Today, one of the most popular licenses among new candidates is the Florida 2-15 Life, Health and Variable Contracts license. Upon achieving the license, candidates may represent products such as Medicare, Medicare Supplement, doctor and hospital insurance, disability, life insurance, and annuities. This license also allows you to sell products under the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA) as known as ObamaCare.

Before you can take the Florida 2-15 Agent state examination, candidates must meet the following requirement:

• Be at least 18 years of age
• Meet citizen requirements
  • All applicants must be a US citizen or legal alien who possesses work authorization form the US Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.
  • Must provide a valid social security number
• Be in good moral standing
• Submit to a criminal background check via fingerprint scan
• Complete an application (utilizing the MyProfile portal on the DFS website)
• Successfully complete an approved course of pre-licensing
• Pass the Florida State Exam.

Please note: Must not be an employee of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs or state service office, as referred to in Section 626.788, Florida Statutes. Must not be a funeral director or direct disposer, or an employee or representative thereof, or have an office in, or in connection with, a funeral establishment.

Gold Coast offer two different formats for taking the 2-15 Agent Pre-Licensing course; online or blended (a combination of classroom and online).

The online course is a self-study video based course allowing candidates to complete the course at their own pace. The course is available 24 hours a day and must be completed within 1 year of purchase. Our Blended course is a combination of the traditional classroom environment as well as the online self-study format. This course consists of 36 hours of classroom instruction with the balance of the time used to discuss topics of law, practice exams, and the course final examination.

In addition to the actual pre-licensing course, Gold Coast offers its famous 1-Day Exam CRAM. This class is available separately to non-Gold Coast students or as an add-on to create a package to one of our class offerings.

For more details on becoming a 2-15 Health, Life & Annuity agent, please contact a Gold Coast Schools Career Counselors at 1-800-732-9140.

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Home, auto, and business are some of Florida’s most frequently written types of insurance policies. Candidates who achieve the Florida 2-20 Agent General Lines license largely solicit insurance for individual auto, as well as products for general liability, worker’s compensation, personal and business auto, and commercial property.

Before a candidate may sit for the Florida 2-20 Agent state examination, they must meet the following requirement:

• Be at least 18 years of age
• Meet citizen requirements
  • All applicants must be a US citizen or legal alien who possesses work authorization form the US Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.
  • Must provide a valid social security number
• Be in good moral standing
• Submit to a criminal background check via fingerprint scan
• Complete an application (utilizing the MyProfile Portal on the DFS website)
• Successfully complete an approved course of pre-licensing
• Pass the Florida State Exam.

Florida’s General Lines license consists of 200 intense, knowledge filled hours providing you with facts, scenarios, and unit examinations covering topics such as:

• general insurance concepts, provisions and practices
• ethics, Florida statutes, rules, and regulations
• individual and commercial property
• personal and general liability
• personal and business automobile
• worker’s compensation
• surety bonds and crime
• marine, aviation, and equipment breakdown
• health insurance

This course is offered in 3 different formats; evening, weekend, and a 5 week daily format. Each of these curriculum designs includes our 3-Day Property & Casualty Exam CRAM.

For more details on becoming a 2-20 Property and Casualty (General Lines) Insurance agent, please contact a Gold Coast Schools Career Counselors at 1-800-732-9140.

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Kevin R. Milner, MBA, CIC, ITP
Insurance Program Director
Gold Coast Schools

As the fears of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) spread, Florida insurance businesses are creating contingency plans for their employees. One options is to allow agency employees to work remotely; such as working from home.

If you are a licensed and appointed insurance agent, that is not an issue. But what if you are a 4-40 Customer Representative? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is “no”.

Florida statute F.S. 626.015(6) defines a “customer representative” as an individual appointed by a general lines agent, or agency to assist that agent or agency, in transacting the business of insurance from the office of that agent or agency. F.S. 626.7352 further defines a “customer representative’s office” as a location where a customer representative shall be housed wholly and completely within the actual confines of the office of the agent or agency whom he or she represents. The statute also states that a customer representative shall not maintain any such office or furniture, books, records, equipment, or paraphernalia at any other address or location, nor shall he or she maintain or make use of any other quarters, space, or address, for the purpose of the conduct of such business. No customer representative may be employed from any location except where an agent licensed to write such lines spends their full time in charge of such location.

Therefore, a 4-40 customer representative working remote is considered, by Florida Statute, a non-licensed representative, thus should not have any interaction with any customers. A list of activities a non-licensed employee may perform can be found in Chapter 69B-222 of the Florida Administrative Code

Gold Coast Schools reached out to Jean Jeune (Education Manager, Florida Department of Financial Services, Bureau of Licensing: Education Section) and asked if restrictions for a licensed and appointed 4-40 customer representatives, working remotely, would be lifted during the Governor’s recent state of emergency declaration. His response was “customer representatives are not statutorily permitted to work remotely.  We are not able to waive this requirement.  Currently, a licensed personal lines or general lines could work remotely.”

As a way of assisting agencies deal with this licensing restriction, Gold Coast Schools offers a variety of courses to help prepare 4-40 customer representatives obtain either a 2-20 General Lines agent license or the 20-44 Personal Lines agent license. You may ask, what are the benefits of these licenses versus a 4-40 customer representative license? Let’s take a look.

• As a licensed agent, employees can work remotely. As a state subject to unpredictable weathering events, having the ability for your employees to work remotely can be essential in maintaining business operations.
• The DFS restriction of 4-40’s working outside of the office will no longer be an issue.
• As a licensed insurance agent, non-resident reciprocity is available, thus allowing agents to sell and discuss insurance in additional states.

Gold Coast Schools offers multiple ways of earning these licenses. As an approved education provider of the Florida Department of Financial Services, we offer 2-20 General Lines agent, 20-44 Personal Lines agent, and a 2-20 General Lines Agent Conversion Course. All of our pre-licensing courses are blended thus reducing the amount of time you are spending in a physical classroom.

For more details for in regarding these and many of the other course offerings, please contact a Gold Coast Schools’ Career Counselor at (800) 732-9140 or check out our website at goldcoastschools.com

Kevin R. Milner, MBA, CIC, ITP joined the insurance industry in 2001. Currently, he is the Insurance Program Director at Gold Coast Schools headquartered in Tamarac, FL. Kevin earned his MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University (NJ), is a national designated insurance professional and an active member of the Society of Insurance Trainers & Educators (SITE).

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