Iowa Insurance Professional License Defense

As an insurance producer licensed for insurance practice in Iowa, you know the considerable value of your license. Iowa has a diverse economy supporting substantial commercial, agricultural, industrial, residential, and personal insurance markets. A National Association of Insurance Commissioners survey ranks Iowa second in the nation in farm premiums and fourth in crop premiums. Iowa is eleventh nationally in life annuity premiums and fifteenth in life, accident, and health premiums. Iowa has a vibrant insurance market. However, you must keep your license in good standing to enjoy the financial and other benefits of Iowa's strong insurance market. And that means successfully defending Iowa Department of Insurance & Financial Services disciplinary charges.

Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for your best outcome to Iowa Department of Insurance & Financial Services disciplinary charges. Our skilled and experienced attorneys are available for your license defense in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Iowa City, Sioux City, West Des Moines, Ankeny, Waterloo, Ames, Council Bluffs, Dubuque, Urbandale, Marion, and all other Iowa locations. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the highly qualified attorney representation you need to preserve your Iowa insurance producer practice. Here's how we help defend and defeat Iowa Insurance Division disciplinary charges.

Iowa Insurance Division Authority

The Iowa Department of Insurance & Financial Services holds the state's authority to regulate insurance practices in the state. Iowa Insurance Code Section 505.1 creates the Department's Insurance Division to regulate insurance practices in the state. Insurance Code Section 522B.2 expressly requires that any individual practicing insurance in the state must hold an Insurance Division producer's license. Insurance Code Section 522B.17 authorizes the Insurance Division to obtain an injunction from the state's civil courts against an individual found to practice without the required license, with the injunction enforceable by contempt penalties, including a fine up to $10,000. Insurance Code Section 522B.11 states the grounds on which the Insurance Commissioner may refuse, suspend, or revoke an insurance producer's license. Insurance Code Section 522B.18 further authorizes the Insurance Commissioner to adopt administrative rules to carry out these licensing provisions. You must respect the Insurance Commissioner's licensing authority. Don't ignore your disciplinary charges. Let us help you defend and defeat the charges.

Iowa Discipline Multistate Licensure Issues

Your Iowa Insurance Division disciplinary charges can affect any insurance producer license you hold in another state or jurisdiction. Your Iowa charges could also keep you from getting an insurance producer's license in another state or jurisdiction. Iowa Insurance Code Section 522B.11 states expressly that having your license “denied, suspended, or revoked in any other state, province, district, or territory” could result in the suspension or revocation of your Iowa license. This provision mirrors the Insurance Producer Model Act, which basically makes discipline reciprocal from state to state for all states following the Model Act. Your Iowa disciplinary proceeding thus has national implications. Don't treat your Iowa issue as if you can keep its consequences to Iowa. You could lose your ability to practice insurance anywhere in the U.S. if you lose your Iowa insurance producer's license. Let us help you defend and defeat the charges.

Iowa Insurance Professional Misconduct

The Insurance Producer Model Act, just mentioned above, states disciplinary grounds on which a state insurance department, division, or board may deny, suspend, or revoke a license. Disciplinary officials shouldn't be making up the standards of conduct as they go along. Instead, they should look to their state insurance act for disciplinary grounds. Iowa's Insurance Code Section 522B.11 adopts the disciplinary grounds stated in the Insurance Producer Model Act. Those disciplinary grounds include:

• the producer committed license application fraud, also known as credential fraud, either by affirmative misrepresentation or misleading omission of disqualifying information;
• the producer cheated on the insurance producer licensing examination;
• the producer diverted, embezzled, converted, or otherwise misappropriated customer funds or personal property;
• the producer misrepresented insurance coverage to customers considering transactions;
• the producer made a false insurance application or forged signatures on insurance applications or other insurance transactions;
• the producer violated another provision of the insurance code, rules, regulations, or insurance commissioner standards;
• the producer violated an insurance division order of discipline or ignored insurance division investigatory subpoenas;
• the producer suffered felony criminal conviction;
• the producer engaged in unfair trade practices or exhibited incompetence, untrustworthiness, financial irresponsibility, or dishonesty in insurance transactions;
• the producer engaged in insurance business with unlicensed individuals;
• the insurance producer failed to pay a child support or state income tax obligation.

Iowa Insurance Division Disciplinary Grounds

As is typical in other states, Iowa adopts additional grounds for discipline of its licensed insurance producers beyond the above grounds that the Insurance Producers Model Act states. Iowa Insurance Code Section 522B.11 includes not only the above grounds the Insurance Producers Model Act names but also these additional grounds to deny, suspend, or revoke a producer's license:

• the producer has failed to “comply with an administrative or court order related to repayment of loans to the college student aid commission”;
• the producer is the subject of an order of discipline as a securities broker-dealer, agent, investment adviser, or investment adviser representative;
• the producer has procured the license solely or principally for securing insurance on the producer's own property or interest, in other words, to avoid commissions rather than to offer insurance producer services.

Notice of Iowa Insurance Division Charges

You may learn of your Iowa Insurance Division disciplinary charges from the complaining witness or your employer or directly from Insurance Division officials. Retain our highly qualified attorneys the moment you do so. We may be able to head off formal disciplinary charges, or if officials have already issued the charges, we can resolve the charges at an early stage with voluntary dismissal. Above all, do not panic. Do not admit to charges you did not commit. Do not ignore the charges. Get our help so that we can work with you to evaluate the charges, obtain any evidence the Insurance Division has relating to your alleged wrong, and respond accordingly with your exonerating and mitigating evidence. Charges are only allegations until disciplinary officials prove them. They may not have the evidence to do so but may instead be on a fishing expedition. Get our help.

