Our standard

Vetting an insurance agent or broker means checking real, checkable regulatory requirements and public evidence about that specific individual's conduct — not a subjective "quality" score, and not a judgment about the carrier they represent. See why we don't grade carriers below.

The legal grounding this standard is built on

State producer licensing. Every US state requires an individual selling insurance to hold an active producer license in that state. Licensing and appointment data is tracked through the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) — an independent nonprofit affiliate of the NAIC operating the Producer Database (PDB), which aggregates data from all 50 states, DC, and several US territories under one National Producer Number (NPN) per individual — and is independently verifiable directly against each state's own Department of Insurance (DOI) licensee-search tool.

Producer appointment. The NAIC Producer Licensing Model Act (Model #218) requires a carrier that wants to appoint a producer as its agent to file a notice of appointment with the state insurance commissioner within 15 days of the agency contract being executed or the first application being submitted (Model #218, Section 14B) — meaning a producer's authority to sell a specific carrier's products is itself a checkable, filed fact, not just a claim in a bio or on a business card.

The NAIC Complaint Index. The NAIC's own public Consumer Information Source calculates each insurer's complaint index by dividing that insurer's complaints-per-premium-dollar ratio by the industry median for the same line of business and state, where 1.0 represents the median. This index is calculated at the carrier level, not the individual producer level — there is no NAIC-published, per-agent equivalent. We report it as background about the products an agent sells, never as if it were a score on the agent personally. See our full explainer.

Anti-rebating. The NAIC Unfair Trade Practices Act (Model #880) prohibits an insurer or producer from offering a prospective client anything of value not specified in the policy as an inducement to buy. A December 2020 NAIC amendment carved out narrow exemptions (genuinely policy-related value-added services offered at no or reduced cost, and non-cash gifts/meals/charitable donations reasonable in relation to the transaction) — so which version of Model #880 a given state has actually adopted is the live question, not a single national baseline.

Deceptive marketing. The same Unfair Trade Practices Act framework separately prohibits misrepresenting a policy's terms, benefits, or advantages — the basis for our no-guaranteed-approval marketing check below.

Churning and twisting. The NAIC Life Insurance and Annuities Replacement Model Regulation (Model #613) assigns responsibility to producers and insurers alike for identifying and properly disclosing a policy "replacement." Most, but not all, states have adopted some version of Model #613 (most recently updated 2015) — state-by-state adoption must be verified, never assumed. See our full explainer.

E&O insurance. State requirements vary sharply: Rhode Island is the most commonly cited state actually mandating errors-and-omissions coverage for producers ($250,000 per claim / $500,000 aggregate); most other states don't mandate it as a licensing condition, though some require disclosure of whether a producer carries it. Both questions — does the state require it, and does this producer carry it anyway — are checked separately, per state.

Free-look period. Every US state and DC mandates a minimum "free look" period on a life insurance policy — commonly at least 10 days from receipt, with several states requiring 20–30 days for a senior or a policy replacing existing coverage — during which a policyholder can cancel for a full premium refund with no surrender charge. The specific minimum is state- and product-specific.

Why we don't grade insurance carriers

Grading an insurance company's financial strength or product design is a different, harder standard that already has mature incumbents — AM Best, Moody's, S&P, and Fitch all publish carrier financial-strength ratings using actuarial and financial-statement analysis. We don't duplicate that, and we never publish our own "this carrier is safe to buy from" judgment — that edges toward investment/financial advice, which isn't what this site does. This site checks a specific, narrower, present-tense set of facts about the individual human being who sold you the policy: are they licensed, are they appointed to sell what they're selling, and is there a documented pattern of the specific misconduct (rebating, churning/twisting, deceptive marketing) regulators actually define and pursue against producers.

The checklist

State license verified directly, current, and covering every state actually sold inChecked against NIPR's own multistate Producer Database record and/or the specific state DOI's own licensee-search tool — never an agent's or agency's own claim, a "member since" badge, or a third-party directory. Fails if the license is lapsed, inactive, or absent in a state where the producer is actively soliciting business.
Appointment/authorization with the represented carrier(s) verifiedA producer implying they represent a specific carrier's products should have a corresponding appointment on file per the NAIC Producer Licensing Model Act's 15-day filing requirement; an unappointed producer marketing a specific carrier's name fails this point even if their license itself is otherwise clean.
NAIC Complaint Index standing disclosed honestly, with its carrier-vs-agent limits stated plainlyThe Complaint Index is carrier-level, not producer-level. Where a specific, named complaint pattern exists against an individual agent, that's checked and cited as its own point; the carrier's aggregate score is reported only as background, never presented as a score on the agent personally. This point fails only on a misrepresentation of what the index measures — not on the underlying carrier's index value itself.
State DOI disciplinary/enforcement history checked directlyAny open or settled disciplinary action, license suspension/revocation, consent order, or fine against the producer or their agency, checked against the state DOI's own enforcement-action search and, since a revocation is reportable and searchable through NIPR's shared record, checked there too.
No anti-rebating violation foundNo documented pattern of offering an undisclosed inducement tied to a specific sale, checked against the specific rebating rule the producer's state has actually adopted (pre- or post-2020-amendment) rather than a generic national assumption.
No guaranteed-claim-approval or coverage-scope-beyond-the-policy marketing languageFails on any documented marketing claim that a claim will automatically be approved, or that otherwise misrepresents policy benefits — checked against a direct, quotable claim (a saved page, an ad, a script), not a paraphrase.
Named individual/agency, real business address, and working contact verifiedAnonymous or unverifiable business identity is an automatic fail — the same "who is actually on the other end of this" check the sister sites apply.
E&O insurance disclosure checked against the specific state's actual requirementVerified as carried where a state mandates it (e.g. Rhode Island); where a state requires disclosure rather than mandating coverage, the disclosure itself is checked. Marked N/A only where a state neither mandates nor requires disclosure — never silently skipped.
Free-look/cancellation-period disclosure verified for life/annuity salesThe applicable state's actual minimum free-look period — not a generic "10 days" assumption — is disclosed plainly before or at policy delivery, consistent with any senior/replacement-specific extension that applies.
Churning/twisting pattern check for producers selling life insurance or annuitiesChecked against the applicable state's adopted version of the NAIC Life Insurance and Annuities Replacement Model Regulation (or its absence, stated plainly). Flags a documented pattern of replacement-heavy business alongside any specific twisting/churning complaint or disciplinary finding — replacement volume alone is never treated as proof of misconduct.

A producer is checked against the sub-points that actually apply to the lines of insurance they sell and the state(s) they operate in — a pure property & casualty producer isn't scored against the life/annuity-specific free-look and churning/twisting points, and an inapplicable point is marked N/A with a stated reason rather than silently skipped or forced into a pass.

What a passing score means — and doesn't

Passing every applicable point means an agent's license status, appointment record, marketing claims, and public disciplinary/complaint record didn't show a violation of these specific, checkable facts as of the date we looked. It is not a guarantee of your own experience with that agent, and it is not a judgment about the financial strength or product quality of any carrier they represent. See the Register for how findings are dated and re-checked.

Country scope

This standard covers United States producers only. Canada's provincial regulatory framework (FSRA in Ontario, BCFSA in British Columbia, AMF in Quebec, and similar bodies elsewhere) is structurally different from the US state-by-state NIPR/NAIC system this standard is built on, and is a documented Phase 1 — not yet scoped. See About for where we are right now.