New York Launches Online Re-Licensing for Insurance Agents and Brokers

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has launched an online application to speed up the re-licensing process for agents and brokers whose original licenses have been expired more than two years.

The online re-licensing application is available to property/casualty, life and/or accident/health agents and brokers, as well as life and general consultants and life settlement brokers. Although the re-licensing process has previously been available for agents and brokers whose licenses have lapsed less than two years, this initiative now makes the online process available for licenses lapsed more than two years.

Previously, the re-licensing process for agents and brokers with licenses expired more than two years was done by mail, said Tim Dodge, assistant vice president of research for Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of New York (IIABNY). Now, it’s going to be automated with next day turnaround in some cases, he added.

The next business day turnaround applies to applicants with no disqualifying conditions, such as disciplinary actions in other states. Applicants will be required to attest to the completion of pre-qualifying courses and furnish course numbers, and New York residents seeking re-licensing must have completed a re-licensing exam within the last two years or hold another license with the same lines of authority being applied for in the re-licensing application, according to the DFS.

Non-residents must be in good standing and currently licensed in their declared home state with the same lines of authority being applied for in their New York re-licensing application, a DFS press release stated. Licenses, which will no longer be mailed upon issuance, can now be printed by licensees through the online system.

More than 1,200 agents and brokers were re-licensed in New York in 2016 — a number that isn’t unusual for the scale of the insurance industry in the state, according to DFS spokesperson Ron Klug. Lapses in individual licenses can occur for various reasons, added Dodge.

“It’s not uncommon for someone to let their license lapse for a few years …” he said. “… anything that speeds up the process is a good thing.”