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Regulation and Compliance > State Regulation

NAIC Panels Set Agendas

By Allison Bell

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A National Association of Insurance Commissioners working group has tried to decide which state producer licensing requirements are consistent with efforts to make the requirements more uniform.

The Producer Licensing Task Force has put a draft of the working group’s report on its agenda for the summer meeting of the NAIC, Kansas City, Mo., which is set to start June 13 in Minneapolis.

The NARAB Working Group drafted the report in response to a request that it complete the evaluation of the reciprocity standard developed by the NAIC’s 2002 NARAB Working Group and make final recommendations by the 2009 summer meeting for revisions.

NARAB measures would create a National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers, a national organization that would take responsibility for licensing producers in all states.

Similar measures have been in the works for decades, and one was actively supported by President Theodore Roosevelt.

The NAIC has been trying to work within the existing state-run insurance regulatory framework to encourage each state to offer the same treatment to producers from other states that they offer to in-state producers, or to offer “reciprocal” treatment – treatment based on the rules that incoming producers’ home states apply to out-of-state producers trying to do business in their jurisdictions.

The NARAB Working Group has suggested that states that impose some requirements on non-resident producers or applicants are acting in a way that is inconsistent with reciprocity standards.

Those requirements include fingerprint requirements; requirements that a business entity to submit articles of incorporation; requirements that a producer get a life license before applying for a variable life license; and requirements that producers submit extra information to verify their age.

In the view of the working group, some of the requirements that are consistent with reciprocity standards include efforts to perform background checks without requiring additional submissions from the applicant; requiring the designated responsible producer to be licensed prior to the issuance of a non-resident business entity license, if the applications are accepted concurrently; requiring a business entity to register to do business in the state; and enforcing minimum age requirements;

In addition to a review of the NARAB Working Group draft, the Producer Licensing Task Force summer meeting agenda includes consideration of the adoption of a licensing reciprocity framework and consideration of the adoption of uniform applications.

In other NAIC meeting preparation news:

- The NAIC/Consumer Liaison Committee will be talking about current health care and health insurance issues, and it also will hear comments from Birny Birnbaum of the Center for Economic Justice, Austin, Texas, about the market conduct annual statement effort.

- The System for Electronic Rate Form and Filing board will hear a presentation on 2009 financials and the 2010 budget, and it will review a number of reports.

SERFF usage and revenue have been higher than budgeted during the first 5 months of the year, and 2,500 insurers have started using the SERFF electronic funds transfer system, according to memo to the SERFF board from Thea Cook, the SERFF product implementation manager.

Thanks to state support, about 87% of all unique licensed companies have started using the EFT system, Cook reports.

This year, 20 states are requiring insurers to use SERFF, and 11 are requiring insurers to pay filing fees through the EFT system, Cook says.

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