A New York insurance practice can be a greatly rewarding thing. As a licensed insurance professional in New York, you know the opportunities. The state's large population, world-leading insurance and financial sectors, vibrant businesses, and enormous commercial and residential real estate interests all contribute to the insurance market. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners ranks New York first in the nation in several insurance market categories. But you must hold a valid insurance license from the New York Department of Financial Services if you intend to continue your practice as an insurance broker, agent, or adjuster in the state. Disciplinary charges against your license can suspend or revoke your license, ending your New York insurance practice.
If you face the New York Department of Financial Services disciplinary charges, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for your best disciplinary outcome. We are available in New York City, Hempstead, Brooklyn, Brookhaven, Islip, Oyster Bay, Buffalo, North Hempstead, Rochester, Yonkers, Huntington, Ramapo, Syracuse, Amherst, Smithtown, Albany, Greece, and all other New York locations to protect your valuable New York insurance practice. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our strategic and effective defense representation.
New York Insurance Agent Licensing Authority
Article 2 of New York's Insurance Law organizes the New York Department of Financial Services to, among other things, license and regulate insurance brokers, agents, and adjusters. New York Insurance Law Article 21 contains specific licensing laws for insurance professionals. New York Insurance Law Section 2102 expressly prohibits unlicensed insurance practice, authorizing a $5,000 administrative penalty for every transaction violating the license requirement. New York Education Law Section 6512 further makes it a criminal Class E felony to practice insurance or another licensed profession without a valid license. New York punishes Class E felonies with between one and five years imprisonment. You must not continue your New York insurance practice if the Department of Financial Services suspends or revokes your insurance license. Let us help you preserve and protect your license against disciplinary charges.
Types of New York Insurance Agent Misconduct
Various acts of an insurance broker, agent, or adjuster may lead to New York Department of Financial Services disciplinary charges. The Department of Financial Services publishes its disciplinary action reports, showing the kinds of misconduct that may lead to license suspension or revocation. A review of those hundreds of disciplinary reports shows the following common types of New York insurance professional misconduct:
- agents and adjusters misappropriating premiums, proceeds, or other customer property;
- agents twisting insurance, inducing customers to surrender policies for equivalent coverage, earning extra commissions;
- agents making false or misleading statements about insurance policy terms, benefits, and coverage;
- brokers and agents unlawfully discriminating against insureds based on protected characteristics;
- brokers, agents, and adjusters making unauthorized transactions without valid licenses;
- brokers and agents forging or altering insurance applications and other transaction documents;
- brokers, agents, and adjusters violating administrative orders, court orders, and income tax laws;
- brokers, agents, and adjusters using misleading titles or designations to deceive customers into unauthorized or fraudulent transactions;
- brokers and agents selling unauthorized insurance lines and products using unauthorized entities;
- adjusters unreasonably denying insurance claims in bad faith;
- adjusters unreasonably delaying the processing of claims and failing to investigate according to adjusting standards;
- adjusters overcharging fees against settlement of insurance claims; and
- adjusters engaging in unlawful solicitation and conflicts of interest.
New York Insurance Practice Disciplinary Grounds
New York Insurance Law Section 2110 states the specific grounds on which New York Department of Financial Services officials can discipline your insurance license. Those grounds are important because disciplinary officials must generally identify the authorized grounds in the notice of disciplinary charges. In other words, disciplinary officials must not make up the rules as they go along. We can help you examine the alleged disciplinary grounds against your factual circumstances to challenge Department overreaches and help you defend exaggerated, unauthorized, or unfair charges. Section 2110's disciplinary grounds include:
- violating any insurance laws or regulations, or refusing to comply with a subpoena issued in the course of a misconduct investigation;
- credential fraud in your application for an insurance license or renewal of a license;
- fraudulent, coercive, or dishonest insurance practices;
- demonstrated incompetence, untrustworthiness, or financial irresponsibility in insurance practice or transactions;
- improperly withholding, misappropriating, or converting money or property in insurance practice;
- intentionally misrepresenting insurance policy terms;
- felony conviction, violating court orders for child support, or failing to pay state income taxes;
- unfair trade practices;
- insurance license discipline in another state or jurisdiction;
- forging signatures on insurance applications;
- cheating on an insurance license examination;
- transacting insurance business with unlicensed individuals; and
- conflicts of interest when purporting to negotiate on behalf of an insured.
New York Insurance Practice Complaints
Anyone may complain against an insurance broker, agent, or adjuster whom the New York Department of Financial Services has licensed. Complaints, though, often come from a customer or client with whom the licensed insurance professional has had a disputed dealing. Complaints may also come from competing insurance brokers, agents, and adjusters who learn or hear of suspected violations. The Department of Financial Services maintains an online complaint system. The Department encourages individuals to make complaints even if they are not sure of a regulatory violation. Instead, the Department indicates that its investigation will determine whether to proceed with the complaint. Department officials may also monitor media reports, court filings, and disciplinary records in other states and jurisdictions to discover and act on violations without an initiating complaint.
