HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 402        FILED ON: 1/12/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 961

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act RELATIVE TO THE OWNERSHIP AND PROPRIETARY RIGHTS OF LICENSED INSURANCE PRODUCERS TO CERTAIN INSURANCE INFORMATION FOR ASSIGNED RISK BUSINESS..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION1.  Subsection (D) of Section 113H of Chapter 175, as appearing in the 2006 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the first paragraph the following paragraph:-

A duly licensed insurance producer, certified to place business in the plan, shall own and have an exclusive right, as the insured’s producer of record, to use certain insurance information of the insured embodying the records of the insurance agency which shall include but not be limited to the name of the insured, the policy inception date, the amount of insurance coverage, the policy number and the terms of insurance.  If a policyholder, insured through the plan with an assigned risk carrier, is offered voluntary coverage by said carrier and the policyholder accepts the offer, the insured’s producer of record shall continue to represent the insured written or renewed in the voluntary market, and such policy shall be continued to be serviced through the producer of record, unless:

(1) said producer is decertified or suspended by the plan or the Commissioner of Insurance, (2) at the insured’s request, the insured terminates such producer as its producer of record, or (3) the producer of record is precluded from dealing with other insurance companies pursuant to an exclusive agency contract; provided, further, if a policy is written or renewed on a voluntary basis, the assigned risk carrier shall pay the insured’s producer of record the commission rate as set forth in the first paragraph of subsection (D), regardless of whether the producer of record has an agency agreement with that assigned risk carrier.