love learning about CE requirements just for the fun of it. Vermont doesn’t require nonresident producers from maintaining Vermont CE requirements so long as the producer resides in a state or district with its own CE requirements and the producer is in good standing with those requirements.

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

Resident producers must complete 24 hours of CE every two-year renewal period. Of those 24 hours, three must be in approved ethics courses. Be sure to remember, however, only six hours of CE can be from courses relating to insurance agency management. 

Licensees don’t need to worry about CE until after the first licensing period. 

However, to get CE credits, students must take an exam at course completion. These courses are closed book and must be passed with a score of 70 percent or higher. Don’t stress if you struggle with an exam as they can be taken an infinite number of times. That said, courses cannot be retaken within a single renewal period.

If you like to indulge in your CE and take as many CE courses as possible within a single renewal period, bad news: Vermont isn’t about to let you count those credits towards your next renewal cycle. Instead, you’ll have to be content knowing that you’re a super awesome producer chock full of knowledge that you can use to help clients find the best insurance product to meet their needs. 

All is not lost in Vermont, however. If you teach a CE course, you can receive the same amount of CE credits that your students receive for taking the course. 

In light of COVID-19, for courses that require a proctor to be present, students must now complete the Continuing Education Attestation of Personal Responsibility Form, which attests that no outside support was received while completing an online form.

Long-Term Care Partnership training requirements

Producers selling, soliciting, or negotiating long-term care must complete an initial, one-time eight-hour course specific to long-term care before selling long-term care products. At a minimum, two hours of the course must be dedicated to Vermont-specific information, including Vermont Medicaid details. The two hours of Vermont-specific information may either be part of the eight-hour course or provided through an entirely separate course.

In addition to the initial long-term care course, producers must complete at least four hours of ongoing training every biennial renewal period. For resident producers, this four-hour training requirement can count toward the total 24 hours of CE per renewal period. 

Flood training requirements

FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program establish a national baseline minimum of three hours of flood-specific training for producers selling flood insurance. 

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.

Vermont Insurance CE FAQs