New York Insurance CE Requirements

New York insurance licenses must be renewed every two years. The renewal deadline is the licensee's birthday. Licensees born in odd-numbered years renew in odd-numbered years, and licensees born in even-numbered years renew in even-numbered years. Continuing education requirements must be completed and reported before submitting your renewal application.

Electronic renewals are available through the New York Department of Financial Services licensing system. You can renew your New York insurance license online here.

New York resident insurance producers must complete approved continuing education during each two-year license term.

• Total Hours Required: 15 hours every 2 years
• Multi-License Holders: 30 hours total (15 hours in each line of authority) for agents licensed in both Life/Health and Property/Casualty. Life and Health licenses alone are treated as a single line.
• Ethics Requirement: 3 hours total, consisting of 1 hour of Insurance Law, 1 hour of Ethics and Professionalism, and 1 hour of Diversity, Inclusion and Elimination of Bias

Courses must be approved for the line of authority held by the licensee.

Agents who sell certain insurance products must complete additional state-mandated training before engaging in those sales activities.

• Annuity and Life Insurance Suitability: New York Regulation 187 requires insurers to ensure producers recommending life insurance or annuity products are adequately trained to comply with best interest standards.
• Long-Term Care (LTC): The New York Department of Financial Services offers a one-time 6-hour Long-Term Care training course for producers who sell long-term care partnership policies.
• Flood Insurance (NFIP): Property and Casualty licensees must complete a one-time 3-hour FEMA NFIP certification before selling flood insurance policies.

The following rules apply to New York CE completion and credit.

Self-Study Course Completion

• Students should complete all course material before attempting the final exam.
• A minimum passing score of 70% is required on the final exam.
• If the final exam is not passed on the first attempt, unlimited retakes are permitted.
• Self-study final exams are closed-book and do not require a monitor.

Line of Authority Restrictions

• Courses must be approved for the line of authority held by the licensee.

Course Repetition

• A course cannot ever be repeated for continuing education credit.

Carryover

• Excess CE hours may not be carried forward to the next renewal period.

Continuing education providers report course completions electronically to the New York Department of Financial Services.

Licensees are responsible for ensuring all continuing education requirements are satisfied prior to submitting their license renewal application.

New York does not provide a public CE transcript system, so licensees should maintain their own records of completed courses.

If you need to confirm your license status or license number, you can search your New York insurance license here using the official DFS licensing portal.

Non-resident agents must demonstrate compliance with continuing education requirements in their home state. A letter of certification from the licensee's home state may be required to verify that the licensee is in good standing and compliant with their state's CE requirements.

Some licensees may qualify for exemption from New York continuing education requirements.

• Newly licensed individuals who have held their license for less than a full two-year period.
• Licensees called to active military duty during the term of their license.
• Individuals holding certain license types including Independent Adjuster, Bail Bond, Mortgage Guarantee, or Reinsurance Intermediary licenses.

New York insurance licensees should maintain copies of continuing education completion certificates in their records in case of audit or verification by the New York Department of Financial Services.