A public adjuster in Florida is an insurance adjuster licensed to represent home and property owners against insurance companies. Those claimants who suffer damage or loss may hire a Public Adjuster to represent their interests in such claims. Public Adjusters typically hold a 3-20 All Lines License and are required to complete 24 hours of Public Adjuster Continuing Education every 24 months.
Continuing Education must consist of courses approved by the State of Florida specifically for Public Insurance Adjusters. The 24 hours must include 2 hours of Ethics; 10 hours of Law and 12 hours of Optional Course.
Any Public Adjuster whose CE expires in October 2010 or later may only take courses approved for Public Adjusters. Any Public Adjuster whose compliance expires before September 30, 2010 may still take any approved adjuster course.
For those looking for available courses, check with the Florida Department of Financial Services or the University of Central Florida.
Failure to comply with these requirements will result in non-compliance penalties, including a $250.00 fine.
Continuing education can be completed in the form of online training (which requires tests), live classes (no tests required), or correspondence course work (which does require tests).
The school reports completion of CE courses to the State of Florida by uploading the credits to an online list provided by the Department of Financial Services.
Providers must load credits within 20 days of termination, although Florida Insurance University and University of Central Florida load credits weekly. For those concerned with compliance dates, it is the date the course is completed, not the upload date, that determines compliance. If you have a completion date of June 30 and the course is completed on June 30, you are considered to have met, even if course credits are not loaded until July 10.
