Happy New Year!

Property, Casualty, & Surety Pre-Licensing Course

January 13, 14, and 15

8am - 5pm each day

held in our conference room in Missoula

lunch on your own from 11:45am - 12:45pm

Merry Christmas!

Way to Go, Susan!

Susan Hancock, who is literally my right hand at the office, just ACED the Property &Casualty licensing exam on her first attempt! This means her producer's license should be issued as soon as we can get all the required paperwork to the Division of Insurance and they are able to process it.  (It also means she has to start taking CE classes!)

Please join me in congratulating Susan for all her hard word, dedication, and superior insurance skills. - Linda

January Schedule

We're holding a Property, Casualty & Surety Pre-Licensing course January 13-15 in Missoula and the following CE seminars on January 27 and 28th in Missoula:

• Jan 27:  2009 MT Insurance Legislative Changes - 12pm - 1pm (1 CE)
• Jan 27:  Insurance Tidbits - 1:15pm - 4:15pm (3 CEs)
• Jan 28:  Introduction to Commercial Lines - 8am - 12pm (4 CEs)
• Jan 28:  Life Insurance Basics - 1pm - 5pm (4 CEs)

See you there!

Location Change for December 9th CE Seminars in Missoula

Due to the large number of registrants for our December 9th CE Seminars, we have changed the location.

We will be holding all December 9th seminars--Insurance Ethics, Insurance E & O Prevention, and 2009 Montana Insurance Legislative Changes--at the Best Western Grant Creek Inn in Missoula. The Grant Creek Inn is located just off Interstate 90 at exit 101. Click here for a link to the hotel.

See you there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So that we may enjoy the holiday weekend with family and friends, the office will be closing at 1:00pm on Wednesday, November 25th and reopening at 9:00am on Monday, November 30th.

An emergency contact number, as always, can be obtained by calling the office and listening to the outgoing voice mail message.

Travel safely and enjoy your holiday.

What New CE Topics Would You Like to See?

It's that time of year again. I'm planning the new courses to write for the next year.

Do you have any insurance topics you'd like to see included on the curriculum for 2010? Here's what we have at the moment:

• Life Insurance Basics
• Health Insurance Basics
• Personal Auto Policy
• Auto Insurance Hot Buttons
• In-Home Businesses
• Workers' Compensation or General Liability?
• Introduction to Commercial Lines
• Insurance Tidbits
• Insurance Ethics
• Insurance E & O Prevention

Can you think of another basic course you'd like to see? How about an advanced topic? Feel free to leave your comment or send us an e-mail with your suggestion for a new 4-hour insurance CE seminar.

Property, Casualty, & Surety Pre-Licensing Course to be held in Missoula, November 4-6

The classroom review for our Property, Casualty, & Surety Insurance Pre-Licensing Course will be held in Missoula from Wednesday, November 4th through Friday, November 6th. The classroom review will be held from 8:00am - 5:00pm; we'll break one hour for lunch.

Location: our offices at 1018 Burlington Ave., Suite 101, Missoula, MT. Click here for directions and click here for more information about the course.

Our HEALTH INSURANCE BASICS seminar is approved!

The Montana Insurance Continuing Education Program just approved our Health Insurance Basics CE seminar for 3 hours of Continuing Education credit.

We'll be offering this seminar on the following dates:

• 11/11/2009 - Missoula -- 1pm - 4pm
• 02/25/2010 -- Missoula - 9am - 12pm
• 05/26/2010 -- Missoula -- 12pm - 3pm
• 06/07/2010 -- Great Falls -- 1pm - 4pm
• 07/30/2010 -- Missoula -- 1pm - 4pm
• 11/10/2010 -- Missoula -- 1:15pm - 4:15pm

Visit our website for more information about this, and other CE seminars, at www.faulknereducation.com.

Billing Seminars to be held 10/5 at Holiday Inn Grand Montana

Just a reminder that we're holding 3 insurance CE seminars in Billings on Monday, October 5th:

• 8am - 12pm - Workers' Compensation or General Liability? (4 CEs)
• 1pm - 5pm - Life Insurance Basics (4 CEs)
• 5pm - 6pm - 2009 Montana Insurance Legislative Changes (1 CE)

To register online, click here

New Missoula Seminar Location

I am happy to announce that, beginning this week, we will be holding our Missoula CE Seminars and Pre-Licensing Courses in the conference room in our offices at 1018 Burlington Ave., Suite 101, Missoula.

Directions and a downloadable PDF document, complete with photos, are available on our website on the Seminar Locations page.

