S 1298 General Bill, By Anderson
 A BILL TO AMEND SECTION 38-43-106, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976,
 RELATING TO CONTINUING INSURANCE EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS, SO AS TO REDUCE FROM
 TWENTY-FOUR TO TWELVE THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF BIENNIAL CONTINUING EDUCATION
 HOURS WHICH MUST BE COMPLETED BY AGENTS LICENSED SOLELY FOR PRE-NEED INSURANCE
 IN THIS STATE.

   04/04/00  Senate Introduced and read first time SJ-7
   04/04/00  Senate Referred to Committee on Banking and Insurance SJ-7

TO AMEND SECTION 38-43-106, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO CONTINUING INSURANCE EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS, SO AS TO REDUCE FROM TWENTY-FOUR TO TWELVE THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF BIENNIAL CONTINUING EDUCATION HOURS WHICH MUST BE COMPLETED BY AGENTS LICENSED SOLELY FOR PRE-NEED INSURANCE IN THIS STATE.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Section 38-43-106 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:

"Section 38-43-106. (A) In addition to the requirements contained in Section 38-43-105, 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. Notwithstanding the provisions of this subsection or any other provision of law, a maximum of twelve credit hours earned in a twelve-month period may be carried forward to the next biennial continuing insurance education period, as long as the hours carried forward are in excess of the required minimum for a particular reporting period.

(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 director or his designee shall administer these continuing education requirements and shall approve courses of instruction which qualify for these purposes. In administering this program, the department, in its discretion, may promulgate regulations whereby agents provide to a continuing education administrator established within the Department of Insurance proof of compliance with continuing education requirements as a condition of license renewal or, in the alternative, contract with an outside service provider to provide recordkeeping services as the continuing education administrator. The costs of the continuing education administrator must be paid 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 department shall promulgate regulations prescribing the overall parameters of continuing education requirements, and these regulations shall expressly authorize the director or his designee to recognize product-specific training offered by insurers, subject to those parameters and guidelines as are promulgated by the regulations. The director of the department shall appoint an advisory committee to make recommendations with respect to courses offered for approval, but the director or his designee shall retain authority with respect to course approvals, subject to those regulations as are promulgated. 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 make recommendations regarding 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.

The advisory committee must also be comprised of one representative from the South Carolina Association of Health Underwriters.

Advisory committee members must be appointed by the director or his designee from recommendations made by the respective associations, groups, or categories to the director or his designee.

(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. Insurance agents licensed solely for domestic insurance companies which have less than one million dollars in written premiums in any calendar year are exempt from the provisions of this section. Licensed special agents, or any or all of them, that the department by regulation shall specify are exempt from the provisions of this section.

(G) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, insurance agents licensed solely for pre-need insurance must complete biennially a minimum of twelve continuing insurance education requirements in order to be eligible for the following two years. A maximum of six credit hours earned in a twelve-month period may be carried forward to the next biennial continuing insurance education period, as long as the hours carried forward are in excess of the required minimum for a particular reporting period.

(G H) The department is authorized to promulgate regulations to implement the provisions of this section.

(H I) 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.

(I J) All information received by the advisory committee in the course and scope of its duties must be treated as confidential and proprietary and not used or disclosed outside the requirements of the duties imposed on it by law."

SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.