The Florida Senate

494.00295  Professional continuing education.--

(1)  Mortgage brokers, and the principal representatives and loan originators of a mortgage lender, correspondent mortgage lender, or mortgage lender pursuant to s. 494.0065, must successfully complete at least 14 hours of professional continuing education covering primary and subordinate mortgage financing transactions and the provisions of this chapter during the 2-year period immediately preceding the renewal deadline for a mortgage broker, mortgage lender, correspondent mortgage lender, or mortgage lender pursuant to s. 494.0065 A minimum of 4 hours shall cover the provisions of this chapter and the rules adopted under this chapter. At the time of license renewal, a licensee must certify to the office that the professional continuing education requirements of this section have been met. Licensees shall maintain records documenting compliance with this subsection for a period of 4 years. The requirements for professional continuing education are waived for the license renewal of a mortgage broker who has completed the 24-hour prelicensing classroom education requirement of s. 494.0033(3) within 90 days of the biennial license period immediately following the period in which the person became licensed as a mortgage broker. The requirements for professional continuing education for a principal representative are waived for the license renewal of a mortgage lender, correspondent mortgage lender, or mortgage lender pursuant to s. 494.0065 for the biennial license period immediately following the period in which the principal representative completed the 24 hours of classroom education and passed a written test in order to qualify to be a principal representative.

(2)  Professional continuing education programs must contribute directly to the professional competency of the participants, may only be offered by permitted mortgage business schools, the office, or entities specifically exempted from permitting as mortgage business schools, and may include electronically transmitted or distance education courses.

(3)(a)  All electronically transmitted courses shall require that the time spent attending electronically transmitted professional education courses is equal to the number of qualifying hours awarded to participants for course attendance. Before allowing a course participant to complete a course and receive a certificate of course completion, the course provider shall ensure that the course participant has:

1.  Logged the required number of hours for the particular timed module.

2.  Completed a test that comprehensively covers the course content for the particular timed module.

3.  Correctly answered all test questions for the particular timed module.

(b)  All distance education course participants shall successfully complete a test that comprehensively covers course content in order to receive a certificate of course completion. Distance education providers shall not provide answers to test questions to course participants and shall not issue a certificate of course completion to any course participant who has failed to correctly answer at least 75 percent of the total test questions. The test must consist of at least 100 questions.

(4)  The commission shall adopt rules pursuant to ss. 120.536(1) and 120.54 necessary to administer this section, including rules governing qualifying hours for professional continuing education programs and standards for electronically transmitted or distance education courses, including course completion requirements.

History.--s. 2, ch. 2001-228; s. 526, ch. 2003-261; s. 5, ch. 2006-213; s. 4, ch. 2007-182.