Compliance Continues with License Renewals
Hooray! Your insurance license has been issued. You can legally solicit, negotiate, sell and bind insurance coverage… for the next two years, at least. Many producers spend a lot of time struggling to track license renewals. Once upon a time, the Departments of Insurance mailed reminders to licensed producers about upcoming renewals. That’s rare now, as states put more and more license information online.
The states don’t go out of their way to make renewals easy. Some licenses renew on the anniversary of the original issue date. Individual licenses sometimes renew on the license holder’s birthday. Other states pick an arbitrary renewal date for all licenses to renew. A handful of states even issue perpetual licenses that don’t renew at all. (Sometimes, however, they impose other requirements such as maintaining Continuing Education compliance or an active appointment.) In at least one state, Property & Casualty lines of authority renew one year, and Life, Accident and Health lines the next. No wonder people get confused!
Failing to renew licenses on time results in lost revenue when you have to turn down business because you’re not licensed. If you go ahead, writing business on a lapsed license can lead to Administrative Actions and fines. Forget to renew your resident license? Non-resident Departments of Insurance may cancel your non-resident licenses entirely!
Never Forget a License Renewal Again
ILSA tracks license renewals for you. Your monthly statement includes information about renewals coming up in the next ninety (90) days. If you no longer need a particular license, just send a quick email to let your personal Renewals Specialist know. Unless we hear from you, we renew your licenses automatically. Also, our Compliance Gateway offers secure, 24 hour access to all your license information in one place. This includes license numbers, Lines of Authority and renewal dates. You’ll always know where you’re actively licensed.
The Compliance Gateway also allows you to track the status of all pending license renewals. You see immediately when we send your renewal form to the state and when the new license issues.
Full Service License Renewals
ILSA automatically processes your renewals at the earliest possible time. For resident individual licenses, we ensure that the Department of Insurance applies your Continuing Education credits appropriately. And if you subscribe to our License Copy on Demand Service, we’ll automatically supply electronic copies of each renewed license.
We also can help with licenses that lapsed before you came on service with us. Our Compliance Coordinators review the license status of all new clients and identify licenses that lapsed within the last two years. They check with you to see if you still need these licenses. If you do, they immediately act to bring you back into full compliance.
If you aren’t quite ready to fully let go of the responsibility for renewing your licenses, ILSA offers options that provide “back-up” for your in-house team. Contact one of our Compliance Coordinators to learn more.