Producer Licensing
The Council is a strong proponent of creating a National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers (NARAB) to provide for nonresident insurance agent and broker licensing while preserving the rights of states to supervise and discipline insurance producers (agents and brokers). NARAB was included in the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act in 1999 and would have been created if states did not satisfy the producer licensing reform objectives outlined in GLBA. The creation of NARAB did not occur because a majority of the states were perceived to achieve a specified level of licensing reciprocity. While NARAB helped start the states on the road to reform, the bar was not set high enough to fully accomplish state licensing reform.
Our advocacy efforts now focus on passing legislation, known as NARAB II, that would establish a federal agent/broker licensure clearinghouse, wherein producers could secure an interstate “passport” for multistate licensure, but only after being licensed in his/her home jurisdiction. NARAB will make rules regarding access to a federal privilege (the federal insurance producer licensure facility), and it will apply those rules in approving (or disapproving) insurance producer license applications. This legislation has passed the full House on two separate occasions (in 2008 and 2010). NARAB II is also supported by the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America (IIABA), the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA), the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), as well as a number of individual insurance companies.
Letter to Members of the United States Senate asking for their support on recently-introduced Senate legislation, S. 2342.
NARAB Reform Act Basics
- Reforms in NARAB II would benefit consumers through increased competition among agents and brokers and greater consumer choice. The legislation also would provide higher and more consistent national consumer protections for those agents utilizing NARAB.
- NARAB II deals only with marketplace entry and would not impact the day-to-day state regulation of insurance.
- Producers could remain licensed in the traditional manner, but those operating in multiple jurisdictions could apply for NARAB membership and one-stop nonresident licensing.
- A revised NARAB would operate as follows:
- Federal legislation would immediately establish NARAB as a private, non-profit entity managed by a board composed of state insurance regulators and marketplace representatives.
- State regulators would continue to license, supervise and discipline producers, and would continue to enforce state consumer protection laws.
- Membership in NARAB would be voluntary and would not affect the rights of a non-member producer under any state license.
- NARAB would establish membership criteria, which would include standards for personal qualifications, education, training and experience.
- NARAB member applicants would be required to undergo a national criminal background check.
- Through NARAB, individual agent members would continue to pay the appropriate fees required by each state in which they operate and would renew their NARAB membership biennially.
- NARAB would not be part of, or report to, any federal agency and would not have any federal regulatory power.
For more information, please contact Joel Kopperud at joel.kopperud@ciab.com.