This post is part of a series sponsored by AgentSync.
You and your best friend have booked a once-in-a-lifetime cross-country train trip to celebrate your biggest professional accomplishment yet. What could go wrong? Unfortunately, an emergency appendectomy is performed two days before departure, which derails plans. I’m glad I had travel insurance!
However, the average person understands that under their travel insurance policy there is a whole network of parties, agents and carriers, all of whom are responsible for providing this protection to interested consumers. Probably not. And beneath that network are layers of regulation that shape how these companies obtain licenses, interact with each other, and ultimately deliver contracts to consumers.
While a life insurance license or property/casualty insurance license may be very easy in any state, the many variations in travel make state reciprocity a difficult proposition. Here we have listed some of the common differences found between state regulations for travel insurance licenses.
1. Some states do not require a travel license for producers or agents
The first variation on the TravelLine theme that makes reciprocity difficult is that some states do not require any license to sell travel insurance. In these states, travel insurance may not be regulated by the state insurance department and may instead be considered a product warranty.
Some states do not require insurance licenses for travel retail agents or their sales representatives, but do require them to operate under the supervision of agents with appropriate travel licenses. Or it could be a Property and Casualty (P&C) license. Alternatively, travel retail agents can sell travel insurance without a license as long as the coverage is part of a travel package, but not as a standalone product.
Even within a single state, this variation is a bit confusing, and reciprocity is inevitably awkward in states that require some kind of licensing.
2. Depending on your state, other primary licenses may include a travel license.
Many states allow producers with a property/casualty insurance license to sell travel insurance under their property/casualty jurisdiction. Also, in some states, anyone with a major insurance license, such as property insurance, accident insurance, life insurance, or health insurance, can sell travel insurance, as long as they have received proper training from the insurance company. is allowed.
In states that include travel companies under other major lines of authority, their travel license structure applies to either producers, agents, third-party managers, or a combination of these companies and people. There are often very specific exceptions to what can be done.
As you can imagine, this also makes understanding state reciprocity a little trickier.
3. If you have a property/casualty insurance license, you can skip making travel reservations in some states.
In some states, if your ability to sell travel insurance is based on your property/casualty license, the travel insurance company you sell to can skip assigning you to the trip. This is a pretty flashy discount offered by a travel agency, but you will need to make a non-life insurance reservation with the relevant airline.
4. Some states require you to obtain a special limited route travel license in addition to your other licenses.
Many states require producers to obtain certain limited travel licenses in order to sell travel insurance. As I said, reciprocity is difficult in travel lines, which is one of the reasons why.
At least one state is also encouraging producers to use their travel licenses as designated home state (DHS) licenses to facilitate reciprocity.
Some states that require limited route travel licenses grant travel licenses to non-residents of the state who sell travel under a property/casualty or other major carrier license. In some cases, the DOI of the producer’s state of residence must provide evidence that that state includes travel under a mainline license. And in some cases, producers may need to apply in a special way…
5. Remember paper license applications? * Insurance Compliance Laughter *
If a producer is applying for a non-resident country with a limited travel line license and the producer’s country of residence holds travel under a main line license, the non-resident country will provide the producer with a paper application. may be requested to submit. This is currently the case in at least three states: Alaska, Colorado, and New Mexico.
6. The relationship between producer license and travel agency license is strange.
You guessed it, “Is this a sublicense for property and casualty insurance?” Is it a line-only license? Is it something that anyone with a major airline license can sell? ” Producer licenses for those who want to sell travel insurance across state lines are complicated.
In some states it’s easy. In some states, this is not the case.
Take the hassle out of travel licensing with AgentSync Manage
Do you know how we know all these crazy variations? It’s how travel agency licenses work in different states, and how producers and agents have mutual benefits. Because we did the hard work of planning how we could get it. And all that useful data is now mapped to the Manage product.
What this means for agents and carriers selling travel insurance is that AgentSync transforms the manual and cumbersome process of applying for nonresident licenses across state lines by incorporating streamlined correlation data. That means you can do it. Using unique privilege mapping in combination with data, the National Insurance Production Registry (NIPR) allows you to maintain a complete picture of insurance producers across all lines of business and all states in which they work.
To see how AgentSync can transform your travel license compliance and producer management, visit Request a travel agent-specific demo today.
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