This article is part of a series sponsored by the Alliance for Risk and Insurance Education.
In an industry where trust is everything, Gallup’s 2023 Honesty and Ethics Poll (Brenan & Jones, 2024) found that only 12% of Americans rated the honesty and ethical standards of insurance salespeople as “high” or “very high.” By comparison, nurses were rated highest for honesty and ethical standards at 78%, and car salespeople were almost (yes, just almost) last at 8%.
As trusted advisors to the businesses and individuals we serve, this should give us pause. If ethics and integrity are at the core of who we are as an industry, why do the public view us so differently? The gap between how we view our own standards and how our clients view those standards is why continuing education in ethics is so important. It’s not about checking a box. It is about building trust, reinforcing professionalism and demonstrating that the commitments we make as an industry match the way we practice.
In a professional setting, ethics refers to principles and standards of behavior that go beyond compliance with the law and focus on fairness, honesty, integrity, and responsibility to clients, colleagues, and the public. For insurance professionals, it’s easy to read this list and agree that these values are a key part of our day-to-day business activities, customer interactions, and new product ideas. In fact, we are an industry built on a promise to pay and be there when people and companies need us most.
Conversations about ethics occur everywhere in our profession, from how we sell insurance and market our business, to explaining policies, navigating gray areas, and supporting our customers when they need us most. This is why ethics is more than just compliance. It reminds us of what it means to be a professional and is an opportunity to increase public confidence in our work.
Current Situation: Ethical CE Across the United States
Every state requires licensed insurance professionals to complete continuing education, and nearly all states include specialized ethics requirements. In most states, the standard is 3 hours of ethics education every two years, integrated into the broader 24-hour CE cycle.
California law requires three hours of ethics compliance per license period, including one hour for fraud. Texas mandates three hours of ethics or consumer protection. Even once-resistant states, such as Pennsylvania, which implemented a new three-hour rule in 2024, have added explicit ethics requirements.
While three hours is the norm, there are differences. New York only requires one hour, albeit within the more focused 15-hour biennial CE framework. Despite these differences, the direction is consistent: ethics are non-negotiable.
For insurance professionals, this means that, regardless of where they are licensed, ethics are an integral part of the ongoing renewal process. Regulators also strictly enforce it. States typically impose fines for each missing credit hour and may suspend or not renew a license if ethical requirements are not met. “Ethical CE is not an ‘extra’: it is now core to maintaining a license,” said Kim Skarren, Director of Continuing Education at the Alliance for Risk and Insurance Education.
How We Got Here: A Brief History of CE Ethics
Continuing education for licensed insurance professionals is designed to strengthen technical skills and industry knowledge. CE ensures licensed professionals are kept up to date so that individual and business clients receive advice and services that reflect the latest directives, policies and other requirements. Without continuing education, insurance buyers cannot be sure that the advice they receive is based on current knowledge, which could put them at risk for underinsurance plans.
In the 1980s and 1990s, lawsuits alleging fraudulent life insurance sales resulted in huge settlements for major insurance companies. As consumer concerns and industry scandals draw attention, regulators realize that keeping licensed insurance professionals technologically up-to-date is only part of the solution. Countries are gradually beginning to incorporate ethics into CE requirements.
The passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999, which focused primarily on the privacy and disclosure of nonpublic personal financial information, incentivized states to adopt more uniform licensing systems. The NAIC responded by developing the Producer Licensing Model Act (Model #218). Although it does not establish national CE requirements, it requires countries to recognize each other’s CE standards. In practice, this created pressure for coordination and led most states to adopt similar requirements, including ethics CE, to maintain reciprocity.
The scandals of the early 2000s reinforced this. In 2004, a major bid-rigging case involving one of the largest insurance brokers exposed systemic conflicts of interest and hidden commissions. Regulators called this a “disregard for ethics and the law” (Los Angeles Times, 2004) and used it as further justification for increased efforts at ethics education.
By the late 2000s, CE ethics had become almost universal. Some recent changes, such as Pennsylvania’s passage in 2024, have narrowed the remaining gap. Today, ethical CE is more than just a regulatory checkbox; it is the product of decades of reforms aimed at restoring trust in insurance.
Why ethics training matters: study
Skeptics sometimes ask whether moral education can actually change or influence behavior. Research shows this is indeed the case.
