The Producer's Professional Responsibilities
A license makes you responsible to more people than the client in front of you. Wisconsin law gives a producer duties to the public and the regulator, to the insurers that appoint them, and to their own competence over a whole career. This page covers all three.
Your responsibility to the public
Answer the regulator
Any licensed insurance agent “shall reply promptly in writing” to any written inquiry from the Commissioner requesting a reply (s. 601.42 (4), Wis. Stat.). Ignoring a letter from the Commissioner about a complaint is a violation of its own, separate from whatever the complaint alleged.
Never stand between a consumer and the Commissioner
In annuity sales, you may not dissuade or try to dissuade a consumer from filing a complaint or cooperating with the investigation of one (s. 628.347 (3m)). In Medicare supplement and long-term care sales, no regulated person may knowingly prevent or dissuade anyone from filing a complaint with the Commissioner, cooperating in an investigation by the Commissioner, or attending or giving testimony at a lawful proceeding (ss. Ins 3.39 (24) (e) and 3.46 (23) (c), Wis. Adm. Code). “Let’s keep the state out of this, I’ll make it right” is exactly the sentence these rules forbid.
Take special care with older and vulnerable clients
Wisconsin raises the stakes when a violation harms people least able to protect themselves. The forfeiture ceiling rises to $5,000 per violation when the violation specifically involves an individual who is at least 60 years of age or an adult at risk, or involves fraud or misrepresentation (s. 601.64 (3) (c) 2.). Slower decisions, memory problems or isolation are reasons to explain more and press less.
Keep the business licensed
You may not pay anyone, even by reimbursing expenses, for intermediary work in Wisconsin if you know or should know they are unlicensed (s. 628.61 (1)). Knowingly accepting business from an unlicensed individual is evidence of untrustworthiness (s. Ins 6.59 (5) (d) 12.). Anyone who solicits or advises clients for you in return for a share of the commission must hold a license.
Answer for the people you supervise
If you run an agency, compliance does not stop at your own conduct. A person who knowingly permits someone over whom they have authority to violate an insurance statute or rule faces the same forfeitures as the person who broke it (s. 601.64 (3) (c)).
You and your insurers
Authority: apparent and actual
Every insurer is bound by any act of its agent in Wisconsin that falls within the agent’s apparent authority, meaning what the public could reasonably believe the agent may do, while the agency contract is in force and afterward until the insurer has made reasonable efforts to recover its forms and other indicia of agency (s. 628.40).
That rule protects consumers, and it is why your actual authority matters so much. If your agency contract forbids binding coverage on restaurants and you bind one anyway, the insurer may still be on the risk because the customer reasonably believed you could do it, and you have exceeded the authority your contract gave you. Staying within your binding limits and underwriting guidelines is the first duty you owe the companies you represent.
Your appointment also has edges. You may not solicit for or submit applications to an insurer unless it appoints you within 15 days of the date your agent contract is executed or your first application is submitted, and an appointment is valid only for the lines of insurance requested (s. Ins 6.57 (1), (6)).
Honest information, both ways
The insurer underwrites on what you send it. Wisconsin treats a false entry in a record, or a proper entry willfully left out, as a “communication” that can be a misrepresentation when it is made with intent to deceive someone examining the record (s. 628.34 (1) (a)). Signing a client’s name to an application or other document, or improperly withholding, misappropriating or converting money received in the business, are both listed grounds for finding a producer untrustworthy (s. Ins 6.59 (5) (d) 4. and 10.). In annuity sales you may not conceal consumer profile information from the insurer (s. 628.347 (2b) (be)).
Insurers supervise you
The relationship includes oversight. Life and annuity insurers must maintain a system of supervision over replacements and be able to report each producer’s replacements as a percentage of their sales (s. Ins 2.07 (5)). Annuity insurers must review recommendations and must identify and eliminate sales contests, quotas, bonuses and noncash compensation based on sales of specific annuities within a limited period (s. 628.347 (3) (a) 9.). These systems are designed to catch a producer who puts commissions ahead of clients, and their records are available to the Commissioner.
When the appointment ends
Ending an appointment is not always quiet. If the insurer terminates you for a reason listed in s. Ins 6.59 (5) (d), or knows of complaints or problems involving indebtedness, forgery, altering policies, fraud, misappropriation, misrepresentation, failure to promptly submit applications or premiums, or poor policyholder service, it must send the Commissioner complete explanations and documentation within 30 days of the termination. The documentation need not prove a violation; the Commissioner investigates. If the insurer learns more later, it must promptly report that too (s. Ins 6.57 (2)). You must also return all indicia of agency on demand.
Keeping your expertise current
Wisconsin requires continuing education “to provide necessary information regarding insurance, insurance ethics and insurance laws” (s. Ins 28.01). You already know the headline: 24 credit hours every two-year licensing period, at least 3 of them in ethics, reported by your license expiration date (s. Ins 28.04 (1)). The details are where producers get caught:
- Bank hours early, not late. If the hours are not banked by the expiration date, the license terminates on that date (s. Ins 28.04 (1) (g)).
- Extra hours don’t carry over. Excess credit hours may not be carried forward to the next period, and courses are counted in the order completed (s. Ins 28.04 (1) (d)).
- No repeats. You receive credit for the same course only once in a biennium (s. Ins 28.04 (1) (e)).
- Sales training is not CE. Qualifying topics include ethics, Wisconsin insurance law and the proper use of insurance products. Sales, motivation, prospecting, psychology, recruiting and time management do not qualify (s. Ins 28.06 (6)).
- Know what a credit is. A credit hour is at least 50 minutes of classroom instruction, or 4,500 words for a self-study or online course (s. Ins 28.03 (3)).
- Keep the proof. Keep your original certificates of completion for 4 years after the end of the year of attendance (s. Ins 28.07 (1) (a)).
- Ask early for a waiver. The Commissioner may waive the requirement for good cause, such as long-term illness or full-time active military duty outside Wisconsin, but the request must be made no later than 90 days before the end of the biennium (s. Ins 28.05).
Product training
Some products require training before you may sell them at all:
| Product | Training required |
|---|---|
| Annuities | A one-time Commissioner-approved course worth at least 4 CE credits, plus the insurer’s product training (s. 628.347 (4m)) |
| Long-term care | Initial training of at least 8 hours, 2 of them on Wisconsin-specific Medicaid and long-term care information, then a 4-hour course every 24 months (s. 628.348 (1); s. Ins 3.46 (26)) |
Long-term care training may not be product-specific or include sales or marketing content. Its purpose, like all of this, is to make you competent to advise, not better at closing.
Lesson summary
- You must reply promptly in writing to any written inquiry from the Commissioner.
- You may never discourage a consumer from complaining to the Commissioner or cooperating with an investigation.
- Violations involving a person at least 60 or an adult at risk carry forfeitures up to $5,000 each.
- You may not pay unlicensed people for intermediary work or knowingly accept business from them.
- Insurers are bound by acts within your apparent authority, so you must stay within your actual authority and send insurers complete, honest information.
- An insurer that terminates you for cause must report the reasons and documentation to the Commissioner within 30 days.
- Continuing education is 24 hours per biennium, 3 in ethics, banked by the expiration date, with no carry-forward and no sales courses.
- Annuity and long-term care sales require their own training before you sell.