West Virginia Insurance CE: 24 Hours, 6-Hour Carryover, and a Qualified Telemarketing Route

24 hours, 3 ethics

West Virginia requires 24 CE hours per two-year license term for resident producers holding one or more major lines of authority, with 3 of those hours in ethics. The remaining 21 hours can be in any approved subject within a line the producer holds.

A course may not be taken for credit more than once inside the same two-year license term. West Virginia requires CE compliance before the renewal will process — there is no completing it after the fact and keeping the license active without a penalty.

The 6-hour carryover

West Virginia allows up to 6 excess credit hours to carry forward into the next license term. It is a modest carryover compared with states that allow 12 or 24, but it still lets a producer who slightly over-completes reduce the next cycle's load by a course or two.

Excess ethics hours carry forward only as general credit, so a producer relying on carryover still has to complete a fresh 3-hour ethics course each cycle.

The telemarketing reduction

West Virginia provides a reduced CE route for qualifying telemarketing or pre-need sellers, subject to statutory conditions and an affidavit. Verify that the producer’s sales method and license qualify before planning around 6 hours; do not apply this exception to an ordinary producer who sometimes sells by phone.

The statute specifies the qualifying route and affidavit; confirm its application with the Offices of the Insurance Commissioner before relying on it.

Birth-month renewal, reinstatement, and the waiver

The West Virginia license term ends on the last day of the licensee's birth month, every two years, and producers renew online through SIRCON once CE is met. A renewal fee received after the due date carries a penalty equal to double the unpaid renewal fee.

A producer who lets the license lapse may reinstate the same license within 12 months from the renewal due date without passing a written exam. A producer unable to comply because of military service or a documented long-term medical disability can request a waiver of the renewal procedures — including a waiver of any exam requirement or fine — from the Offices of the Insurance Commissioner.

How completions are reported, and what to keep

West Virginia-approved providers report completions to the Insurance Commissioner electronically, and the producer's CE record is what SIRCON checks before it will process the renewal. A telemarketing-only producer claiming the 6-hour reduction should confirm the affidavit is on file and the reduced requirement shows correctly, rather than assuming the standard 24-hour check will not flag the record.

A telemarketing-only producer should keep the exclusively-telemarketing affidavit on file alongside the course certificates for a few years, since the reduced 6-hour requirement is exactly the kind of record the Commissioner may ask a producer to substantiate. A producer on the full 24-hour requirement keeps the certificates for the same reason any state's producer does — to rebuild the record if a provider drops a course.

Non-resident producers

A non-resident licensed in West Virginia relies on their home state's CE requirement, provided the home state has one and the producer stays in good standing there. The 24-hour count, the 6-hour carryover, and the telemarketing reduction are resident rules.

Approved and properly categorized annuity or LTC training may count toward CE. Confirm provider approval and transcript category before treating product training as separate from the 24-hour total.

Worked example

A producer who works a genuinely telemarketing-only book files the exclusively-telemarketing affidavit with the Insurance Commissioner and completes 6 hours — 3 ethics and 3 general — for the cycle.

A colleague at the same agency who takes a handful of in-person appointments each year cannot file the affidavit; she owes the full 24 hours. She over-completes by 4 hours and carries 4 into the next cycle, though her next ethics course still has to be fresh.

The bottom line

West Virginia requires 24 hours with 3 ethics and allows up to 6 excess carryover hours. A reduced 6-hour telemarketing or pre-need route is limited to qualifying sellers and requires an affidavit; verify eligibility with the Commissioner.

Most producers book a 3-hour ethics course plus 21 general hours in their licensed lines, complete everything before the birth-month deadline, and renew through SIRCON. If you over-complete, up to 6 hours carry to the next cycle as general credit only. If you genuinely sell only by phone, file the telemarketing affidavit with the Insurance Commissioner and confirm the reduced 6-hour requirement shows on the record before relying on it.

A standard West Virginia example is 3 ethics + 21 other approved hours = 24. If a producer finishes with 4 eligible excess credits, up to 4 of the 6-hour maximum can carry forward as general credit; any carried ethics does not satisfy the next period’s ethics minimum. The license cycle follows the individual expiration date, so use that record rather than a generic statewide calendar. Providers may take up to 30 days to report. A producer seeking the reduced 6-hour telemarketing or pre-need route should verify statutory eligibility and the affidavit with the Commissioner before planning a reduced ledger.