Alliance Lauds N.Y., Fla. Action on Modernizing State Producer Laws; More is Needed

The Alliance of American Insurers has issued a bulletin which praised recent efforts in New York and Florida to modernize producer licensing laws, but it also called for other states to follow suit.

Alliance VP for Property/Casualty Rey Becker said that the organization was “very pleased with recent developments” in the two states. “New York has joined most other states in modernizing its producer licensing system and the Florida countersignature law is now history,” he noted.

According to Becker, “New York recently became the 44th jurisdiction to pass the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) model producer licensing law. Of the remaining seven states, only three, California, Florida and New Mexico, have refused to take any meaningful steps to modernize and promote licensing reciprocity.”

He also indicated that “only four states still have onerous countersignature laws in their statute books: Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, and West Virginia.” Becker noted that “ironically, for those of us committed to continued state regulation of insurance, it took a federal judge to force Florida into the 21st century, by striking down its antiquated and protectionist countersignature law. It is also ironic that the Florida challenge was mounted by a national trade association of producers. A similar challenge is pending against the Nevada law as well, and we are optimistic about a similar result.”

Becker concluded by expressing the Alliance’s hopes “that regulators and legislators in these remaining States (California, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota, and West Virginia) can read the handwriting on the wall and get fully behind continued efforts to modernize state regulation of insurance and remove artificial barriers and protectionist laws.”

Topics Florida New York Nevada