Insurance Department researching continuing ed rules for Kansas agents

Insurance agents get a pretty sweet deal in Kansas: They have to meet half the continuing education hours required by most other states.

The Kansas Insurance Commissioner, Ken Selzer, says Kansas ranks the lowest, or second lowest, in the nation for its minimum hours. Kansas requires insurance agents to complete 12 hours of education every other year if they sell life, health, property or casualty insurance. Most other states require 24 hours for those agents, according to the state Department of Insurance.

Insurance agents do not need a college degree but do have to pass an exam to sell life insurance or health insurance.

Clark Shultz, director of government and public affairs for the Kansas Insurance Department, said the department started gathering state-by-state data on continuing education after the close of the legislative session. He said the department wants to finish the study by October or November and present recommendations to the Legislature in January.

Over the past four years, the Legislature has considered five bills to raise the minimum education standard, but none gained enough traction to become law.

The department did not take a stance on the issue before, but now wants to reach a conclusion about whether the state’s requirement is adequate.

Although the issue didn’t come up in the 2015 session, Shultz said the department wants to speak with authority on the recurring issue and use the study’s findings to draft bills for the 2016 session.

“It’s probably more of an issue now than before,” he said.

The reason, he said, is because the department realized many states have settled at a 24-hour continuing education requirement.

He said the department does not yet have metrics for reaching conclusions from the data. He said some potential measurements might include consumer complaints, purchasing difficulties and consumer satisfaction.

Shultz said during his time as chairman of the House Insurance Committee, agents seemed split on the issue. He said some agents wanted more education requirements to better the industry. He said others enjoyed the low requirement because of costs and time commitments associated with continuing education.

‘No clear cut path’

Shultz said when the issue came up in previous years, “it seemed as though there was no clear cut path.”

Trina Ceballos, executive director for Kansas Association of Professional Insurance Agents, said she wants a 24-hour educational requirement to bring Kansas in line with other states. She said she fears federal regulation of insurance agents if states have large requirement disparities.

“These agents need to keep current,” she said in reference to the value of continuing education.

Ann Myhr, senior director of knowledge resources for The Institutes, an insurance education organization, agrees that education is important for agents but said federal involvement is not a pressing concern. She said some groups fear a switch to federal regulation, but said there’s no imminent threat to state-run insurance right now.

Kerri Spielman, executive director for the Kansas Association of Insurance Agents, said she and the association did not want to take a position on the issue. She said the association surveyed members twice about their views on Kansas’ continuing eduction requirements and received split results both times.

Agents can take education classes online or in person to complete their hours. According to the Department of Insurance, one of the education hours should be devoted to insurance ethics. And no more than three hours should be devoted to insurance agency management.

Myhr, from The Institutes, said agents need continuing education to keep up with ever-changing trends, like driver-less cars for example.

“In theory, the more continuing education, the better they can serve both their personal and commercial customers,” she said.

This story was originally published August 30, 2015 at 2:32 PM with the headline "Insurance Department researching continuing ed rules for Kansas agents."