It's a low threshold to get your insurance license. Look at what it takes to become a licensed broker and there's no comparison. You're going to weed out a lot of folks who just can't hack it if you up the threshold for becoming an insurance agent. Nevrla says civil prosecution of these scams isn't enough. Agents have to be put on notice of what they can and can not do and if they do what they shouldn't do, we'll come down hard on them administratively and criminally.
Criminal prosecution is the best deterrent.
But it can be hard to get prosecutors to take these cases, even the high dollar ones. They have low priority compared to violent crimes. These people steal millions and don't get arrested. Nevrla says we can expect to see more scams now that financial modernization is blurring the lines between the insurance, investments and banking industries. We need to dramatically increase the information and education about what this modernization means.