LEGISLATIVE MATTERS
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Agency Appointment Process & Fees // The KID
wants to change how agencies and agents are
appointed by companies and increase appointment
fees to cover for lost revenue due to the change.
Currently, if an agency is appointed, every licensed
agent in the agency is automatically appointed. The
company pays an appointment fee for each licensed
agent in the agency. According to the KID, Kansas
is the only state that does it this way. The KID wants
to do away with agency appointments and have
companies just appoint individual agents.
Renewal Fees // Kansas agents don’t pay a renewal
fee. Most other states charge renewal fees. The KID
wants to charge biannual renewal fees. Also, there
is no renewal for agencies. The KID also wants to
require a biannual renewal of agency licenses and
charge a fee. KAIA team has worked with KID to make
this a nominal fee.
Increased CE Requirements // To comply with
NAIC and NIPR standards, the KID wants to require
all licensed P&C and life and health agents to take
24 CE hours every two years. Currently, if an agent
only has either a P&C or life and health license, the
requirement is 12 CE hours every two years. If they
have both, they are required to take 24 hours every
two years.
Prohibition of Loans // The KID also wanted to make
some changes to chapter 40 article 49 that deal with
agent regulation of essentially unethical conduct.
Some of these are to clean up and clarify some of the
language, but some are substantive. One of the more
substantive changes would be to prohibit loans from
clients to agents and from agents to clients. The KAIA
Government Affairs Committee voted to oppose this
policy change and KID agreed not to pursue it.
Non-Economic Damages Caps // As you will
recall, the Kansas Supreme Court struck down the
statutory Cap on non-economic damages in personal
injury cases. In its decision on Hilburn v. Enerpipe,
a trucking accident case, the Court ruled that the
Cap violates the right to trial by jury in Section 5 of
the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights. The Kansas
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