Defenses to Iowa Insurance Division Charges

Under Iowa's Administrative Procedure Act Section 17A.15, Iowa Insurance Division disciplinary officials carry the burden of proving their disciplinary charges by a preponderance of the evidence. That burden on the Insurance Division officials means that when you retain us to appear on your behalf to defend the charges, we can raise, assert, and prove your available defenses to the charges. Your defenses will vary according to your circumstances but may include one or more of the following:

• the complaining witness has a conflict of interest, bias, prejudice, or other vendetta against you;
• the complaining witness is a competitor trying to ruin your reputation to take your insurance business;
• the complaining witness is the wrongdoer and is using the allegations against you to cover up the witness's own wrong;
• the complaining witness is retaliating against you for your proper complaint against the witness;
• your employer did not provide you with the resources necessary for you to complete the disputed transactions properly, such that any technical violations are not attributable to you;
• the allegations are a consequence of mistaken identity or a mistake in the complaining witness's understanding of the circumstances;
• no violation of any rule or standard occurred, and your conduct was instead within the customary care exhibited by insurance producers under similar circumstances, as our forensic consultants may attest;
• you acted under the direction of a supervisor's reasonable appearing instructions, such that you have a safe harbor against the technical wrong;
• your actions caused no harm or loss to any individual, and you corrected and remediated any inconvenience, annoyance, or other wrong as soon as discovered;
• you have a perfectly clean record free from any prior discipline, and your customers deeply appreciate your substantial insurance services over the years;
• you represent no threat or risk to any customer or member of the public and instead offer substantial value in the insurance market;
• an extraordinary one-time medical event such as a medication reaction interfered with your perceptions and your usual ability to conform your actions to the rules and standards under the actual circumstances.

Iowa Insurance Division Consumer Complaints

To meet its statutory and regulatory obligations for the proper licensure and discipline of insurance producers, the Iowa Insurance Division maintains an online complaint form for consumers to use to notify the Division of suspected producer wrongs. The usual individuals to complain are insurance customers who claim to have suffered some loss or harm from the producer's suspected violation of rules or standards. But customers don't generally know the insurance rules and standards. And they may misunderstand or mistakenly or purposefully misrepresent the true nature of your actions. Employers may also complain against their own producers or former producers, either out of an obligation to report suspected wrongs or to shift blame for their own wrongs. Any other member of the public may also allege an insurance agent's wrong, such as when the agent appears to have engaged in criminal actions or other generally concerning wrongs. Keep in mind when retaining us to defend the complaint against you that a complaint is only an allegation, not proof itself of any alleged wrong.

Iowa Insurance Division Procedures

We can invoke substantial protective procedures to help you defend and defeat your Iowa Insurance Division disciplinary charges. Iowa Insurance Code Section 522B.11 incorporates the protections of Iowa's Administrative Procedure Act codified in Chapter 17A of the state's statutes. The state's Administrative Procedure Act ensures that you have constitutional due process. Due process fundamentally involves fair notice of the substance of the disciplinary charges and your fair opportunity to respond at a formal hearing before an impartial administrative law judge. You must, though, affirmatively invoke these rights and protections. We can help you do so. Our first action is generally to notify officials of our appearance on your behalf, giving us the opportunity to arrange a conciliation conference at which to advocate for early voluntary dismissal of the charges. If your matter instead proceeds to the formal hearing, we can present your testimony and the testimony of your other defense witnesses while cross-examining adverse witnesses and challenging other adverse evidence.

Iowa Insurance Division Procedures

Don't give up if you have already lost your formal hearing. Iowa's Administrative Procedure Act Section 17A.15 permits the Insurance Division to review a contested case decision by appeal. We may be able to appeal your loss to the full Insurance Division panel to gain a reversal and reinstatement. The next Section, 17A.16, further provides for a rehearing of an adverse decision. We may be able, in a rehearing, to show how the decision maker erred and gain a correction that restores your license. The Administrative Procedure Act further provides for limited court review. Let us exhaust your protective procedures and rights until we have obtained your best possible disciplinary outcome.

Iowa Insurance Division Discipline Forms

Don't underestimate the potential discipline. Iowa Insurance Division disciplinary officials have the discretion to impose several different discipline forms. Iowa Insurance Code Section 522B.11 authorizes the state's insurance commissioner to “place on probation, suspend, revoke, or refuse to issue or renew” your license if finding the lawful disciplinary grounds to do so. Section 522B.11 also refers to Section 522B.17 on civil penalties and injunctions. But at the same time, the discretion of disciplinary officials to impose different forms of discipline gives our attorneys the opportunity to advocate for remedial measures rather than punitive sanctions. We may be able to negotiate education, training, counseling, mentoring, or other measures you are readily able to complete.

Premier Insurance License Defense Attorneys

If you face Iowa Insurance Division disciplinary charges, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for your best possible outcome. Our attorneys help hundreds of insurance producers, brokers, agents, adjusters, and other professionals across Iowa and nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now to preserve and protect your valuable Iowa insurance license and practice.