This publish is a part of a sequence sponsored by AgentSync.

Whereas trendy insurance coverage infrastructure permits insurance coverage carriers to entry to-the-day reporting for insurance coverage producers’ and adjusters’ licenses, many nonetheless require a paper copy of licenses.

At AgentSync, we’re agency believers that requiring copies of paper licensing is a factor of the previous, for a couple of causes, not least of which:

• The paper license solely validates that the insurance coverage producer or adjuster was licensed on X day – a single cut-off date.
• The paper license doesn’t point out issues like a producer’s nationally reported compliance violations.
• If a producer didn’t obtain and print their preliminary license inside days of getting it, some states will cost them to obtain it in a while.
• Digital compliance choices can ship correct, present knowledge with out the paper!
• Paper licensing is a big danger for insurance coverage companies, MGAs, MGUs, and carriers alike

Why printed licensing is a danger to your company, MGA, MGU, or provider

The aforementioned causes needs to be sufficient – out-of-date knowledge, errors, mistyped or smudged info all current their very own dangers to numerous levels. However, as we see it, by not validating knowledge in opposition to a supply of reality just like the Nationwide Insurance coverage Producer Registry, you permit your self uncovered to unscrupulous actors.

The unlucky reality is, whereas nearly all of individuals work in insurance coverage to ship on its promise of offering a security web to individuals and companies, some individuals function with damaged compasses. Whether or not somebody is simply hoping to obscure their motives or historical past, or whether or not they intentionally intend to deceive for malevolent functions, leaving it completely as much as producers to enter their info precisely is a chance for errors and malfeasance.

In a best-case situation, guide processes lead producers to accidents and errors, from mistyped addresses or wrongly entered dates of delivery. In a worst-case situation, they’re a chance for dangerous actors to cowl their previous misdeeds, and, with no course of for validating that knowledge, you could possibly end up in a long-term partnership with somebody who has a documented historical past of unethical habits.

So, for those who’re an insurance coverage agent, company, MGA, or different downstream distribution accomplice whose provider requires paper licensing, listed here are three tricks to get you thru what could be a extremely guide course of.

1. Printing particulars from AgentSync’s knowledge

Carriers can use an agent’s nationwide producer quantity and pull knowledge from the nationwide insurance coverage producer database. However even when a provider’s compliance processes don’t use that kind of course of, we’ve discovered that when companies clarify how up-to-date and correct the knowledge in AgentSync is, carriers could permit producers to print their detailed abstract to make use of for verification. In any case, the rationale carriers ask for paper copies is often to validate that the producer is licensed – however once more, that is much more precisely completed with present info than with a point-in-time picture of the unique license.

In case your provider is keen to simply accept a extra easy proof of licensing, you or your company can print your knowledge from AgentSync. Utilizing the “Printable View” button in AgentSync, you will get a PDF or printed copy of the to-the-day abstract of producer (or adjuster) license info to electronic mail or in any other case ship to your provider in the event that they’ll settle for this knowledge as an alternative to a paper license.

2. Obtain picture copy of document state and save PDF to AgentSync

In case your provider requires a picture copy of the bodily license and isn’t but keen to simply accept validated knowledge from AgentSync or different insurance coverage databases, it’s at all times finest to conform.

All states have some model of the paper license accessible without spending a dime inside a couple of weeks of acquiring your first license; you’ll have to request it, or they might mail you a paper license in a couple of uncommon cases.

For individuals who remembered to request a obtain of their free copy of the paper insurance coverage license, utilizing AgentSync’s front-end producer or adjuster portal could also be a simple option to retain a replica. Merely add the PDF to the portal and preserve it saved with NIPR’s Attachment Warehouse for these occasions that your company should ship it to carriers.

Once more, whereas the every day synchronized knowledge is much extra reliably correct than a static copy of a license, some carriers could insist that their inner protocols use a paper copy because the supply of validation.

3. Printing or downloading a paper insurance coverage license after the actual fact

Should you didn’t retain a PDF copy of your preliminary state license (we don’t blame you) and your company is now working with a provider that requires one, you have got a couple of choices left to you. States that use State Primarily based Companies will present a PDF at no extra value. Different states could use service suppliers that cost a price to acquire a replica of your unique license.

We now have a roundup of which states use which procedures and what you possibly can anticipate so far as prices right here.

Or, for those who’d slightly, you possibly can use NIPR’s widget to find the perfect supply to print or obtain a paper copy of your varied state licenses.

Convincing insurance coverage carriers to cease requiring paper licensing

Whereas AgentSync may help your insurance coverage company, MGA, or MGU retailer and validate paper licensing info, the perfect plan of action is really to persuade insurance coverage carriers throughout the trade to cease requiring paper license verification.

Paper licenses are a factor of the previous. Most state departments of insurance coverage now not print and mail copies of producer or adjuster licenses for a purpose: There’s a greater option to do issues. Insurance coverage carriers must confirm {that a} producer or adjuster has a sound, in-force license. However a paper license merely isn’t the easiest way to perform this process anymore!

To recap:

• Paper licensing penalizes producers or adjusters which are licensed in a number of states by requiring them to manually request licenses from many state entities, usually at a value.
• Paper licensing requires digital space for storing and processes that always require extra steps and guide enter.
• Paper licensing solely validates the point-in-time truth of the unique licensing and leaves the provider uncovered if the producer or adjuster has engaged in reckless or dangerous habits since acquiring a license.
• Paper licensing protocols don’t replicate any violations states have reported about that producer or adjuster to the nationwide database.
• Paper licensing ends in guide delays, error-prone processes, and slower onboarding for producers and adjusters throughout your group.
• Paper licensing leaves you and your provider accomplice uncovered to danger from unscrupulous characters.

So, whereas AgentSync may help facilitate a paper-based license verification course of, we’d actually slightly you didn’t have to try this; we’re crew digital knowledge synchronization all the best way!

Should you’re searching for methods AgentSync can assist your company’s processes, or for those who’re inquisitive about how we are able to rework carriers from paper-based processes, schedule a demo in the present day.

Subjects
Carriers
Companies