Delaware Insurance CE: 24 Hours by the End of February in Even Years — a Fixed Statewide Deadline

24 hours, 3 ethics

Delaware requires 24 CE hours per two-year license term for resident producers holding a major line — property, casualty, personal lines, accident and health, life, or variable products — with 3 of those hours in ethics. The remaining 21 hours can be taken in any approved line.

A course may not be taken for credit more than once inside the same two-year term. Delaware adjusters have a lighter requirement — 12 hours, 3 of them ethics — than producers.

The fixed February even-year deadline

Delaware's defining feature is the renewal date: each biennial license period begins March 1 and ends on the last day of February in even-numbered years — February 28, or February 29 in a leap year. There is no birth-month variation. Every Delaware resident producer has the same deadline in the same year.

The renewal window opens December 1 of the odd year before, and the department sends CE-deadline reminders on that date. Because every producer in the state renews together, CE providers see a January and February crunch every even year — completing in the fall of the odd year avoids competing for course seats and reporting bandwidth.

The 5-hour carryover

Delaware allows up to 5 excess credit hours to carry forward into the next licensing period. Any ethics, long-term care, or flood insurance credits earned beyond their specific requirements carry forward only as general credit.

A producer relying on the 5-hour carryover still has to complete a fresh 3-hour ethics course each cycle, since banked ethics hours do not satisfy the next cycle's ethics requirement. It is a small carryover, useful mainly for smoothing an accidental over-completion rather than deliberate front-loading.

Fees, the late-CE penalty, and reinstatement

The renewal fee is $100 per line of authority, so a producer holding both P&C and life pays $200. Delaware charges a separate $200 CE late fee if CE is completed after the due date — and because the CE deadline and the license expiration are the same date here, that fee can apply the moment CE runs late, even before any renewal question arises.

A producer who completes CE and renews within 30 days after expiration pays the $100 renewal plus the $200 late penalty — $300. After the 30-day grace period the license expires, opening a 365-day reinstatement window with a fee in the $325 range. Past one year, the license goes inactive and a new application is required.

How completions are reported, and what to keep

Delaware-approved providers report completions to the Department of Insurance electronically, and the producer's CE record is what the Department checks against the February deadline. Because the whole state renews at once, a provider's reporting queue is at its slowest in late January and February — another reason to finish in the fall.

If the $200 CE late fee lands because a provider reported after the end of February even though the producer finished the coursework in January, the certificate — dated — is what supports a request to reverse it. Keep one for every course for a few years, and because the whole state renews at once, do not count on a provider's reporting queue moving quickly in February.

Non-resident producers

The fixed February deadline and the 24-hour count are resident rules. A non-resident producer licensed in Delaware follows their home state's CE requirement and renewal calendar instead, provided the home state imposes CE. Annuity and long-term care product training is a separate track from the general hour count.

A non-resident should still confirm whether any Delaware-specific course version applies to a particular Delaware sale before relying on a home-state course.

Worked example

A producer licensed in both P&C and life plans backward from the last day of February 2028. She completes her 24 hours — a 3-hour ethics course and 21 general hours split across both lines — by October 2027, well before the December 1 renewal window even opens.

That timing keeps her clear of the $200 CE late fee, and she renews in early December for $200 in line fees. A colleague who waits until mid-February is competing with every other producer in the state for course seats and provider reporting bandwidth.

The bottom line

The one Delaware fact to internalize is the deadline: the last day of February in even-numbered years, the same for every resident producer, with no birth-month adjustment. Because the CE deadline and the license expiration are the same date, a late CE record triggers the $200 CE penalty immediately — plan completion for the fall of the odd year before, not the February itself.