April 28, 2020
OLYMPIA, Wash. – Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler filed emergency rules that will help insurance producers during the state of Washington’s Stay Home, Stay Healthy order. Insurance producers are people who are licensed to sell insurance in Washington state.
The rules:
- Extend licensing renewal dates until July 31, 2020 for producers whose licenses expire between March 1 and June 30. Producers who paid a late fee for a license renewal during this period may be eligible for a refund of the fee. Requests for an extension or a late-fee refund must be submitted via a webform.
- Allow more insurance producers to access online continuing education by waiving the 20-day waiting period for education providers to convert classroom training to online training.
- Extend the expiration date of pre-licensing and insurance test results through July 31 for producers whose exam expiration dates were March 23 or later.
“During the Stay Home, Stay Healthy order, it’s been more difficult for people to complete the licensing process due to closure of testing sites and cancellation of classes. I wanted to remove barriers to becoming or staying licensed that are easy to overcome,” said Kreidler. “It doesn’t help anyone to limit the number of people who are available to help consumers.”
The emergency rules expire in August. The rules do not relax any requirements for becoming licensed. Producers who request an extension to their licensing renewal date will also have more time to complete their required continuing education.
Washington state was the first to offer online insurance licensing examinations in October 2019. Candidates use their own equipment to take the exam, which is proctored by the state’s contracted vendor using a desktop or laptop computer with a camera.
In 2018, nearly 10,000 producers were required to take a Washington state exam.