(1) A person may not sell, solicit, or negotiate the sale of an annuity product unless he or she is appropriately licensed as an insurance producer and has successfully completed the annuity suitability training that meets the requirements of this section.

(2)(a) After March 29, 2012, prior to selling, soliciting, or negotiating the sale of annuity products, all insurance producers must complete a one-time, four-hour training course approved by the commissioner and provided by an insurance education provider approved in this state.

(b) Insurance producers who hold a life insurance line of authority on March 29, 2012, and who desire to sell annuities must complete the requirements of this section by September 29, 2012.

(c) Persons who obtain a life insurance line of authority on or after March 29, 2012, may not sell, solicit, or negotiate the sale of an annuity product until the annuity training course has been completed.

(3)(a) The annuity suitability training required under this section shall include information on the following topics:

(i) The types of annuities and various classifications of annuities;

(ii) Identification of the parties to an annuity;

(iii) How fixed, variable, and indexed annuity contract provisions affect consumers;

(iv) The application of income taxation of qualified and nonqualified annuities;

(v) The primary uses of annuities; and

(vi) Appropriate sales practices, replacement, and disclosure requirements.

(b) The training required in this section must be sufficient to qualify for at least four continuing education credits.

(c) The training required in this section may be completed by either classroom instruction or self-study in accordance with WAC 284-17-220 through 284-17-256.

(d) The insurance producer education required by this section must not include training that is issuer or company product specific or includes any sales or marketing information and materials.

(e) Approved providers offering the annuity education required by this section must administer the course, issue certificates of completion, report completed training to the commissioner, and maintain records as required by WAC 284-17-270 through 284-17-310.

(4)(a) Resident insurance producers that complete the required training of this section and which are approved in this state may count those credits toward fulfillment of their Washington CE requirement.

(b) A resident or nonresident producer completing the required training of this section in another state which has adopted the annuity suitability requirement shall be deemed as satisfying this state's requirement.

(c) If a resident insurance producer wishes to apply course credits for the required annuity suitability training offered in another state and the course is not otherwise approved for continuing education credit in this state, the training may qualify for individual course credit subject to WAC 284-17-244.

(5) Each insurer must verify that an insurance producer has completed the annuity training course required in this section before allowing the producer to sell an annuity product for that insurer. An insurer may satisfy its responsibility under this section by obtaining certificates of completion of the training course or obtaining reports provided by commissioner-sponsored database systems or vendors or from a reasonably reliable commercial database vendor that has a reporting arrangement with approved insurance education providers.

(6) Insurance producers who have completed the annuity suitability training requirements of this section in a state other than Washington which has adopted the annuity suitability requirement prior to March 29, 2012, are deemed to have satisfied the training requirements of this section.