Maintaining Your License

Reporting Changes Within 30 Days

Once you’re licensed, OCI needs to know whenever something significant changes. Every change in the following has to be reported in writing to the Commissioner within thirty days:

• Name, mailing address, residence address, or business address.
• Change from resident to nonresident status, nonresident to resident, or nonresident to nonresident.
• Dissolution of a partnership or taking on new partners.
• Initial pretrial hearing date in any criminal prosecution, misdemeanor or felony.
• Conviction of any crime, misdemeanor or felony.
• Any administrative action taken by any state agency that licenses individuals for any occupational activity.
• Any lawsuit filed alleging misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, theft, or embezzlement against the individual or business. For partnerships and corporations, every change in the membership of the partnership or in the principal officers of the corporation must be reported, as well as every significant change in the management powers of either. Notice that the reporting obligation includes things you might want to keep quiet about — pretrial hearings, lawsuits alleging fraud, regulatory actions in other states. Wisconsin doesn’t give you a pass on those. Failing to self-report is itself a separate violation that calls your trustworthiness into question.

Misdemeanor exception: For criminal convictions specifically related to records that an intermediary must maintain, the only conviction you don’t have to report is one related to a violation of a fish or game regulation. Everything else — felony or misdemeanor — must be reported within thirty days.

Recordkeeping Requirements

Every intermediary must maintain records for three years, including:

• Cash receipts (monies received in connection with insurance).
• Cash disbursements (monies paid out in connection with insurance).
• Commission statements (commissions and fees allocated to the intermediary).
• Policyholder records (all records, applications, requests for changes, claims, and complaints generated by or through the intermediary).
• Business checking accounts.
• Personnel records. Records must be updated at reasonable intervals or as necessary, and financial records must be kept in accordance with accepted accounting principles. Policyholder records specifically must be retained for at least three years after termination or lapse of the policy — not three years from issuance. For each newly issued contract, the intermediary must keep records showing the effective date of coverage. For each individually issued life (including annuity) and accident & health contract written or replaced, records must show that the necessary suitability inquiry and replacement procedures were followed.

Where Records Are Kept

Records must be kept at the intermediary’s business address as recorded with the Commissioner, or at another location if the intermediary gives OCI written notice. Any change in business address, residence address, or records location has to be reported within thirty days.

Reporting Criminal and Disciplinary Matters Within 30 Days

Beyond changes in status, the intermediary must notify OCI within thirty days of any felony conviction, any misdemeanor (except minor fish or game violations), or any formal disciplinary action taken by any state’s insurance regulatory agency or any other agency that licenses the intermediary for any occupational activity.

Insurer Assumption of Recordkeeping

By written agreement, an insurer may assume the responsibility to maintain these records for an intermediary, if the records can be made immediately available to OCI on demand.

Title Insurance Affiliates

Intermediaries employed by or affiliated with a title insurance producer have additional recordkeeping duties: for each application or order accepted in Wisconsin, the records must show whether the application was directly or indirectly referred by a producer of title insurance that’s an affiliate, and must name each producer of title insurance affiliate acting as broker, agent, lender, representative, or attorney in the transaction.

Disposal of Personal Medical Information

Insurers and intermediaries who obtain information from an insured or applicant about physical or mental health, medical history, or medical treatment must take specific steps to ensure that personally identifiable information is shredded, erased, modified, or otherwise handled so no unauthorized person has access to it. This is often called the “dumpster diving law” — a reminder that just tossing files in a regular trash bin isn’t enough when they contain medical information.