One of the things that we pride ourselves at ProSchools is our ability to keep current with the changes that affect our students, and the changes that are happening in Washington are no exception.  Effective July 1, 2009, the state of Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) is making significant changes to the prelicense education mandates and rules.  If you would like to view the actual rule changes, click HERE for the text version of the legislation.  This information is critical to those prelicense students who are either currently enrolled in a ProSchools program or are planning on obtaining an insurance license in the near future.  This absolutely affects you if you are in Washington and are studying for your insurance license, so please read on for the changes!First, let me detail the changes to the insurance prelicense requirements effective 7/1/2009:

Q: What is happening to the required number of prelicense hours that an insurance candidate will have to clock?  Are the minimum number of hours changing on July 1, 2009?

A. The required number of hours for prelicense education is changing for all major lines of authority (types of licenses).  For Life, Disability (health), Property and Casualty prelicense students, you will now be required to do 20 hours per line which now includes the rules and statutes material.  Prior to this change, life and health students only needed 16 hours per line (32 hours total) PLUS an additional 4 hours for rules and statutes, and this applied to P&C prelicense candidates as well.

Q: How do the rules change affect students that are currently enrolled in a prelicense program?  Will the education that is being done now “count” after 7/1/09 or will I have to start all over from scratch?

A. You will not have to start all over.  Mr. Joe Mendoza, manager of the licensing division at the OIC, states
“A certificate of completion will still be valid for the full 12 months based on the date is was issued.  So, we will honor all completion certificates issued before July 1, 2009 for the full 12 months as allowed by law.”

So, all students that have started or completed their education prior to 7/1 will still receive a certificate of completion that will allow them to test even after the 7/1 change date.  The certificate is still valid for one year, and you can use it until it expires.  Another comment from Mr. Mendoza regarding the changeover and students that have started or completed their study program before 7/1:  “While those students who have already started or completed their prelicense programs will be allowed to test for a license even after 7/1, my concern is that they need to make sure that they are studying the proper material. The content outline has changed and they might not have all of the information that’s included in the new and revised test content outline.”  (Click HERE for a link to the new content outline effective 7/1/2009)

Q: Are the number of questions changing?  Is the scoring changing?

This is a legitimate point.  While the content outline is not changing drastically, and most of the changes are to the laws and rules section, there are still some additions that the student should be aware of prior to testing.  ProSchools has already submitted our material to the OIC for this new program and we anticipate approval shortly.  The new material has included the new content for all lines of licensure and you can be assured that our program will be current upon release July 1.  For those students that have started their studies before 7/1, we will make sure that you have access to the new material at no cost to you.  Watch the blog for details.  The scoring will not change- you must still get a 75% in all tested sections in order to pass, and it looks like the actual number of questions won’t change either.  I’ll make sure to keep up on this and let you know if changes do occur.

Q: What about the changes for students that wish to do their prelicense education online?  Didn’t you have to have some kind of “waiver” or something issued by the OIC that allows you to do it online?

A: This is changing as well.  Prior to this change, anyone who wanted to study through “distance education” had to obtain a “waiver of the classroom training requirement” from the OIC in order to study outside of a classroom.  In order to get the waiver, a student had to live at least 50 miles from a classroom setting or be able to prove hardship if forced to attend a classroom training program.  This requirement is GONE! Washington, in getting in line with the “Producer Model Licensing Act” (PLMA) that is changing the way states treat prelicensing all over the country, is now onboard with the NAICs recommendations!  So, online prelicense is now allowed without any type of waiver!  Woo Hoo!  Now you can do your prelicense training at home in your jammies if you like!  No photos, please!

There will be more on this later, so please watch the blog for additional changes!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Insurance Industry News, Insurance Test Tips 101, Law Changes, Q&A! You ask, we answer!, Student Lounge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.