(A) No applicant may be licensed as a local or general producer unless, within two years immediately preceding the date of his licensing, he has:
(1) successfully completed classroom or correspondence courses in insurance approved by the director or his designee consisting of no less than forty classroom hours, or forty self-study hours; or
(2) had at least one year of insurance underwriting or marketing experience as an employee of a producer, insurer, or their managers or general producers in all lines of insurance for which he is making application to be licensed.
(B) Certification of qualification of the applicant must be made by an official of the school, college, insurance company, association, or other body conducting the course of study, or by the former employer for qualification under item (2) of subsection (A) of this section. The certification must be in a format approved by the director or his designee and submitted by the producer with the producer's application for a producer's license, except where a temporary license is requested pursuant to Section 38-43-100, in which event the temporary license may be issued without such certification, if the sponsoring insurer or licensed producer who assumes responsibility for all acts of the temporary licensee furnishes certification prior to the applicant's being granted permission to take the examination. The certification of qualification of the applicant must be made within thirty days from the date of receipt of the request to provide the certification. A person who falsely represents that he or another person has met the pre-licensing educational requirements of this section, after being afforded notice and an opportunity for a hearing by the Administrative Law Judge Division, is subject to the penalty provided in Section 38-2-10.
(C) Any course or program of instruction or seminar developed or sponsored, or developed and sponsored, by any authorized insurer, recognized producers, association, or insurance trade association or any independent program of instruction shall, subject to the recommendation of approval by the Continuing Education Advisory Committee, as provided for under Section 38-43-106(C) to the director or his designee, shall qualify for the equivalency of the number of classroom hours assigned to it by the director or his designee.
(D) Any correspondence course approved by the director or his designee shall qualify for the equivalency of the number of classroom hours assigned thereto by the director or his designee. Any applicant taking a prelicensing education course by correspondence in fulfillment of the forty-hour prelicensing education requirement must successfully pass a closed book examination that is monitored by a state approved proctor.
(E) Each course sponsor is required to submit a nonrefundable filing fee established by the department.