In most states an insurance agent has no legal duty torecommend coverage to an applicant for insurance unless the agent,in some manner, assumes that duty (see “Special Circumstances MayMean Agents, Brokers Owe Greater Duties To Clients,” April 18, 2011edition of NU). But the question for this column is: Whatethical responsibilities does an agent have with regard torecommending coverage—and do those duties vary if the producer is abroker?”

The majority of those responding believe a producer, if he orshe is a professional, has at least two duties: The first is touncover relevant exposures of clients; and the second is to makerecommendations as to the treatment of those exposures. Themajority also agreed that it did not matter if the producer was anagent or a broker—the duties remained the same.

An insurance consultant wasparticularly strong in his opinion. “Any insurance professional isethically and morally, if not legally, obligated to point out lossexposures to the client. It makes no difference if there is a meansto insure the exposure. If the producer knows of an exposure toloss, he or she is obligated to point it out and documentsuch.”