2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-SIX - Insurance (§§ 101 — 10377) › Subtitle 1 - Insurance Generally (§§ 101 — 4513) › Chapter 36 - Insurance—Fraternal Benefit Societies (§§ 3601 — 3642) › § 3628 - Producer’s license

A license shall be issued to the producers of societies pursuant to the provisions of this section:
(a) Insurance producer.— As used in this section means any authorized or acknowledged agent of a society who acts as such in the solicitation, negotiation or procurement or making of a life insurance, accident and health insurance or annuity contract, except that the term “insurance producer” shall not include:
(1) Any regular salaried officer or employee of a licensed society who devotes substantially all of his services to activities other than the solicitation of fraternal insurance contracts, and who receives for the solicitation of such contracts no commission or other compensation directly dependent upon the amount of business obtained, or
(2) any agent or representative of a society who devotes, or intends to devote, less than fifty percent (50%) of his time to the solicitation of insurance contracts for such society. Any person who in the preceding calendar year has solicited or procured life insurance contracts on behalf of any society in an amount of insurance in excess of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000), or, in the case of any other kind or kinds of insurance which the society might write, on the persons of more than twenty-five (25) individuals and who has received or will receive a commission or other compensation therefor, shall be presumed to be devoting, or intending to devote, fifty percent (50%) of his time to the solicitation or procurement of insurance contracts for such society.
(b) License required.— Any person who in Puerto Rico acts as insurance producer for a society without having authority so to do by virtue of a license issued and in force pursuant to the provisions of this section shall, except as provided in subsection (a) of this section, be guilty of a misdemeanor.
(c) Payment of commissions forbidden.— No society doing business in Puerto Rico shall pay any commission or other compensation to any person for any services in obtaining any new contract of life, accident or health insurance, or any new annuity contract in Puerto Rico, except to a licensed insurance producer of such society and except to an agent exempted under subsection (a)(2) of this section.
(d) Qualifications, issuance and renewal of insurance producers’ licenses.—
(1) The Commissioner of Insurance shall issue a license to any person who has paid the corresponding fees and has met the requirements of this section authorizing said licenseholder to act as an insurance producer in behalf of any society designated in said license, licensed to do business in Puerto Rico.
(2) Before any insurance producer’s license shall be issued there shall be on file in the office of the Commissioner of Insurance the following documents:
(A) A written application by the prospective licensee in such form or forms, and containing such information, as the Commissioner of Insurance may prescribe, and
(B) a certificate by the society which is to be named in such license, stating that such society has satisfied itself that the named applicant is trustworthy and competent to act as such insurance producer and that the society will appoint such applicant to act as its agent if the license applied for is issued by the Commissioner of Insurance. Such certificates shall be executed and acknowledged by an officer or managing agent of such society.
(3) No written or other examination shall be required of any individual seeking to be named a fraternal benefit society agent.
(4) The Commissioner of Insurance may refuse to issue or renew any insurance producer’s license if in his judgment the proposed licensee is not trustworthy and competent to act as such agent, or has given cause for revocation or suspension of such license, or has failed to comply with any prerequisite for the issuance or renewal, as the case may be, of such license.
(5) Every license issued pursuant to this section, and every renewal thereof, shall expire on June 30 of each year.
(6) If the application for a renewal of license shall have been filed with the Commissioner of Insurance on or before June 30 of the year in which the existing license is to expire, such applicant named in such existing license may continue to act as insurance producer under such existing license, unless same shall be revoked or suspended, until the issuance by the Commissioner of Insurance of the renewal license or until the expiration of five days after he shall have refused to renew such license and shall have served written notice of such refusal on the applicant. If the applicant shall, within thirty days (30) after such notice is given, notify the Commissioner of Insurance in writing of his request for a hearing on such refusal, the Commissioner of Insurance shall, within a reasonable time after receipt of such notice, grant such hearing and he may, in his discretion, reinstate such license.
(7) Any such renewal license of an insurance producer may be issued upon the application of the society named in the existing license. Such application shall be in the form or forms prescribed by the Commissioner of Insurance and shall contain such information as he may require. Such application shall contain a certificate executed by the president, or by a vice president, a secretary, an assistant secretary, or corresponding officer, or by an employee expressly designated and authorized to execute such certificate of a domestic or foreign society or by the manager of an alien society in Puerto Rico, stating that the addresses therein given of the agents of such society for whom renewal licenses are requested therein have been verified in each instance immediately preceding the preparation of the application. Notwithstanding the filing of such application, the Commissioner of Insurance may, after reasonable notice to any such society, require that any or all agents of such society to be named as licensees in renewal licenses shall execute and file separate applications for the renewal of such licenses, as hereinbefore specified, and he may also require that each such application shall be accompanied by the certificate specified in clause (2)(B) of this subsection.
(e) Notice of termination of appointment of insurance producer.— Every society soliciting insurance in Puerto Rico shall, upon the termination of the appointment of any insurance producer licensed to represent it in Puerto Rico, forthwith file with the Commissioner of Insurance a statement, in such form as he may prescribe, of the facts relative to such termination and the cause thereof. Every statement made pursuant to this section shall be deemed a privileged communication.
(f) Revocation or suspension of insurance producer’s license.—
(1) The Commissioner of Insurance may revoke, or may suspend for such period as he may determine, any insurance producer’s license if, after notice and hearing as specified in this section, he determines that the licensee has:
(A) Violated any provision of, or failed to comply with any obligation imposed by, this section or has violated any law in the course of his dealings as agent;
(B) made a material misstatement in the application for such license;
(C) been guilty of fraudulent or dishonest practices;
(D) demonstrated his incompetency or untrustworthiness to act as an insurance producer, or
(E) been guilty of rebating as defined by the laws of Puerto Rico applicable to life insurance companies.
(2) The revocation or suspension of any insurance producer’s license shall terminate forthwith the license of such producer. No individual whose license has been revoked shall be entitled to obtain any insurance proudcer’s license under the provisions of this section for a period of one (1) year after such revocation or, if such revocation be judicially reviewed, for one (1) year after the final determination thereof affirming the action of the Commissioner of Insurance in revoking such license.
History —Ins. Code, added as § 36.280 on June 13, 1964, No. 55, p. 122; July 31, 1992, No. 44, § 9; Jan. 19, 2006, No. 10, § 9, eff. 120 days after Jan. 19, 2006.