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How Many CE Hours Does Texas Require?

Texas insurance licenses run on a two-year cycle, and every hour has to be completed by your license expiration date. For most licensees the requirement is 24 hours every two years, and how those hours are made up matters as much as the total.

• 24 hours total per two-year licensing period.
• 3 of those hours must be ethics. This one is not optional and it is the requirement people most often leave until last.
• At least half — 12 hours — must be classroom or “classroom equivalent”. Classroom equivalent covers approved interactive formats, not just sitting in a room, which is why an approved online course still satisfies it.
• The remaining hours are yours to choose from any approved general or ethics course.

Who needs 24 hours, and who needs 10

The requirement is set by the licence you hold, not by the courses you feel like taking. These are the hours TDI requires per two-year renewal period:

License	Requirement per two-year renewal period
General Lines — Life, Accident, Health and HMO (LAH)	24 hours, including 3 hours of ethics
General Lines — Property and Casualty (P&C)	24 hours, including 3 hours of ethics
Life Agent	24 hours, including 3 hours of ethics
Personal Lines Property and Casualty Agent	24 hours, including 3 hours of ethics
Managing General Agent (MGA)	24 hours, including 3 hours of ethics
Adjusters and public adjusters	24 hours, including 3 hours of ethics
County Mutual	10 hours, including 3 hours of ethics
Life Insurance Under $25,000	10 hours, including 3 hours of ethics
Limited Lines Agent	10 hours, including 3 hours of ethics
Funeral Prearrangement	None

Note that the three ethics hours do not shrink with the shorter requirement — a limited lines agent still owes the same 3 hours out of 10. If you are not certain which category your license falls into, check your license record with TDI before you buy hours you do not need.

Courses are not split by license type

This surprises people. Texas approves CE courses in only two groups, General and Ethics, and any licensee may take a course from either. You are not restricted to Life and Health courses because you hold a Life and Health license. Pick the subjects that are genuinely useful to the way you work.

How much of your CE can be self-study?

No more than half. The flip side of the 12-hour classroom rule is that no more than 12 of your 24 hours can be in the self-study instruction method. Once you hit that limit, further self-study hours simply will not count toward the total — and that is one of the most common reasons a course someone paid for never shows up as credit.

Check the instruction method listed against a course before you enroll, not after. Two courses on the same subject can be filed under different methods.

What happens if you miss the deadline

You cannot renew a Texas license without the hours, and the penalty is fixed rather than discretionary. If the CE is not complete by the expiration date:

• You get 90 days from the expiration date to complete the hours you are short.
• You pay a fine of $50 for every deficient hour, up to a maximum of $500 per deficient license type.
• If both of those are not done inside the 90 days, the license is inactivated and you have to apply for a new one — and the new license will not be granted until the missing hours are completed and the fine is paid.

Fines are paid through Sircon’s state invoice payment service. Renewing on time is considerably cheaper than any of this.

Finish 30 days early, not on the day

Completing a course and having the credit on your record are two different events. Providers are allowed up to 30 days to report a completion to TDI, so TDI itself recommends finishing your hours at least 30 days before the license expires. An approved provider will usually report far faster than that, but the deadline that matters is the one on your transcript, not the one on your receipt.

How to check the hours you have already done

Your CE transcript and your license expiration date both live on Sircon, under “Look up Courses or Transcript” → “Continuing Education Transcript Inquiry”. Two things worth knowing before you go shopping for hours:

• The same course only counts once within a licensing term. Retaking a course you already have credit for adds nothing.
• If a completed course is missing from your transcript, chase the provider who ran it, not TDI — reporting is the provider’s job.

Other ways to earn CE credit

Approved courses are the usual route, but not the only one:

• Up to four hours per period for being an active member of a state or national insurance association.
• Professional designation programs — passing part of a nationally recognized program run by a not-for-profit that has existed for at least five years.
• Qualifying courses that TDI has not certified but will still accept: insurance courses offered for credit by accredited colleges, universities or law schools; courses forming part of a national designation program; courses approved for CE by a state bar or state board of public accountancy; and courses approved under Federal Crop Insurance Corporation guidelines. These are claimed with TDI form FIN522 rather than reported automatically.

Exemptions and extensions

Both exist, and both are narrow. A permanent exemption is available to licensees who have held a Texas license for 20 continuous years — continuous meaning no break longer than 90 days.

An extension requires documentation of something outside your control, such as long-term illness or military service in a theater of war. Being busy or short-staffed is never accepted. Texas does not grant permanent medical exemptions either — a fresh application is needed each licensing term. Exemptions and extensions are requested on TDI form FIN517.

Do non-residents need Texas CE?

Generally no. A non-resident licensee only owes Texas CE where they hold a Texas designated home state (DHS) adjuster license, or where their own resident state does not require CE at all.

Do you still need CE on a license you are not using?

Yes. CE is a condition of holding the license, not of writing business on it. If you hold an active Texas license that requires CE, the hours are due by your expiration date whether or not you used the license that term. Surrendering a license does not wipe the requirement out either, although it may pro-rate the hours you owe.

Already know what you need?

Our CE is delivered in partnership with WebCE, the largest continuing education provider for insurance and financial professionals in the country. Courses are online, mobile-ready, include unlimited free exam retakes, and report to the state quickly.

Still working toward your first license? See our Life & Health and Property & Casualty pre-licensing courses.

Hours, fines and exemption rules on this page follow the Texas Department of Insurance continuing education guidance for agents and adjusters, checked September 2026. TDI is the authority on your own record — if anything here differs from your license record or a TDI notice, TDI is right. CE questions can go to TDI at 512-676-6500.