Insurance agents: prelicensing education.

Assembly Member Michelle Rodriguez fronts a measure that reconfigures California’s insurance licensing framework by moving away from a blanket 20-hour prelicensing requirement toward a 12-hour ethics- and code-focused program, accompanied by a centralized governance mechanism to shape licensing examinations and continuing education. The proposal places a single ethics-and-code content standard across multiple license types and introduces a formal process for approving and certifying prelicensing courses and CE providers, with a structured, fee-based certification regime and a 24-month credentialing period for providers. It also ties certain provisions to the enactment and sequencing of another bill, creating conditional operative pathways.

The bill replaces the prior prelicensing structure with a 12-hour ethics course that includes one hour on insurance fraud, applicable to applicants for several license types, and allows a single ethics course to satisfy requirements when multiple licenses are pursued. It also requires that nonclassroom prelicensing courses incorporate safeguards to verify identity and attendance and that completion certificates expire three years after course completion. A curriculum board would develop examinations, continuing education curricula, and preapproved courses, covering a broad range of topics including ethics, long-term care, disability products, earthquake risk management, and business-management practices, with standards for providers and instructors and penalties for noncompliance. Renewal CE for life and health agents remains at 24 hours, with a subset of hours devoted to ethics and fraud, and a new proctored examination requirement would apply to workers’ compensation and employer-liability content for those selling 24-hour care coverage. The bill also creates new license pathways, notably a limited cargo shipper’s license with exempted exam and CE requirements and a vehicle service contract provider licensing regime with substantial upfront fees and ongoing renewal costs, while aligning endorsements and license changes with electronic filing requirements.

From a broader policy and implementation standpoint, the measure expands the licensing ecosystem by adding a centralized governance structure, standardizing provider and instructor expectations, and enabling a more uniform approach to upgrading licenses within organizations through electronic endorsements and required examinations for named individuals. It introduces a defined, recurring fee schedule for ethics and CE certification and for provider approvals, and it enables enforcement tools and penalties to ensure compliance with the new standards. The proposal also contemplates fiscal implications through new and revised revenue streams—from provider certifications to high upfront vehicle service contract licensing—while creating conditional operative provisions that depend on the enactment and sequencing of another bill, potentially altering the timing or applicability of certain provisions if conditions are not met. Stakeholders—including applicants, licensees, companies, providers, and nonresidents—would encounter changes to credentialing timelines, content requirements, and administrative processes, with the specifics of impact varying by license type and the new regulatory pathways introduced.