Published: Nov 10, 2025 | Last Verified Against State Boards: Nov 10, 2025
After a long career in land surveying, hanging up the hard hat and the data collector is a well-deserved milestone. You’ve spent decades walking boundaries, interpreting deeds, and upholding the standards of this great profession. But this raises a critical question I hear from many colleagues: “What do I do about my professional license?”
Retirement doesn’t mean you have to surrender the PLS title you worked so hard to earn. However, an active license carries active responsibilities, namely the mandatory continuing education (CE) required by our state boards.
The thought of keeping up with 20 or 30 hours of continuing education every cycle is daunting when you’re no longer in full-time practice. But don’t give up your license just yet. Understanding your state’s specific rules and finding the right courses can make it manageable. This guide explores the most practical CE options for retired land surveyors to help you make an informed decision.
Why Even Keep Your Surveyor License in Retirement?
First, let’s ask why you’d want to. For many of us, it’s not just about the letters on a business card; it’s about identity and opportunity.
- Professional Status: You’ve earned the title of “Professional Land Surveyor.” Maintaining your license, even if you’re not stamping plats, retains that status within your community and among your peers.
- Part-Time Consulting: This is the big one. An active license allows you to perform high-value, low-impact consulting. You can review deeds, write expert reports, consult on complex boundary disputes, or perform plan reviews for municipalities. This is fantastic “part-time” work that keeps your mind engaged.
- Mentorship: While you don’t need a license to mentor, it carries weight. Guiding the next generation of surveyors is one of the most rewarding things we can do.
- “Small Jobs”: Be cautious, but many surveyors want to keep their license to perform small surveys for family, friends, or neighbors. Remember, that “small job” carries the same liability as a major subdivision, so this requires you to truly stay current on your surveying standards.
The ‘Inactive’ vs. ‘Retired’ Status: A Critical Choice for Land Surveyors
Before you buy any PDH courses, your very first call must be to your state licensing board. You need to ask about their specific definitions for “Active,” “Inactive,” and “Retired” status.
- Active License: This is what you have now. You can legally practice land surveying. You must fulfill 100% of the state’s continuing education requirements, including all mandatory ethics and standards courses.
- Retired Status: This is often a permanent You formally retire your license. You can no longer practice surveying in any capacity. The good news? You typically have zero continuing education requirements. The bad news? If you ever want to practice again, you may have to re-apply and re-test from scratch.
- Inactive Status: This is the most common and often misunderstood option. An inactive license means you cannot practice surveying. You can’t stamp a plat, you can’t consult, you can’t offer surveying services. The benefit is that you typically do not have to complete your annual CE hours.
The Inactive Trap: The catch with “Inactive” status is reactivation. If you are inactive for five years and decide you want to do a small consulting job, the board will likely require you to make up all the continuing education hours you missed. If the requirement is 15 PDH per year, you might suddenly face a bill for 75 PDH of education just to get your license back.
My Professional Advice: For most surveyors who want to keep the option to practice open, maintaining an “Active” license is often the simplest, cleanest path.
Calculating Your ‘Active’ CPC Requirements
If you choose to keep your license active, you must meet the full CPC requirements (Continuing Professional Competency). This is where calculating your required CE units for surveyors comes in.
Don’t just look at the total hours. The smart way to manage this is to find the “mandatory minimum” courses. These are the courses your board requires you to take, no matter what.
- Ethics Courses: Almost every state board now requires a certain number of PDH in professional ethics. This is usually 1 to 4 hours per cycle. These courses are non-negotiable.
- State Standards Courses: Many states (like Florida, Texas, North Carolina, etc.) mandate courses specifically on their state’s Minimum Technical Standards or Land Laws.
In my state, the requirement is 15 PDH, but 4 PDH must be on state standards and 2 PDH must be on ethics. My “mandatory minimum” is 6 PDH of specific courses. The remaining 9 PDH can be on any relevant land surveying topic. For a retired land surveyor, this is manageable.
Cost-Effective CE: Finding PDH Courses on a Budget
When you’re not earning a full-time salary, the cost of education becomes a primary concern. The days of your employer paying for conferences are over. Here’s how to find cost-effective continuing education courses.
- Online Courses: This is your best value, hands down. Online land surveying courses have no travel costs, no hotel fees, and the per-hour cost is almost always lower.
- Bundles & Packages: Look for continuing education providers that offer renewal bundles. You can often buy a full “15 PDH State Renewal Package” for a flat fee that is much cheaper than buying 15 individual 1-hour courses. Many a “PDH academy” or online provider offers these.
- Professional Society Membership: Your NSPS or state surveying society membership is invaluable. They often provide several free webinars per year as a member benefit. This can cover a significant portion of your “general” PDH hours.
Relevant Continuing Education Topics for Retired Land Surveyors
The final step is choosing your courses. If you’re retired, you likely don’t need a 10-hour course on the nuances of a new GPS receiver. Your goal is to stay current on the profession and meet your CPC requirements efficiently.
Here are the courses I recommend focusing on for your surveyor continuing development:
- Mandatory Ethics & State Standards (Non-Negotiable): Complete these first. They are required and keep you sharp on liability and rules.
- Boundary Law & Legal Descriptions: These courses are often fascinating. As a seasoned professional, your experience adds depth, and these topics are perfect for consulting or expert witness work.
- Technology Overviews: You don’t need to learn how to fly a drone, but a 2-PDH course on “UAS Data & the PLS” or “Intro to LiDAR” keeps you aware of the technology that is transforming the land surveying profession.
- GIS & Data Management: Similar to technology, GIS is a part of our world. A simple course on how surveying data is used in GIS makes you a more knowledgeable professional.
- History of Surveying: Many providers offer courses on historical surveying methods, land records, and significant legal cases. These are often a passion project for a retired land surveyor.
- Expert Witness & Business Practices: If you plan to consult, courses on contracts, liability, and how to serve as an expert witness are invaluable.
By focusing on these relevant courses, you not inly satisfy your continuing education hours, but you also enrich your professional knowledge.
The Bottom Line: Don’t let continuing education push you into surrendering your license. By understanding your state’s “inactive” options or, if staying active, by focusing on low-cost online courses centered on mandatory topics, you can easily maintain your professional land surveyor status for years to come and keep your options open.