We are in the section of Burlington Avenue that runs parallel to Mount Avenue, one block south of it, between Russell and Stephens. Missoula Textiles is located at the Russell/Burlington intersection and 4 Seasons Subaru is located at the Stephens/Burlington intersection. Plenty of parking is available beside and behind the building, as well as on the street nearby.

Quite a few restaurants are within a 5-7 minute drive: the Montana Club, Jakers, Paradise Falls and Denny's on Brooks; China Garden in the Stephens Center; Ruby's on Regent' and a number of fast-food places on Brooks: Quiznos, Subway, Wendy's, McDonalds, and Arby's.

Now let's just hope I can learn to make coffee...

2010 Insurance CE and Pre-Licensing Schedules posted

Our schedules for 2010 Insurance CE Seminars and Pre-Licensing Courses are now posted on our website.

Click here for the 2010 Insurance CE schedule. We offer 11 seminars and 1 online text-based course, including two legislative changes courses (2007 and 2009).

Click here for the 2010 Insurance Pre-Licensing schedule. We offer both Property, Casualty, & Surety and Limited Lines Credit courses.

Beginning on 9/29/2009, our Missoula seminars will be held in our offices at 1018 Burlington Ave., Suite 101, Missoula. Visit our website and click on Seminar Locations for directions.

Insurance Pre-Licensing Course Schedule for Fall 2009

We have just scheduled two insurance Pre-Licensing Courses for this fall:

Limited Lines Credit - Friday, October 16th

8am - 3pm (lunch on your own from 11:45am - 12:45pm)

Property, Casualty, & Surety - November 4 - 6

8am - 5pm (lunch on your own from 11:45am - 12:45pm)

To register or learn more about these courses, click here.

How I Can Help You Grow Your Business

Business partners make each other money by exchanging products and services for money. If you attend insurance seminars, you help the instructor and her firm increase their bottom lines. If she, in turn, refers clients to your insurance agency, she helps you increase your bottom line.

Well, there are other ways business partners can help each other. Yes, the exchange of $$ - right up front, is the most obvious and appreciated fashion. But referrals, word of mouth, marketing, and promotion are all other ways. In the long run, talking each other up may actually earn each of us more $$ than the purchase of insurance or refrigerators.

No, I'm not crazy. What I am is experienced in the arena of sales and marketing. As another way to promote by myself and my clients, friends, and business partners, I am now writing an online column for Examiner.com. My area of expertise is Self Marketing and I'm publishing articles that focus on:

• "Best" guides to local businesses and services
• Insider tips to these businesses and services
• Resource links on the web, and locally, for your marketing needs
• Other Self Marketing advice and information

If you'd like to be spotlighted in one of my articles, or if you know someone else who would, please e-mail me at examiner@lindamfaulkner.com.

I look forward to strengthening our relationship and helping each of us achieve a higher level of success.

Our 2009 MT Ins Legislative Changes Course Has Been Approved!

We recently received approval from the state of Montana for 1 hour of CE credit for our 2009 Montana Insurance Legislative Changes seminar.

We'll begin offering the seminar in September, along with Workers' Compensation or General Liability? and In-Home Businesses on September 30th in Missoula.

We hold this one-hour seminar each month; for the remainder of 2009, our schedule includes: Missoula during September, November, and December and in Billings and Kalispell in October.

We expect to have an online text-based 2009 legislative changes course available within the next 3 months.

Click here to visit our 2009 CE Seminar Schedule.

2010 CE Schedule in Montana

We are currently in the process of creating our CE schedule for 2010. Here is what we're planning:

• MISSOULA - seminars (2-4) every month
• KALISPELL - seminars (2-3) in February and October
• BILLINGS - seminars (2-3) in May and September
• GREAT FALLS - seminars (2-3) in June

If you would like us to come to your town, please get in touch. We offer seminars in a public, conference room setting AND in-house.

We are also in the process of writing CE seminars on the following topics:

• Health and Disability Insurance
• Life Insurance - Advanced Subjects

Be sure to let us know if you have other topics of interest.

What Does an Insurance Instructor Do in Her Spare Time?

Sylvia Dickey Smith interviewed me earlier this afternoon on her Blog Talk Radio Show, Murder, She Writes. Click the following link to listen to the interview: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/murdershewrites/2009/08/17/mystery-author-linda-faulkner

Pre-Licensing Course for Property, Casualty, & Surety

We are currently working on creating an insurance pre-licensing course for the lines of Property, Casualty, and Surety. We plan to begin offering it in the fall and hope you'll refer your new and fellow employees to us.

Updated information will be posted here and on our website at: www.faulknereducation.com.

