Education Central

- Things to know about your continuing education

Deja Vu? Catch a Duplicate CE Course Before It Catches You!

Taking a duplicate CE course could cost you time and money.

Current law prohibits a licensee from receiving duplicate credit for the same course within a three year period. This means the course will not be applied towards any of your CE requirements. If a duplicate course is not caught in time, it could result in you not completing your CE requirement on time. That could further result in possible fines, having to take additional courses, or even losing all of your appointments.

What is a duplicate course? A duplicate course is the same course taken through the same education provider and is recognized by having the same approved course ID#. Some courses are similar in nature; however, vary in material. For example: two senior suitability courses offered by different providers are not considered duplicate courses. Also, two similarly named courses offered by the same provider are not duplicate courses if they have different course ID#s.

To help prevent the detrimental consequences of taking a duplicate course, here are some suggested practices to assist you in catching a possible duplicate course before taking one:

• Maintain a copy of your course completion certificates and review them to make certain you don’t take a duplicate course.
• Review your transcript in your MyProfile account each time before registering for a course.
• Ask the education provider if their records show you as taking the course within the last three years.

Whenever in doubt, don’t take the course. Search the Department’s database for other courses that could meet your requirement. When a duplicate course is taken, a red error warning is printed below the course on your transcript in your MyProfile account. Additionally, we will email you to inform you that the credit could not be applied to your CE requirement since it was a duplicate course. Therefore, monitor your transcript regularly to make certain you didn’t inadvertently complete a duplicate course.

How to Search for Approved CE Courses

Looking for continuing education (CE) courses to be sure you get all your hours completed? Our online course search can easily help you by listing those courses approved by the Department.

1. Go to our website at www.MyFloridaCFO.com/Division/Agents.
2. Click on MyProfile on the left panel and log in to your account.
3. Once in your MyProfile inbox, click on Locate at the top left. Then click on Future Course Offerings.
4. Select the Course Authority for the type of license held or course you need to take.
5. You can also make other choices, like Study Method and Location, to narrow your search results.
6. If you click on Perform an Advanced Search, you will have additional options to narrow your search results, such as Course Date and Course Level.

Because many factors may affect your continuing education requirement (e.g. licenses held, number of years licensed, etc.), we encourage you to periodically check your MyProfile account to determine your individual continuing education compliance requirements and status. You will also be able to find more approved CE courses after logging in to your MyProfile account as the public search limits the results to the first 100 course offerings.

We wish you success as you continue to complete your hours to keep your knowledge current in an ever-changing insurance market. And remember, your CE compliance date is your DUE date, not your DO date.

Education Providers: Have You Joined Us for a Conference Call?

The Education Unit regularly holds a conference call available to all approved education providers every other month. This 30-minute call is usually conducted on the first or second Tuesday of odd numbered months and includes 10 minutes of Q&A from the providers.

We have received numerous positive comments regarding the call. Some of the benefits of participating in a conference call are:

• Clarification of the Florida Administrative Code pertaining to education requirements
• First-hand information on upcoming changes
• Opportunity to ask live questions to the Department's Education staff
• Hear what other providers are asking relating to education requirements
• Tips for quicker processing of applications for education providers

Our next conference call is scheduled for Tuesday, March 5, 2013 from 2:00pm-2:30pm Eastern. Our topics of discussion will include acceptable designations for instructors applying for approval, approval of seminar partial courses, and updates on the progress of submitting and delivering the required 5-hour CE update course.

A recorded copy of the January education provider conference call along with Q&A may be found on our website under the Providers of CE & Pre-licensing header.

We hope to have you join us in the future. Education providers may find more information about the conference call by logging in to your MyProfile account and viewing your notifications in your In-box.

Reminder: Our Website Address Has Changed

The Division of Agent and Agency Services' redesigned website went live on August 1, 2012. We continue to receive traffic to the old site. We've identified that much of this traffic comes from links on education providers' websites. Currently, customers who attempt to access the old website's homepage are automatically redirected to the new website. The redirect on the old site to the new site will be removed very soon. Please be sure to update any links you have to our website on your website or your materials to go to www.MyFloridaCFO.com/Division/Agents. This will help prevent confusion when we take down the old site.

Education Providers: Processing Applications for Approval

The Education Unit understands that life gets busy and that time away from the office can be necessary. At the same time we want to remind education providers of their responsibility to be available to the Department if any applications have been submitted or are still pending.

Please be sure to designate an approved school official or contact of the education provider who will be available to respond to questions the Department may have regarding any open application by the provider. Failure to timely respond to a deficiency on an application may lead to closure of the application.

Any questions may be sent to Education@MyfloridaCFO.com.