North Dakota Producer Licensing
The North Dakota supplement opens with who regulates insurance in the state and how a person becomes and stays a licensed life and health producer. North Dakota's Insurance Commissioner is an elected statewide official who heads the North Dakota Insurance Department. This chapter covers the regulator, license lines, appointments, and continuing education, because North Dakota's procedural rules are heavily tested.
The Regulator: North Dakota Insurance Department
Insurance producers in North Dakota are licensed and disciplined by the North Dakota Insurance Department, headed by an elected Insurance Commissioner. The regulator enforces the state insurance code, licenses producers, oversees insurer market conduct, and can investigate complaints and take disciplinary action. A frequent exam point is correctly identifying this body by name and knowing that it -- not the insurer or a private association -- issues and revokes producer licenses.
License Lines and Qualification
To sell life and health products, a resident applicant generally must be at least 18, complete any required prelicensing education, pass the state licensing examination, submit an application with fees, and clear a background review. The license authorizes specific lines of authority -- typically a life line and an accident and health (health) line. Holding the correct line of authority for the products being sold is mandatory; transacting outside one's authority is a violation.
Appointments, Renewal, and Continuing Education
A license lets a producer be appointed by insurers; the appointment is the insurer's authorization to represent it and is filed with the regulator. Licenses renew on a recurring cycle, and North Dakota conditions renewal on completing continuing education, including an ethics component. Letting a license lapse or failing required CE ends the authority to transact insurance until the producer is reinstated.