CE Marathon Schedule Update - Legislative Changes Course

Our CE Marathon schedule had originally included a spot for our new 2009 Legislative Changes course on Thursday, July 30th, from 3:30pm - 4:30pm. The course was submitted for approval in June and we'd hoped to receive it in time for the CE Marathon.

Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. The course was not reviewed by the CE Advisory Council at their June 24th meeting. We were told, however, that is slated for review at the July 29th CE Advisory Council meeting.

For those of you who absolutely need the 1-hour of required Legislative Changes by the end of July, we are offering an alternative. We can mail you our TEXT-BASED 2007 Legislative Changes course (which has a different course # than the 2007 Legislative Changes SEMINAR we've been offering) and I will personally proctor/monitor the exam on Thursday, July 30th between 3:30pm and 4:30pm - which was the original time slot planned for the 2009 seminar.

Click here for more info.

-Linda

Montana Insurance Commissioner Warns Insurance Agents and Brokers About Scam Artists Posing as State Employees

Per news dated July 7, 2009 on the official state website for Montana, Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance, Monical Lindeen warns insurance agents and brokers about a scam. Other states that are actively investigating the scam include: Colorado, Nevada, Oklahoma, and California.

In part, the news states: "Lindeen’s office has received reports from multiple other states that individuals have been calling licensed insurance agencies and representing themselves as employees of the state Commissioners of Insurance. These individuals, pretending to be agency employees, have requested payment for a penalty fee. The same individuals also requested that the insurance agencies provide credit card and social security information over the telephone to make the penalty payment and to avoid cancellation of their license."

Click here to read the entire article.

State Auditor's Office Conducts Insurance Agency Audits

I recently met a very nice fellow named Brian who works as investigator for the State Auditor's Office.

Part of his job, in addition to investigating complaints and fraud, involves visiting insurance agencies across the state to conduct compliance audits. I was very happy to have passed my audit!

Here's the kind of things the Auditor's Office wants to know:

• Are your insurance producer and consultant licenses posted in your office?
• Do you have separate Trust and Operating bank accounts?
• What kind of duties and transactions are your unlicensed staff members conducting?
• Does anyone in your office have any questions or concerns that he can help you with?

My meeting took very little time and Brian answered all the questions I have. His goal, and that of the State Auditor's Office, is to assure that insurance transactions are processed smoothly and accurately.

If you have any questions or concerns, you can reach the State Auditor's Office/Department of Insurance at 800-332-6148 or http://sao.mt.gov/.

Adding Great Falls to our Schedule

We visited Great Falls earlier this month and were welcomed warmly by a number of insruance professionals: title producers, P&C producers, adjusters, and insurance company personnel.

Since then, we've been contacted by a number of people - both those who attended and those who were referred by our June participants.

Call or e-mail us if you'd be willing to attend CE seminars in Great Falls. It's looking like we'll be adding your town to the schedule in 2010. The more input we have from you, the better we'll be able to meet your needs and requirements.

Office Phone: (406) 542-1045 or (866) 949-1045

Click here to e-mail.

What Types of CE Seminars Would YOU Like to See?

We are in the process of writing new CE classes for presentation beginning later this year. Here are some of the topics that have been suggested to us:

• Health insurance - both individual and group (we're writing it now)
• Disability Income (we're writing it now)
• Worker's Compensation basics (we wrote it for you)
• General Liability basics (we included that with the WC class we wrote for you)
• Life Insurance
• Long Term Care (we're writing it now)

It has also been suggested that we offer CE that meets the approval standards of both the state of Montana and the CFP designation.

Your thoughts? Your suggestions?

Although I can't guarantee that we'll write a class for everyone, I can guarantee that we'll take your suggestions seriously and include in our curriculum as many of your suggested topics as we can.

Thanks for contributing to our success!

Career Development Workshops - for Insurance and NON-Insurance Businesses

Do you have a sales staff experiencing difficulty selling? Are your staff members blaming slow sales on the economy? On something else?

Do you have a young sales force that's plugging away but wishing they could find an easier way to get the job done?

Are your marketing efforts leaving you cold? Wishing you had more exciting ways of promoting your business?

Are your customers griping? Do you wish you could keep them happy?

We can help you answer these questions and solve your dilemmas.

We offer a variety of Career Development Workshops addressing a number of topics; Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, and more. We also provide in-house training on these and other topics. Visit our website to check out some of the workshops we've already successfully presented or give us a call to discuss arranging workshops that fit your needs.

CE Exemption per 2009 Legislative Session

Per recently enacted legislate, producers who are licensed to sell ONLY surety bonds are now exempt from obtaining 24 credit-hours of approved continuing education per renewal biennium.