Responding to New York Department Investigation
You may learn about a New York Department of Financial Services investigation into your insurance practice before Department investigators contact you. Investigators tend to follow the practice of gathering all available documents and information related to a complaint before contacting the alleged wrongdoer. That way, investigators can use the accused insurance professional's responses to requests for information and an interview to test the professional's truthfulness. Beware of responding to official requests for documents, information, and interviews without first retaining our skilled and experienced attorneys. Inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent disclosures, as well as failures or refusals to disclose, can result in disciplinary charges that you obstructed an investigation.
When you retain us as soon as you learn from any source that you are under investigation, we can help you identify and gather your information and documentation responding to the allegations. We can help you review, organize, and present that information and documentation to investigating officials in a clear, consistent, accurate, truthful, and reliable fashion, reducing your risk of obstruction charges. We can simultaneously advocate for the investigator's recommendation not to pursue formal charges, especially if our presentation of your exonerating and mitigating evidence shows that the charges are unnecessary or unfounded.
New York Insurance Law Disciplinary Procedures
New York Insurance Law Section 2110 stating the disciplinary grounds also refers to notice and hearing procedures for addressing disciplinary charges. You generally have a right to constitutional due process when facing state agency charges threatening your property and liberty interest in your professional license and practice. Section 2110 and other New York laws and rules satisfy constitutional due process, meaning fair notice and a fair hearing before an impartial decision maker. New York Education Law Section 6516, for example, includes detailed hearing procedures and protections for professionals facing license suspension or revocation and associated cease and desist orders. Similarly, the New York Department of State maintains and staffs an Office of Administrative Hearing to conduct license disciplinary proceedings. The Office's mission is expressly “to conduct fair, impartial, and timely hearings for the professions and occupations regulated by the New York Department of State.”
Our attorneys can invoke these protective procedures for your strategic and effective license defense. If the notice of charges does not clearly allege what you did wrong, we may be able to obtain a specification of the charges. We may also be able to arrange early conciliation conferences at which to advocate and negotiate for remedial measures rather than formal disciplinary proceedings. If your matter proceeds to a formal hearing, we can present your testimony, the testimony of your other defense witnesses, and your documentary evidence while cross-examining adverse witnesses and challenging other adverse evidence. If you have already lost your hearing, we can take available appeals and even seek civil court relief in appropriate cases.
Defenses to New York Insurance License Charges
Keep in mind when evaluating your New York Department of Financial Services disciplinary charges that a charge is not the same as a finding of wrongdoing. Disciplinary charges are only allegations. They may or may not have supporting evidence behind them. The individual or individuals accusing you may be mistaken or deluded, or may be acting in retaliation. We may be able to show disciplinary officials that you committed no violations and that if any violations occurred, then others were responsible for them. We may alternatively be able to show that you acted innocently without knowing the full circumstances that implicated a potential violation. We may be able to show that you acted on sound advice, counsel, or direction from a supervisor or other reliable professional in a gray area open to interpretation. We may also be able to show that your actions, whether lawful or not, did not cause any financial loss or risk of loss and did not reduce public confidence in the insurance profession. These are but a few of the many defenses we may be able to raise on your behalf. Don't give in to disciplinary charges. Instead, let us help you present your best defense to the charges.
New York Insurance Division Discipline
New York Insurance Law Section 2110 stating the disciplinary grounds and basic disciplinary procedures only mentions two forms of discipline, either license suspension or license revocation. But other laws, rules, and practices authorize the New York Department of Financial Services to impose a wider range of discipline forms. The New York Office of the Professions refers, as an alternative to license suspension or revocation, to license probation, monitoring, and retraining. License limitations to certain insurance product lines or markets, or license restrictions to supervised practice, may be other alternative tools the Department can use to achieve its public protection mission.
Official discretion to impose a range of disciplinary sanctions gives our attorneys the opportunity to advocate for remedial measures in place of punitive sanctions. If the New York Department of Financial Services finds that you violated New York insurance professional practice standards, your violation does not necessarily mean a presumptive and automatic penalty of license suspension or revocation. We may be able to show that the Department can achieve its public protection mission just as well or better, with remedial measures you have already completed or can readily complete.
Qualified New York Insurance License Defense
You can see from the above discussion that retaining our skilled and experienced representation is the key to your successful defense. Do not retain an unqualified local civil litigation attorney, transactional attorney, or criminal defense counsel. Court proceedings and transactional matters differ distinctly from your administrative license proceedings, following different laws, rules, customs, and procedures. Our attorneys focus their practice on professional license defense expressly to gain the considerable knowledge, skill, and experience strategic and effective defense ordinarily takes. Our regular administrative license defense practice also gives us the reputation and relationships that quickly build the trust, confidence, and respect of disciplinary officials. Let us put our skills and experience to work for you.
Premier New York Insurance License Defense
If you face the New York Department of Financial Services disciplinary charges against your insurance license, your best move is to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for your license defense. Our attorneys help hundreds of insurance brokers, agents, adjusters, and other professionals across New York and nationwide in the successful defense of license disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now.