S 527 Session 109 (1991-1992)
S 0527 General Bill, By Saleeby, Land, McConnell, M.F. Mullinax and T.H. Pope
A Bill to amend Article 1, Chapter 43, Title 38, Code of Laws of South
Carolina, 1976, relating to insurance agents, by adding Section 38-43-106 so
as to provide for biennial continuing education requirements for agents
licensed to sell property and casualty insurance and to authorize the Chief
Insurance Commissioner to promulgate regulations to implement these
provisions.
01/22/91 Senate Introduced and read first time SJ-9
01/22/91 Senate Referred to Committee on Banking and Insurance
A BILL
TO AMEND ARTICLE 1, CHAPTER 43, TITLE 38, CODE OF LAWS
OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO INSURANCE
AGENTS, BY ADDING SECTION 38-43-106 SO AS TO PROVIDE
FOR BIENNIAL CONTINUING EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS
FOR AGENTS LICENSED TO SELL PROPERTY AND CASUALTY
INSURANCE AND TO AUTHORIZE THE CHIEF INSURANCE
COMMISSIONER TO PROMULGATE REGULATIONS TO
IMPLEMENT THESE PROVISIONS.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. The General Assembly finds and declares that the business
of insurance is complex and complicated, with rapidly increasing
statutory and market changes, as well as rapidly increasing consumer
requirements and demands. Therefore, it is clearly in the public interest
that licensed insurance agents, with reasonable exceptions, be required
to complete at least minimum biennial insurance-related education to
insure their continuing competency to serve the needs of South
Carolina's insuring public.
SECTION 2. Article 1, Chapter 43, Title 38 of the 1976 Code is
amended by adding:
"Section 38-43-106. (A) In addition to the requirements
contained in Section 38-3-105, any applicant or agent licensed to sell
property and casualty insurance or to sell life, accident and health
insurance or both, or qualified for this licensure, must complete
biennially a minimum of twenty-four hours of continuing insurance
education in order to be eligible for licensure for the following two
years.
However, if an agent is licensed in both property and casualty and
life, accident and health, the agent must complete at least one-third of
the twenty-four required biennial continuing insurance education hours
in courses related to each of these types of licenses or qualification for
licensure.
(B) The forty hour prelicensing educational requirement contained
in Section 38-43-105 is sufficient to fulfill the requirements of this
section for up to the first two years. Any waiver of this forty-hour
requirement, as provided in Section 38-43-105(a)(2) is sufficient to meet
the continuing insurance education requirements of this section.
(C) The Chief Insurance Commissioner shall administer these
continuing education requirements and shall approve courses of
instruction which qualify for these purposes. In administering this
program, the commissioner, in his discretion, may designate a
continuing education administrator of this program, to be compensated
from the continuing insurance education fees paid by agents in the
manner provided by this section, except that course approval
responsibilities may not be designated to the continuing education
administrator. The continuing education administrator shall compile and
maintain, in conjunction with insurers and agents, records reflecting the
continuing insurance education status of all licensed or qualified agents
subject to the requirements of this section. The continuing education
administrator shall furnish to the insurer, within ninety days of the
agent's renewal date, as specified by regulation, a report of the
continuing insurance education status of all of its agents. All licensed
agents shall provide evidence of their continuing insurance education
status to the continuing education administrator at least one hundred
twenty days before the annual renewal date. Any continuing insurance
education approved courses taken subsequent to one hundred twenty
days before the renewal date must be applied to the following biennial
continuing insurance education required period.
The continuing education administrator must be composed of the
following:
(1) the Carolina's Association of Professional Insurance
Agents;
(2) the Independent Insurance Agents of South Carolina;
(3) the South Carolina Association of Automobile Insurance
Agents; and
(4) the South Carolina Association of Life Underwriters.
The commissioner shall also appoint an advisory committee to assist
him in screening courses offered for approval and to draft regulations,
authorized by subsection (G), for approval by the commissioner. When
the advisory committee is approved, it shall meet regularly as needed,
but no less than semiannually, to review new course applications. Also
the advisory committee shall review modifications of courses previously
approved, and review previously promulgated regulations to determine
any need for modifications, deletions, or new regulations. The advisory
committee must be comprised of two representatives from each of the
following associations, groups, or categories:
(1) the Carolina's Association of Professional Insurance Agents;
(2) the Independent Insurance Agents of South Carolina;
(3) the South Carolina Association of Automobile Insurance
Agents;
(4) the South Carolina Association of Life Underwriters;
(5) the Association of South Carolina Life Insurance Companies;
(6) the Direct Writers Insurance Companies;
(7) the Association of South Carolina Property and Casualty
Insurance Companies; and
(8) insurers that are not members of national insurance trade
associations.
Advisory committee members must be appointed by the
commissioner from recommendations made by the respective
associations, groups, or categories to the commissioner.
(D) The license of any agent may not be renewed for any license year
unless the agent has completed the mandated continuing insurance
education requirements during the previous two-year accreditation
period. Each insurer is responsible, annually at renewal, for furnishing
to the department, certification that its agents meet the continuing
insurance education requirements. Insurers appointing individuals who
are qualified but not currently licensed for any insurer, are also required,
in connection with the appointment of such an agent, to certify to the
department that the agent meets the continuing insurance education
requirements. Each agent is responsible for payment to the continuing
education administrator of a reasonable annual fee for operation of the
continuing insurance education program. These fees must be used to
administer the provisions of this section.
(E) This section also applies to nonresident agents, unless otherwise
provided herein. However, any nonresident agent who successfully
satisfies continuing insurance education requirements of his resident
state and certifies this information to the continuing education
administrator as specified in subsection (C), is deemed to have satisfied
the requirements of this section, regardless of the requirements of that
other state.
(F) Insurance agents licensed solely for credit life or credit accident
and health insurance, credit property insurance, crop hail insurance,
automobile physical damage insurance, mortgage guaranty, or mortgage,
title, travel accident and baggage, or the federal crop insurance, are
exempt from the provisions of this section. Licensed special agents, or
any or all of them, the commissioner by regulation shall specify, are
exempt from the provisions of this section.
(G) The commissioner is authorized to promulgate regulations to
implement the provisions of this section.
(H) A licensed agent reaching the age of fifty-five, with a minimum
of twenty years of continuous licensure, is exempted from the
requirements of this section as to the line or lines which are otherwise
subject to the provisions of this section."
SECTION 3. Certification of licensed agents pursuant to the provisions
of Section 38-43-106 of the 1976 Code, as contained in Section 2 of this
act, may not commence until one hundred twenty days prior to the
annual agents license renewal of the year 1994.
SECTION 4. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
-----XX----- |