Agent Group Calls For Push To Expand Producer Registry

A leading insurance agents group is urging that work on a nearly completed electronic licensing system for agents be finished as visible proof that state regulation works.

The National Insurance Producer Registry "demonstrates that a consumer-based, states-based system is a very good system," wrote Donna Pile, immediate past president of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents.

Ms. Pile, who is an independent agent with A.G. Perry Insurance Agency, Lexington, Ky., called NIPR "the simplest solution" to achieve modernization of the licensing system.

Her comments came in a letter Monday to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners President-elect Roger Sevigny.

Mr. Sevigny, the New Hampshire insurance commissioner, is chair of the NAIC/Industry producer licensing coalition.

Ms. Pile urged that work be finished on the system that allows producers for property-casualty and life, health lines of business to be licensed, often within 24-to-48 hours.

While states might recognize NIPR, they must also have the legal ability to use it, according to Ms. Pile. The system is in place in 47 states and the possibility exists for all states to be participating in the system within two years, she said.

Getting the participation of all states would help send a clear sign that state regulation is effective and is the best way in which the industry can modernize itself, Ms. Pile maintained.

Legislation is currently pending in Congress aimed at modernizing the current system of insurance agent licensing that applies to producers registered in multiple states. Known as NARAB II, it is formally titled the National Association of Registered Agents & Brokers Reform Act. Adoption by 26 states of NIPR would make the bill moot.

Among the points that Ms. Pile makes in her letter for PIA are:

o All states must assign their insurance producer licensing authority to and through the all states NIPR system, appointing the state insurance commissioner as their representative for this purpose.

o States will use NIPR to serve their resident and nonresident producer licensing requirements.

o To better accomplish these functions, states may assign the guardianship of the state NIPR system to their trade association for insurance regulation, the NAIC.

Other points made in the letter recommend requiring all states to participate, reciprocity and uniformity, uniform lines of authority for both major and limited lines, fingerprinting and background checks.

These recommendations were outlined by the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, Washington, in an earlier letter, according to the correspondence from Ms. Pile.