They ARE however, required to obtain 5 credit-hours of approved continuing education in the areas of law, ethics, or surety bond-specific instruction.

The legislation became effective when enacted in April.

Changes to CE Requirements for Licensed Producers, Adjusters, & Consultants

Senate Bill 127 of the 2009 Legislature included the revised insurance continuing education requirement that includes 3 credit hour of ethics for all licensees as part of the existing 24 credit hour insurance continuing education compliance. One may read the bill language at: http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/billpdf/SB0127.pdf

SB 127, Section 10 states: "Applicability. [Section 8] applies to 24-month periods for obtaining continuing education beginning on or after January 1, 2010." Licensees may take courses to meet this requirement after 1/1/10 and must first report compliance 1/1/12.

Faulkner Education Services has been offering an Ethics seminar since January 0f 2007 that has been approved for 4 hours of CE in Montana. We are offering this seminar on the following dates in 2009 - and may add more dates to our calendar, depending upon the needs of our clients:

• July 31, 8am - 12pm, Missoula - Best Western Grant Creek Inn
• December 9, 8am - 12pm, Missoula - Best Western Grant Creek Inn

We also offer in-house seminars and will be happy to discuss arranging in-house offering of our Insurance Ethics seminar.

2009 Montana Legislative Changes

I am currently writing my new legislatvie changes class and hope to have it submitted to the DOI for consideration at the June review. If approved, I'll be offering it during my CE Marathon the last week of July.

ATTN: People Who Live on the Moon and Procrastinators - Our CE MARATHON is for YOU!

Many people who live in rural areas of Montana find it difficult to attend CE seminars. The time and expense of travelling for 4-8 hours of class time simply isn't worth it. And although we now hold seminars in several of the larger cities (Missoula, Kalispell, Billings, and Great Falls), travel-time is still a major concern.

We've also found that many licensed producers and adjusters wait until the last minute to obtain their CE hours - OR they discover at the last minute that they're short the 1-hour of required legislative changes/law or a couple of credits.

Our CE MARATHON was designed to help these people. We hold 4 days of non-stop CE seminars during the last week of July, offering a total of OVER 24 approved hours of CE for:

• Insurance Adjusters
• Insurance Producers, including: Property/Casualty, Life/Disability, Title, and Surety
• Limited Lines Producers (we offer 5 hours for them)

This year's CE Marathon begins on Tuesday, July 28th and runs through Friday, July 31st. We currently have a hotel room block at the Best Western Grant Creek Inn in Missoula (where the seminars are being held) so you can take advantage of discounted room rates. To visit our schedule, click here.

See you in July!

Upcoming CE Seminars for June - Missoula and Great Falls

Here's our lineup of CE Seminars in June:

MISSOULA - Wednesday, JUNE 3RD at the Best Western Grant Creek Inn:

• Introduction to Commercial Lines - 8am - 12pm -- (4 CEs)
• Life Insurance Basics - 1pm - 5pm -- (4 CEs)
• NO LAW/LEGISLATIVE CHANGES SEMINAR IN MISSOULA IN JUNE

GREAT FALLS - Friday, JUNE 5TH in the conference room at the Great Falls Association of Realtors

• In-Home Businesses - 8am - 11am -- (3 CES)
• Insurance E & O Prevention - 12pm - 3pm (3 CEs)
• 2007 MT Insurance Legislation Review - 3:30pm - 4:30pm (1 CE)

Click here to register online for our June seminars or visit our website at www.faulknereducation.com for more info.

Billings Insurance CE Seminars - Monday, 5/4

I'm heading off to Billings for three Insurance CE Seminars in that city on Monday, May 4th:

• Introduction to Commercial Lines - 8am - 12pm - (4 CEs)
• Insurance Tidbits - NEW CLASS - 1pm - 4pm (3 CEs)
• 2007 MT Insurance Legislation Review - 4:30pm - 5:30pm (1 CE)

We have seating for a few extra people, so feel free to walk in!

Seminars will be held at the Holiday Inn Grand at 5500 Midland in Billings.

Great Seminars in Missoula Today

Thanks, everyone, for a great day in Missoula. Several people braved the horrible weather and travelled from Great Falls and Helena for the day. We also had people travel from Kalispell, Polson, and Butte!

Looking forward to next week's seminars in Billings. Then back to Missoula on June 3rd and out to Great Falls on June 5th.

FYI, I'll be teaching a CIC Institute for the National Alliance in Casper, Wyoming May 13-15 and a CISR for MIEF/IIAMT in Kalispell on May 21st.

