Arizona Insurance CE Requirements: Hours, Exemptions, and Renewal

Arizona insurance CE requirements call for 48 hours of continuing education every four years for resident producers holding a major line of authority, with at least six of those hours in ethics.¹ Your license expires on the last day of your birth month every four years, and the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions (DIFI) uses Prometric to approve courses and track completions.²

How the 48 Hours Break Down

The same 48-hour total applies to every major line: life, accident and health, property, casualty, and personal lines. Any approved course can count toward the overall figure, but six hours have to come from courses specifically approved as ethics training.¹

A few rules trip people up. Excess hours do not carry over to the next four-year period. You can only earn credit for a given course once per period, and you cannot take both the self-study and classroom versions of the same material in the same cycle for double credit.¹ The same course can be retaken in a later licensing period for credit.

Teaching counts too. If you instruct an approved CE course for an approved provider, you earn double the credit hours the course carries for students.¹

Who Doesn’t Have to Complete CE

Three groups of licensees are exempt from the 48-hour rule.

Adjusters. Arizona does not impose CE on adjuster license holders.

Long-licensed resident producers. If you have been continuously licensed in Arizona since January 1, 1995, have never held a nonresident producer license in another state since that date, and have never been the subject of a disciplinary order involving suspension, revocation, denial, cease-and-desist, restitution, or civil penalty, you are exempt.¹ One nonresident license picked up after 1995, or any disciplinary action, and the full 48 hours apply.

Nonresident producers. If your home state requires CE for its residents and recognizes CE Arizona residents earn in Arizona, you don’t owe Arizona-specific hours. In practice every state meets both conditions. Nonresidents still have to complete Arizona’s product-specific training for annuities and long-term care.³

Extra Training for Annuities and Long-Term Care

Two product lines carry their own training rules on top of (or inside) the 48 hours.

Before selling, soliciting, or negotiating any annuity, a producer with a life line of authority must complete a one-time four-hour course on the Annuity Best Interest standard.⁴ Equivalent training completed in another state with substantially similar standards is accepted. It isn’t a recurring course.

Long-term care insurance is different. You must complete eight hours of initial LTC training before selling the product, then four more LTC hours every two years after that.⁵ The biennial LTC deadline runs on its own clock, separate from the four-year CE cycle, so it’s worth tracking independently.

These hours count toward the 48-hour total, but they must be completed before you transact business in the product line.

Finding Approved Courses and Tracking Credit

Credit only counts when both the course and the provider are approved by DIFI through Prometric.² You can mix providers freely as long as every course on your transcript is on the approved list. Prometric’s portal shows the credit hours each course carries and whether it qualifies as ethics or product-specific.

Self-study is straightforward in Arizona because the state does not require a proctor for self-study exams. You can finish the course and the final assessment without a supervisor present.

After you complete a course, the provider reports your credit electronically to Prometric, which passes it to DIFI.² Reporting can take several business days to appear on your transcript. Finishing coursework in the final week before expiration is the most common way producers accidentally lapse.

Renewing Your License

Renewal applications can be submitted up to 90 days before the expiration date. DIFI won’t process one until your transcript reflects all 48 hours, including the six ethics hours.⁷

What Happens If You Miss the Deadline

A license expires at midnight on the renewal date if the application hasn’t been completed. From that moment, you cannot legally transact insurance business in Arizona.⁸

You have one year after expiration to reinstate. During that window, you can renew by finishing any outstanding CE, submitting the renewal, paying the $120 fee, and paying an additional $100 late fee.⁹ The license stays expired until DIFI processes the application, so you still can’t sell or service during that period.

Past the one-year mark, DIFI returns late renewal applications and treats the license as though it had never existed for renewal purposes. The only path back is applying as a new licensee, with pre-licensing education, the state qualifying exam, fingerprinting, and background checks all required again.⁸ One day on the wrong side of the one-year line resets everything.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 20-2902 – Continuing Education Requirements; Nonresident License in Another State; Nonresident License in This State
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Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions. Continuing Education
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 20-300 – Reciprocity
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 20-1243.07 – Producer Training; Annuities; Continuing Education
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 20-1691.12 – Insurance Producer Training Course Requirements
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Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 20-2902 – Continuing Education Requirements; Nonresident License in Another State; Nonresident License in This State
Once CE shows complete, submit the renewal through NIPR or Sircon and pay the $120 fee. The fee is charged per license class, so a producer who also holds an adjuster license pays $120 for each.6Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions. Arizona Department of Insurance Fee Schedule
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Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions. Application to Renew a Business-Entity Insurance License
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Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions. Arizona Department of Insurance Fee Schedule