Massachusetts Insurance Professional License Defense

Your Massachusetts insurance license is a valuable asset that you need to protect against disciplinary charges. The Massachusetts economy supports substantial insurance business. National Association of Insurance Commissioners data ranks Massachusetts eighth nationally in private flood premiums and commercial multi-peril premiums and in the top fifteen nationally in health premiums and total premiums. The same data shows Massachusetts insurance premiums are growing at a substantial rate, along with growth in the state's vibrant economy. Yet Massachusetts Division of Insurance license disciplinary charges can cost your insurance license. Lose your license, and you'll lose your insurance business and income.

If you face Massachusetts Division of Insurance disciplinary charges, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team to defend and defeat those charges. Our highly qualified attorneys are available in Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Cambridge, Lowell, Brockton, Quincy, Lynn, New Bedford, Fall River, Newton, Lawrence, Somerville, Framingham, Haverhill, Malden, Waltham, Brookline, and all other Massachusetts locations. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now to preserve and protect your insurance practice. Read the following information for how we defend and defeat Massachusetts Division of Insurance disciplinary charges.

Massachusetts Insurance Division License Authority

You must deal with the Massachusetts Division of Insurance when facing license disciplinary charges. The Massachusetts state legislature has given the Division of Insurance the responsibility and authority to protect the public by licensing insurance producers in the state. Section 162I of the Massachusetts insurance producer licensing laws requires any individual conducting insurance business in the state to obtain a Division of Insurance license. Section 162R authorizes the Division of Insurance to discipline an insurance producer license up to suspension or revocation on the stated grounds. Section 162R further authorizes the Division of Insurance to levy a civil penalty for unlicensed practice or other violations of the insurance laws. Section 65A of the Massachusetts general professional licensing laws authorizes the Division of Insurance to assess a penalty against an unlicensed producer of up to $1,000 for a first offense and $2,500 for subsequent offenses. Section 177 of the Massachusetts insurance producer licensing laws further authorizes a civil penalty of up to $500 for each violation in which a licensed producer compensates an unlicensed producer. You must not continue your insurance business after the suspension or revocation of your license and should not expect other licensed insurance producers to continue to do insurance business with you without your having a valid license. Let us help you defend and defeat your license disciplinary charges.

Massachusetts Discipline Multistate Licensure Issues

If you suffer license discipline by the Massachusetts Division of Insurance, then you could lose any other insurance license you hold in another state or jurisdiction. Massachusetts insurance producer licensing law Section 162R authorizes the Insurance Division to discipline your license if another state or jurisdiction imposes license discipline against your license in that other location. That reciprocal discipline provision is part of the Insurance Producers Model Act, after which Massachusetts patterns Section 162R. Many other states adopt similar Model Act reciprocal discipline provisions. Thus, discipline in Massachusetts could prevent you from maintaining your license in another state. It could also prevent you from earning a new license in another state insofar as prior license discipline anywhere is a common Model Act ground for denying a new license. Let us help you face, defend, and defeat your Massachusetts Division of Insurance charges so that you don't lose your ability to practice insurance business nationwide.

Massachusetts Insurance Producer Misconduct Risks

Insurance producers in Massachusetts, as elsewhere, face significant risks of misconduct followed by disciplinary charges. You don't start your insurance business day looking to violate an insurance law or standard. You instead have a trustworthy knowledge of those laws and standards, along with the good character and business sense to follow them. Yet the insurance business is highly technical and complex, creating multiple areas of regulatory ambiguity. You also have the opportunity to earn sizable financial rewards. You are also serving customers who have very substantial insurable interests but generally want to pay as little as possible in premiums. And you are selling insurance in competition with other producers who have their own methods, goals, and interests. Those factors bring together a rather toxic regulatory mix of competing responsibilities, opportunities, and interests. It's no surprise, then, that Massachusetts insurance practice is both highly regulated and fraught with disciplinary risk.

Massachusetts Insurance Producer Misconduct Types

Massachusetts Division of Insurance officials know well the things that insurance brokers, agents, and adjusters can do wrong and the false or exaggerated accusations of wrong that they can commonly face. Years ago, insurance commissioners nationwide agreed on an Insurance Producers Model Act to recognize and regulate the common forms of producer misconduct. Massachusetts and many other states then adopted the Model Act or patterned their disciplinary provisions after the Model Act. The Insurance Producers Model Act addresses the following common forms of misconduct, for which Section 162R of the Massachusetts insurance laws authorizes producer discipline:

Misconduct Involving Insurance Producer Fitness

  • making false statements on your insurance license application to subvert the credentialing process;
  • otherwise obtaining your insurance license through fraud or misrepresentation;
  • using unauthorized notes or other materials to pass an insurance licensing exam;
  • felony conviction for serious crimes both related and unrelated to insurance practice;
  • discipline by another insurance board in a different state or jurisdiction, or
  • violating court child support orders or failing to pay due and owing state income taxes.

Misconduct Involving Insurance Producer Practices

  • violating insurance statutes, rules, standards, or professional codes of ethics;
  • disobeying an order or subpoena of the insurance commissioner in a licensing investigation or other matter;
  • violating the terms or conditions of a disciplinary sanction, including continuing insurance practice after license suspension;
  • committing unfair competition or restraint of trade in the insurance business;
  • engaging in dishonest, untrustworthy, financially irresponsible, or incompetent insurance practices; or
  • conducting unauthorized insurance business with an unlicensed individual or outside the scope of authority.

