Agents See Licensing Reform, Battle With Banks As Key In 2002

In addition to regulatory modernization and the use of credit reports, there are several state regulatory issues of particular interest to agents and brokers, according to a leading association figure.

“Agent licensing will continue to be a major issue,” said Wesley Bissett, vice president of state government affairs for the Independent Insurance Agents of America in Alexandria, Va. He said that licensing will be his group's “number one” agenda item next year.

Although three-quarters of the states enacted reforms in the last 12 months, the IIAA's goal is “to achieve reciprocity on a national basis” through the adoption of the Producer Licensing Model Act in all 51 jurisdictions, he said.

Mr. Bissett said that an emerging issue concerns efforts by the banking industry to repeal consumer protections applicable to bank sales of insurance. He said that banks “are attempting to go state by state to roll back protections that were enacted and negotiated several years ago.” The IIAA will “fight those efforts and hopefully allow states the protections they deem to be appropriate,” he said.

Another issue is the ongoing struggle between state and federal policymakers over the regulation of insurance, Mr. Bissett said. “Despite the passage of Gramm-Leach-Bliley, we continue to see battle lines being drawn between who supports state regulation and who doesn't,” he noted.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, January 14, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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Agents See Licensing Reform, Battle With Banks As Key In 2002

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