Assembly Bill (AB) 2782 (Chapter 400, Statutes of 2010) will become effective on January 1, 2011. Included among the provisions of the bill was to set the ethics training requirement for both independent and public insurance adjusters at three hours each two-year license term and to stagger the renewal dates for new applicants. The effects of this change are as follows:
Current Insurance Adjuster Licensees
Current law specifies that both independent and public insurance adjusters must complete a minimum of 24 hours, including ethics, of continuing education (CE) courses pertinent to the duties and responsibilities of their insurance adjuster license every two years prior to renewing their license. However, current law does not specify the number of hours of training on ethics that should be completed.
AB 2782 amends the California Insurance Code to specify that 3 of the required 24 hours of CE must be on ethics. Therefore, current independent and public insurance adjuster licensees who renew their license, which expires on May 31, 2012, will need to ensure that in addition to completing 24 CE hours prior to their renewal that 3 of those 24 hours must be in ethics. Licenses will not be renewed unless both these requirements are met.
Insurance Adjuster License Applicants
Further, beginning on January 1, 2011, all new independent and public insurance adjuster license applicants, who qualify for a license, will be issued a two-year license that will expire in two years on the last day of the same month the original license was issued. For instance, a license issued on January 15, 2011 will expire on January 31, 2013.