Researchers from MIT and the University of Notre Dame (Egan, Matovos, Seru, 2019) studied the records of 1.2 million U.S. financial advisors over a 10-year period. They found that people who took licensing exams with more rigorous ethics content were 25 percent less likely to later commit misconduct than those who took exams that were less ethics-focused. Furthermore, this effect is most pronounced among professionals early in their careers, suggesting that ethics training during critical career stages can shape long-term behavior.
Other studies support the same conclusion. According to Kaptein 2015 Effectiveness of Ethics Program (Kaptan, 2015), cCompanies with structured ethics programs that include ongoing training report significantly fewer instances of misconduct than companies without training, and employees are more willing to speak up when they see problems. In other words, training not only reduces bad behavior but also enhances a culture of accountability.
While no single study or research project has shown a direct correlation between ethics education and public perceptions of an industry, it’s hard to argue that continued emphasis on ethics education won’t have a meaningful impact on behavior and public perceptions.
In law enforcement (Basham, 2020), departments that require college-level ethics courses see fewer public complaints and misconduct terminations. In medicine (Cabrera et al., 2022) and accounting (CPE, 2023), ethics training has been associated with improved decision-making, fewer disciplinary cases, and increased public trust. The lesson applies across industries: Structured, regular ethics education can reduce inappropriate behavior and increase trustworthiness.
For insurance professionals, the impact is clear. Ethical CE provides an iterative opportunity to refresh judgment, revisit gray areas, and reinforce a customer-first mentality. It keeps professionalism front and center.
Alliance Perspective: From Compliance to Commitment
At the Alliance for Risk and Insurance Education, we believe ethical CE goes beyond meeting biennial licensing requirements. This is to improve professional standards across the industry. As Jay Williams, our faculty and director of academic development, emphasizes, “Ethics training is a way for licensed insurance professionals to step back from the technical details and reflect on what it means to serve customers responsibly.” Like all courses offered by the Alliance, ethics courses are developed and taught with a pragmatic mindset using real-life situations and drawing on the experience of our faculty.
Our ethics courses not only meet state continuing education requirements but also emphasize our commitment to insurance professionals and the industry as a whole. Courses are offered in self-paced and live webinar formats, using case studies that reflect real-world dilemmas, discussions that challenge professionals to think critically, and applications that connect ethical principles to everyday practice. For us, ethical CE is a way to enhance the credibility of individual agents and the industry as a whole.
in conclusion
Continuing ethics education is now a national standard, but its value extends far beyond compliance. This is one of our most important tools for increasing public trust in insurance. It reduces misconduct, improves judgment, and strengthens the professional identity of agents and producers.
As the industry evolves with new technologies, new products, and new expectations, ethics will remain the thread connecting technical expertise and professional responsibility. At Alliance, we are committed to leading the field, providing education that empowers insurance professionals to not only keep their licenses, but to maintain the trust that defines our business.
About the Risk and Insurance Education Alliance
The Risk & Insurance Education Alliance offers practical ethics CE options, including a series of one-hour live webinars and a three-hour self-paced course to meet state CE ethics requirements. Create your free affiliate profile and view the full course schedule here.
refer to
Brennan, M., & Jones, J.M. (January 22, 2024) Ethical ratings drop for nearly all U.S. professions Gallup News. Available at:
National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Producer Licensing Model Law (PLMA), Model #218. First adopted in 2000. Available at:
Hamilton, W. and Christopher, K.M. (October 15, 2004) Spitzer sued Marsh and McLennan. Los Angeles Times website:
Egan, M., Matworth, G. and Theroux, A. (2019). The market for financial advisor misconduct. journal of political economy, 127(1), 233–295. University of Chicago Press.
Kaptan, M.. (2015) Effectiveness of Ethics Programs: The Role of Scope, Composition, and Sequence.. Journal of Business Ethics, 132, 415–431 (2015).
SR Basham (March 24, 2020). Education provides the best solution to police misconduct. Chief of Police Magazine. international association of chiefs of police
Cabrera, OF, Arras-Boyce, S., López, MJ, Rivera-López, E. and Rodríguez, J. (2022). Moral education for medical students: a systematic review. Journal of Medical Ethics. National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Continuing Education Online. (2023). Ethical foundations of modern accounting: A comprehensive overview. Continuing Education Online.