Misconduct Involving Insurance Customer Interests

  • misappropriating, converting, or withholding customer funds or property;
  • misrepresenting to a customer the terms or conditions of an insurance policy, premiums, or coverages; or
  • falsifying an insurance application, including forging application signatures or signatures on other insurance documents.

Massachusetts Insurance Division Reporting Duty

As just stated above, Section 162R of the Massachusetts insurance laws adopts and authorizes discipline for all of the above Model Act disciplinary grounds. Section 162R further authorizes the state's insurance commissioner to suspend or revoke the license of the business entity for which the wrongdoer works if the entity's managers knew or should have known of the misconduct but neither reported nor corrected it. Section 162R thus increases your regulatory risks in the face of misconduct allegations. Those risks include not only that you could lose your license but also that the business entity you own or control, or for which you work, could lose its license. Section 162R increases the likelihood that your supervisor, entity co-owner, or manager may report your misconduct so as to protect the entity license. Let us help you address misconduct concerns before they convert into disciplinary charges or defend the charges once served.

Nature of Massachusetts Insurance Division Charges

When considering your own disciplinary defense, keep in mind that disciplinary charges are not disciplinary findings. The Massachusetts Division of Insurance officials who bring your disciplinary charges may not have strong or even credible evidence for the charges. They may instead doubt the complaining witness's veracity or believe the witness's account but lack evidence on one or more of the charge's elements. They may be on a fishing expedition, hoping you will admit to a matter on which they know that they are, to some degree, only speculating. They may also hope and expect that you can exonerate yourself with our skilled and experienced representation, knowing that your customers generally highly value your insurance services. Do not assume that you've done wrong and that you must suffer license discipline simply because you face charges. Let us help you defend and defeat your disciplinary charges or establish that your conduct does not warrant any punitive sanction.

Defending Massachusetts Insurance Division Charges

As shown further below, the Massachusetts Division of Insurance offers you procedural protections against its disciplinary charges. We can invoke those protections strategically and effectively on your behalf to raise and prove one or more of the following defenses, depending on your circumstances.

Massachusetts License Defenses Involving Complaining Witnesses

As already suggested above, customers, colleagues, and competitors can have their own motives, interests, experiences, and views relating to your insurance practice conduct. We may be able to defend your disciplinary charges by showing that the complaining witness didn't actually see you do anything wrong but instead is speculating, guessing, or inferring incorrectly or relying on inadmissible hearsay. We may alternatively be able to show that a complaining customer is trying to blame you for the customer's own loss due to the customer's own informed but poor decisions regarding an insurable but uninsured interest. Our attorneys have multiple other ways to challenge the credibility of complaining witnesses.

Massachusetts License Defenses Evaluating Your Actions

If, instead, the complaining witnesses have given substantially or partially accurate accounts of your actions, our attorneys may still be able to defend your disciplinary charges by showing that your actions met all rules and standards. We have consulting insurance witnesses available to us to opine as to the quality of your conduct. We can also adduce your own testimony and the testimony of colleagues and others involved in the matter, showing that you complied with insurance standards, took reasonable steps under special circumstances or ambiguities, or reasonably relied on the judgment, direction, and interpretation of guiding authorities on a questionable matter of standards and ethics. We may also be able to show that your actions, right or wrong, caused no harm or loss and that you have an outstanding record of sound and valuable insurance services, among multiple other potential defenses.

Responding to Massachusetts Insurance Investigation

If you retain us as soon as you learn of a Massachusetts Division of Insurance complaint or investigation, we may be able to head off a formal complaint. Our attorneys may be able to help you present your exonerating evidence and explanation to Division investigators in a credible and convincing manner before they determine or assume that your actions warrant the filing of formal disciplinary proceedings. You may even learn about a customer, colleague, or competitor concern before the concerned individual makes a formal complaint to the Division of Insurance. You must not coerce a complaining witness or obstruct a complaint or investigation. However, we may be able to reach out to the concerned individual sensitively to share your information and perspective, showing that a complaint is unwarranted and unnecessary.

Massachusetts Insurance Department Procedures

Section 162R of the Massachusetts insurance laws satisfies your constitutional right to due process in a disciplinary charge against your insurance license by requiring Division of Insurance officials to conduct a fair hearing on the charge if you invoke such a hearing. Section 162R refers to and incorporates the Massachusetts Administrative Procedure Act, which authorizes additional protective procedures in contested agency cases. We can invoke your hearing right to present your defense. If you have already lost your hearing, let us pursue available appeals and judicial review and reversal of erroneous disciplinary findings. Don't give up. Let us exhaust all administrative and court remedies until we achieve your best possible disciplinary outcome. Your insurance license and business are worth defending.

Premier Massachusetts Insurance License Defense

If you face Massachusetts Division of Insurance disciplinary charges, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for our highly qualified defense services. Our skilled and experienced attorneys have successfully defended hundreds of insurance producers and other professionals across Massachusetts and nationwide against all kinds of disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now to protect your Massachusetts insurance license and business.

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