Last Chance to Register for April CE Seminars in Missoula

We have 4 more seats available for our April 29th CE Seminars at the Best Western Grant Creek Inn in Missoula. Seminars offered that day are:

• 8am - 12pm - Introduction to Commercial Lines - 4 CEs
• 1pm - 4pm - Insurance Tidbits - 3 CEs (NEW CLASS!)
• 4:30pm - 5:30pm - 2007 Montana Insurance Legislation Review

Visit our website at http://www.faulknereducation.com/ and click the Seminar CE for more info or to register.

If you mention Blog Confirmation #42909A in the Comments section of your online registration form, we'll waive the last-minute registration fee of $10!

Legislative Changes CE Seminars

Each licensed Montana Producer and Adjuster must spend at least 1 of their 24 CE hours (or 5 CE hours, if a Limited Lines Producer) attending a Legislative Changes course.

Does this mean you have to take a 2009 Legislative Changes course once the 2009 Legislative Session is over? NO!

It means that you have to attend a Legislative Changes course that has been approved by the Montana Insurance Continuing Education Program and which doesn't bear the same, exact course number of a course you've taken within the past 24 months.

Here's a tip: each CE provider in Montana receives its own CE Course Numbers. For example, if Faulkner Education Services is offering a Legislative Changes course, it's course number is totally different from the Legislative Changes courses offered by other CE providers. In fact, Faulkner Education currently offers TWO Legislative Changes courses and EACH of them has a different number.

--Linda

TWITTER

Just got a Twitter account to see what all the fuss is about. See link on this blog.

In-House CE Seminars & Training

We offer the following In-House events:

• Insurance CE Seminars
• Limited Lines Producer Pre-licensing course
• Insurance Training on Customer Service, Sales, Marketing, and Networking

Advantages of In-House events:

• You choose the topics and dates
• 3-4 hour seminars and workshops so your entire staff can attend, but your office isn't under-staffed during the event
• Discounted pricing
• Choose from our curriculum or hire us to develop and write seminars, workshops, and trainings to meet your needs
• Relaxed atmosphere

Call me to inquire about arranging In-House CE Seminars, insurance training, or business development workshops.

--Linda

Insurance CE Seminars in Great Falls

Thanks to a wonderful gal in Great Falls who helped me put this deal together, I'll be holding three insurance CE seminars in Great Falls on Friday, June 5th:

• 8am - 11am -- In-Home Businesses -- 3 CEs
• 12pm - 3pm -- Insurance E & O Prevention -- 3 CEs
• 3:30pm - 4:3pm -- 2007 Montana Insurance Legislation Review -- 1 CE

All three seminars are approved for CE by the Montana Insurance Continuing Education Program. They'll be held at the conference room at the office of the Great Falls Association of Realtors.

For more details, or to register online, visit our website at: www.faulknereducation.com.

Lesser-Known Facts About CE License Renewal Requirements

I receive inquiries on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis from Montana licensed producers and adjusters concerning the CE requirements for renewing their licenses. Here are a few lesser-known details:

• The 24-month period during which CE must be taken ENDS with your license renewal date and does NOT BEGIN with the date you obtained your license.
• All licensed adjusters and producers--with the exception of Limited Lines Producers, must complete 24 hours of CE during their renewal period. (YES,this includes Title, Surety, and Life-only or PC-only producers!
• The requirement prohibiting a producer from repeating the same CE course for credit within a 24-month period is much less strict than a lot of people believe: (1) The topic is not restricted - you CAN take more than one auto seminar or law seminar. (2) The restriction applies to the course #. (3) Each CE provider in MT receives a separate course # for each of their courses. If Faulkner Education Services offers a 2007 Legislative Changes/Law seminar, it's course # is unique and totally different from all other providers' course #s.

For more information, visit the following links:

1. Our web site: http://www.faulknereducation.com/CE%20Info.htm
2. The Montana DOI web site: http://sao.state.mt.us/insurance/CElaw.pdf

The Value of In-House Seminars & Workshops

In-House seminars and workshops have a variety of value:

• Convenience - your staff doesn't need to lose time travelling
• Control - you pick and choose the seminar topics that will prove most beneficial to your staff
• Cost-effective - most in-house offerings are less expensive because we do not incur the costs of a hotel conference room, beverages, and snacks

We offer the following In-House Seminars and Workshops:

• Insurance continuing education
• Limited Lines Producer pre-licensing
• Career development
• Miscellaneous training and motivation

Call for more information!

Welcome to our Blog!

We'll be posting information about all kinds of business and insurance education, including updates when we add new seminars, courses, and workshops to our schedule.

If you'd like to schedule in-house training or seminars at your business, let us know!