NARAB at 25

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the first piece of federal legislation toward creating the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers.

This still-unrealized agency would establish a national clearinghouse to create a single application process for obtaining and maintaining insurance producer licenses across states.

NARAB does not yet exist as a functional entity. But we’re getting close!

In 1999, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act required states to enact reforms to streamline the licensing process. The provision was designed to create NARAB if fewer than 29 states did not achieve either reciprocity or uniformity in non-resident producer licensing by November 2002. States pushed forward reforms, but they did not meet the threshold. NARAB’s implementation was delayed, and subsequent legislation has been introduced to refine and update its provisions.

In 2015, a modified version of NARAB came via reauthorization of the 2002 Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. That set up NARAB as a central clearinghouse, allowing insurance producers licensed in their home state to sell, solicit, or negotiate in every other state in which they intend to do business—provided they are licensed for those lines of business in their home state and pay that state’s licensing fee. An independent nonprofit was to be established and governed by a 13-member board composed of eight current or former state insurance commissioners and five industry representatives (subject to presidential appointment and Senate confirmation). 

The Obama administration submitted board candidates to the Senate, but time ran out on the confirmation process before President Obama left the White House. The Trump administration was given a slate of names to vet and submit, but background checks and interviews were never started.

For the past two years, The Council has worked to educate the Biden administration on NARAB and how it could operate with existing entities like the National Insurance Producer Registry. We are moving forward little by little as the administration combines board candidates recommended by industry with its own potential nominations to submit to the Senate banking committee for consideration. But the vetting process is slow, and November is approaching. If there is no further movement and we get a new administration, we start again.