State Insurance Department or Commission

Every state in the nation has an insurance commissioner. They normally report directly to the governor of the state just like the attorney general of each state reports to the governor of that state. The NAIC is an association of all the state insurance commissioners. The NAIC spends a lot of time drafting and holding hearings on new model laws and regulations for the insurance industry. This work of the NAIC has a gone a long way toward providing some degree of uniformity between the insurance laws and regulations of the various states. Their work has also acted as an impetus for the implementation of laws and regulations when a new area of significant need arises. Recently that area of need has been the sales methods of agents.
Insurance agents must obtain a license from each state (through the insurance commissioner’s office) in which they are soliciting business. If an agent is not a resident in a state in which he wishes to sell insurance products, the agent may ordinarily obtain a nonresident license from that state. You can check on the licensing (or disciplinary) status of your agent by simply contacting the insurance commissioner’s office of your state. Agents who sell variable life insurance products or other investment-related products must also obtain a license from the