Monday, September 19, 2011

You Need Continuing Education

The SAFE Act created a requirement that all mortgage loan originators take at least 8hours of continuing education each year in order to get approval of your license renewal. If you were licensed in 2009 or 2010, you must comply with the continuing education requirement. If you took your pre-licensing education in 2011 and were licensed in 2011, you do not need to take any continuing education this year. If you took your pre-licensing education in 2009 or 2010 and your licensed was approved in 2011 or is still pending, you need to check with your state regulatory agency to find out if it is requiring loan originators to take continuing education.

If you are licensed in one (1) state, the requirement is that you take 3 hours of federal law and regulations, 2 hours of ethics, 2 hours of training related to lending standards for the nontraditional mortgage product market, and 1 hour of unspecified mortgage training (it's your choice of topic). If you took continuing education last year, you need to take different classes this year. Some states require a certain number of hours of state-specific education instead of the 1 hour hour of unspecified mortgage training. Therefore, if you are licensed is more than one (1) state, you may need to take more than eight (8) hours of continuing education.

The SAFE Act requirement is that you must take your continuing education hours by December 31, 2011. However, certain states require that you take continuing education before you can renew your license. Other states let you submit your renewal license applications, starting November 1, 2011, but they will not approve your renewals before you submit your continuing education hours through the NMLS. You need to check the rules for each state in which you are licensed to ensure that you are taking the correct number and types of continuing education courses so your licenses will be renewed.

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