NAIFA Pushes For Uniform Producer Licensing

June 03, 2002 at 08:00 PM
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NU Online News Service, June 3, 2 p.m. – Groups that support a federal system for agent licensing point to the lack of uniform requirements among the states as a major influence on their decision, industry sources say.

As a supporter of state regulation of insurance, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors would like to see more uniformity across the different states and continues to work closely with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to achieve that task, officials at NAIFA say.

"If you applied for a nonresident license in one state and the requirements are completely different than your resident state, you might have to fulfill additional requirements before you could get that license," William Anderson, vice president and associate general counsel for NAIFA, Falls Church, Va., explains. "We're trying to get to the point where you don't have to fulfill any additional requirements."

The push for more uniform requirements among states comes as a result of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Modernization Act of 1999, which requires 29 states to grant reciprocity to nonresident agents by November 2003. If this requirement is not met, the National Association for Registration of Agents and Brokers will be formed to act as a central clearing house for agent licensing, says Anderson.

"The NAIC is intending to announce at their June meeting which states have qualified for reciprocity under that provision," he says.

Anderson says that a big part of meeting that goal is the adoption of the Producer Model Licensing Act.

"The provisions of the Producer Model Licensing Act contain what's necessary in order to fulfill the reciprocity requirements of Gramm-Leach-Bliley," he explains. "We've been very active in promoting this throughout the states."

As of last count, 44 states have enacted some form of the model act, Anderson estimates.

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