Penalty by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images
The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) insurance regulations require agents and brokers to take certain continuing education (CE) courses. Some of them have falsely stated on their renewal applications that they took the courses. It didn’t end well for them. We strongly urge all licensed agency principals and employees to take the courses and answer the renewal application questions truthfully.
In late 2021, DFS announced that it had adopted a regulation requiring agents and brokers to include the following instruction topics in the 15 hours of CE they must take to renew their licenses:
- At least one hour of insurance law,
- At least one hour of ethics and professionalism, and
- At least one hour of diversity, inclusion, and elimination of bias.
In addition, those whose licenses are for one or more property and casualty lines of authority must take:
- At least one hour of flood insurance instruction, and
- At least three hours of enhanced flood insurance instruction if they sell flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program. While the regulation is not clear on this point, we recommend that anyone selling any flood insurance product (whether or not it is NFIP branded) take this instruction.
These course requirements apply to all licenses renewing after March 31, 2022.
Apparently, some agents and brokers have tried to skirt the rules.
Each month, DFS publishes a report of disciplinary actions against insurance companies and other licensees. A word search of the phrase “required courses" in the last four reports generated these results:
- June 20, 2025: 1 hit.
- July 22, 2025: 4.
- August 21, 2025: 4.
- September 30, 2025: 13.
Of the 22 individuals who were disciplined for this infraction, 19 were fined $7,500 each. DFS revoked the licenses of the other three.
The takeaway here is that DFS is actively enforcing the mandatory instruction requirements. The department had the authority under New York law to implement this requirement, and it did so after reviewing extensive public comments from Big I New York and other interested parties. The rules must be obeyed. We and other organizations offer the required courses, typically online at the student’s convenience. Whichever CE provider you choose, we urge you to comply with the mandatory instruction requirements. We don’t want to see anyone forced to pay $7,500 or lose their license over a few hours of CE instruction.