Continuing Education Credits

Chris Graham · May 16, 2014, 10:58:42 AM

We have been using 360training.com for our Continuing Education Credits. Yesterday one of our account managers tried to get her credits and the state of Michigan was no longer available. I was told by 360training.com that the state of Michigan now considers 360training.com's tests to be outdated and will no longer accept credits from them. Is anyone using NobleCE.com or WebCE.com for CE credits? If so, how is it working for you? Any other online CE credit websties out there that have worked well for you?

Thanks.

Jan Regnier · May 16, 2014, 11:02:39 AM

We do use WebCE but we still order paper materials. No one likes spending time on the computer for this process.

DebAmstutz · May 16, 2014, 11:37:02 AM

I like going to the PIA/Big I conventions for CE. I'm out of the office for 2 day and receive 12 hours of CE credit. Works well for me! (Even though I'm the accounting person, the owners want everyone to be licensed and that's fine. I find interesting topics at the conferences, and I usually get some good information out of them.)

Jeff Zylstra · May 16, 2014, 12:03:49 PM

Scratch what I was going to say! Apparently IGS is now 360 training, or whatever. That's good to know. Thank you.

Yes, we have also used Noble and have been somewhat satisfied with their courses. I don't think anyone is ever thrilled with this stuff since it is costly in both time and money. The testing and proctoring procedures are always a royal pain.

Jan Regnier · May 16, 2014, 12:10:12 PM

We do the paper route because the expense is so much less than individuals attending seminars or conventions. However, I personally like seminars due to the interaction and questions that are brought up that are not addressed in written material. The offerings also get rather limited after a while.. hate taking the same "course" again - unless things have greatly changed. One of the issues I find with paper for Life and Health is that way too much concentration on LIFE areas that CSAs (and most agents) just are not going to be involved in.

And really - this is just a money revenue for the states (just like the "Ethics" requirements now - we have the people who continue to prove they themselves to be unethical telling the rest of us we HAVE to take this course. Does it make any difference? NO...just raises money for the state. We have a CSA that is Lic in IL....her ethics REQUIRED ATTENDANCE class was absolutely a joke. No leader, no materials. Just show up and talk among yourselves!) If an agency wants its staff to be up-to-date it can send them to seminars and have the info be more relevant.

Billy Welsh · May 16, 2014, 12:23:15 PM

IMHO, mandated Ethics classes are just so the politicians/sanctioning bodies can tell the public they are "addressing the issues."

In reality you either have ethics or you don't. If you do and you encounter a gray area, you go ask someone so you get it right.

I can see some value for rookies, but it should be done by the employer so it is specific to their job, instead of the generic boilerplate you get in the mandated courses. Their example scenarios have improved over the last few years - I'll give them that. But still not enough for those actually working in the real world.

Hans Manhave · May 16, 2014, 02:10:34 PM

Ha! I am grandfathered. Licensed for a long time and many required CE's. We use WebCE for those that are required to take CE.

Jim Jensen · May 16, 2014, 05:05:06 PM

The Ethics thing is silly- we had to take one a few years ago as P&C agents and now I have to do it as a L&H agent. I get that the L&H-only agents didn't have to do it a few years ago, but by having both, I get no credit for the other requirement. All of the stuff covered in the ethics classes are usually so basic they are handled in basic licensing classes. I'm not against reviewing those, but CIC courses already do that and I get 20 hrs of credit each year just from that.

My personal disappointment is that so much CE is moving to web-only. I understand why it's attractive to do so, but I feel the experience is much better in-class than web-based. It's tough to truly deal with questions and follow-up discussions online in an effective manner. I know the technology allows for it, but it doesn't foster discussion near as much as in-person. And I simply know that a good percentage of people aren't paying any attention, but just respond when required to indicate they are still there. That rather defeats the point of the courses.

Billy Welsh · May 16, 2014, 05:12:13 PM

Quote from: Jim Jensen on May 16, 2014, 05:05:06 PM
The Ethics thing is silly- we had to take one a few years ago as P&C agents and now I have to do it as a L&H agent.

LA for once has done it correctly - if you have both P&C and L&H, there is only ONE ethics requirement for each CE period. Even better, for the L&H renewal, you just need to send in the $ - your P&C hours are good enough to keep your L&H in force.

Now if they would stop renewing them in separate years...

Jim Jensen · May 16, 2014, 05:27:31 PM

Indiana has a consolidated license that simply lists which credentials you have, but on this ethics thing they have kept them separate. We also had to recently take specific courses on ethics and related issues just for annuities. So I'm getting nearly triple training. A few years ago we also had the required flood class. Nevermind that we have a total of about 10 flood policies!

Indiana changed the licenses just a few years ago from 4 years to 2 years. 1/2 the credit needed, so the same annual average, but didn't 1/2 the fee, so they simply doubled their income with no changes otherwise.

Billy Welsh · May 16, 2014, 05:54:23 PM

The flood is now required for each renewal cycle (2 years in LA).

Hans Manhave · May 16, 2014, 08:04:33 PM

I always thought it was funny that agents put the CE requirement on other agents. Everyone knows what a day out of the office costs to an agency. Now make that 30 hours every two years. There are still many agents who have no clue.

For a while there was some talk about doing same with IT people. Fortunately that didn't happen. One can get designations, one can keep those alive, but one doesn't need a license to tear up a computer.

The insurance license with CE is entirely industry self-generated. It has not managed to raise the level of standing of the profession as far as I can tell. There are still good agents and bad agents. Just like any other occupation.

Terry Evans · May 30, 2014, 01:52:31 PM

I have used Kaplan and liked it. http://www.kfeducation.com/insurance-lic/

Jeff Zylstra · May 30, 2014, 02:02:42 PM

I have 1 minor disagreement on the value of CE classes. I don't know about your states, but Michigan had a glut of mostly life and health agents with some P&C agents, who were teachers and who dabbled in insurance. These people were downright dangerous, and gave our profession a bad name for a while. A little CE isn't a bad thing for culling the herd every once in a while. They could probably extend it to every 3 or 4 years and be just fine with it, but like I say it does serve a purpose.