A common question asked by many independent life insurance agents is “What is AML?” AML stands for Anti-Money Laundering training, a requirement by the U.S. Treasury department. The Treasury department defines money laundering as the following: “Money laundering generally refers to financial transactions in which criminals, including terrorist organizations, attempt to disguise the proceeds, sources or nature of their illicit activities. Money laundering facilitates a broad range of serious underlying criminal offenses and ultimately threatens the integrity of the financial system.”
In order to sell any life insurance products that contain a “cash value component,” all Life insurance producers are required to complete Anti-Money Laundering training. Since life carrier appointments are not product specific, even if you only sell term life insurance, if the insurance carrier offers a “cash value” product, you will be required to take the AML training.
To keep your certificate current, AML training is required every 2 years. Some insurance carriers even require their own company specific training to to become appointed. This company specific training only needs to be completed with your initial appointment.
There are a few options to complete the AML Training. If you are a “carrier agent” with one of the major Mutual insurance companies, or FINRA registered, then AML training will be part of your annual CE that you must do. Just make sure to get a copy of your certificate to share with your independent brokerage agency. For independent agents there are two main options for AML training. Paid, or Free.
Paid option: Online CE providers such as RegEd & WebCE all have their own version of the AML training. The cost is minimal, and you will need to save your certificate as proof that you have completed the training. One concern is that not all carriers will accept this type of training, so verify with your brokerage agency if you want to use this training.
Recommended option: LIMRA’s AML training is a free service that allows you to take the AML training course and also provides access to the insurance carriers so that they can verify you have taking the training without you having to provide a certificate of completion. We offer access to this option by clicking here.
Now that you understand what AML is, why it must be done, and how to complete it; make sure to keep your training up to date. There is nothing worse than a carrier appointment that is delayed due to lack of current AML training.