The Insurance Division has introduced its "clean-up" bill, SB 253. Ostensibly, this is a bill to bring better compliance with the national Gramm Leach Bllily Act. The changes made by the 2001 legislature inadvertently did not address some situations that have arisen in the interim and this bill addresses the major problem relating to definition of "insurance producer". GLB uses the term "insurance producer" as a generic term to encompass all forms of insurance salespersons, (agents, brokers, etc.) Oregon's law uses the term "insurance agent". This bill replaces the term "insurance agent" wherever it appears in the Oregon statutes with the term "insurance producer" and provides a definition for insurance producer. Significant changes wroth by this bill would be: 1) Brokers would be permitted in Oregon. While not specifically mentioned with the term "broker", an insurance producer would be permitted to do business without being appointed as an agent of any company. Your insurance producer license would allow you to act as either a broker or an agent. It would not be cancelled when your last agency appointment was terminated. You would be permitted to represent the prospective insured in securing coverage even though you had no agency appointments. 2) A provision is included to permit insurance producers to charge fees (not on personal lines insurance, group life and health for under fifty-one lives or to a commercial or public entity paying less than $100,000 for the insurance) provided there is a written agreement with the insured prior to binding of coverage or issuance of a policy. 3) Insurance companies will no longer be required to file agency appointments and terminations with the Insurance Division. They will be required to maintain a list of all of their appointments, available for Division review. A full text of the bill may be viewed and down loaded at http://pub.das.state.or.us/LEG_BILLS/PDFs/SB253.pdf |