To repeal section 375.018, RSMo 1994, relating to the licensure of insurance agents and brokers, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to the same subject.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI, AS FOLLOWS:

     Section A. Section 375.018, RSMo 1994, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 375.018, to read as follows:

     375.018. 1. In addition to any other requirement imposed by law or rule, no applicant for an agent's or broker's license shall be qualified therefor unless, within one year immediately preceding the date a written application is made to the director, the applicant has successfully completed a course of study approved by the director requiring the following hours of study, or the equivalent thereof, for the following licenses: Not less than twenty hours for a license limited to fire and allied lines insurance and twenty hours for general casualty insurance, or forty hours combined of fire and allied lines and general casualty insurance; and not less than fifteen hours for a license limited to life insurance and fifteen hours for accident and health insurance. Any agent who is certified by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation on September 28, 1985, to write federal crop insurance shall not be required to have a fire and allied lines license for the purpose of writing federal crop insurance. The director shall grant authority until revoked to such public and private educational organizations, technical colleges, trade schools, insurance companies or insurance trade organizations, or other approved organizations that provide satisfactory evidence that the courses of study actually taken by the applicant were in substantial compliance with the requirements established by the director. The director shall require the applicant to furnish a certificate of completion of any required courses of study from the authorized educational organizations. Every applicant seeking approval for a course of study by the director under this section shall pay to the director a filing fee of fifty dollars per course, unless it is a not for profit agents' group or association which provides no compensation to the course instructor. Such fee shall accompany any application form required by the director for such course approval. Courses shall be approved for a period of no more than one year. Applicants holding courses intended to be offered for a longer period must reapply for approval. Courses approved by the director prior to August 28, 1993, for which continuous certification is sought should be resubmitted for approval sixty days before the anniversary date of the director's previous approval.

     2. Before any insurance agent's license is issued, there shall be on file in the office of the director the following:

     (1) A written application made under oath by the prospective licensee in the form prescribed by the director. The application form shall contain answers to the following interrogatories: name, address, date of birth, sex, past employment for the three-year period immediately preceding the date of the application, past experience in insurance, status of accounts with insurance companies and agents, criminal convictions or pleas of nolo contendere for felonies or misdemeanors, or currently pending felony charges or misdemeanor charges excluding minor traffic violations, and if a surety bond has ever been refused or revoked as a result of dishonest acts or practices. In addition, the application form shall contain a statement as to the kinds of insurance business in which the applicant intends to engage; and

     (2) A fee of twenty-five dollars must accompany each application for an agent's license.

     3. The director shall, in order to determine the competency of every individual applicant for a license, require the individual applicant to take and pass to the satisfaction of the director a written examination upon the kind or kinds of insurance business specified in his or her application. Such examinations shall be held at such times and places as the director shall from time to time determine. The director may, at his order or discretion, designate an independent testing service to prepare and administer such examination subject to direction and approval by the director, and examination fees charged by such service shall be paid by the applicant. An examination fee represents an administrative expense and is not refundable.

     4. The examination shall be as prescribed by the director and shall be of sufficient scope so as to reasonably test the applicant's knowledge relative to the kind or kinds of insurance which may be dealt with under the license applied for by the applicant. The applicant shall be notified of the result of the examination within twenty working days of the examination. The applicant may begin to act as an agent for those lines for which the applicant has passed an examination and completed the study requirements required by subsection 1 of this section and a license has been received by the applicant.

     5. No examination or approved course of study required by subsection 1 of this section shall be required of:

     (1) An applicant who is a ticket-selling agent or representative of a common carrier or other company who acts as an insurance agent only in reference to the issuance of insurance contracts primarily for covering the risk of travel;

     (2) An applicant who holds a current license in another state which requires a written examination satisfactory to the director;

     (3) An applicant for the same kind of license as that which was held in another state within one year next preceding the date of the application and which the applicant secured by passing a written examination and fulfilling comparable study requirements, and provided that the applicant is a legal resident of this state at the time of the application and is otherwise deemed by the director to be fully qualified;

     (4) An applicant who is an owner of an individually owned business, his employee, or an officer or employee of a partnership or corporation who solicits, negotiates or procures credit life, accident and health or property insurance in connection with a loan or a retail time sale transaction made by the corporation, partnership, or individual business, or in a business in which there is conducted wholly or partly retail installment transactions under chapter 365, RSMo;

     (5) Any person selling title insurance;

     (6) A landlord or any employee of a landlord who enrolls tenants of such landlord as certificate holders under a group property and casualty policy insuring the personal property and liability of such tenants, where the group policy is issued to the landlord or to an association of apartment owners of which the landlord is a member.

     6. Every application for a license which may be granted without examination shall be accompanied by a fee of twenty-five dollars.

     7. Subsection 1 of this section shall not apply to any person licensed as an agent or broker on January 1, 1986, unless the agent or broker applies for a type of license or line of insurance for which the agent or broker is not licensed as of January 1, 1986.

     8. The biennial renewal fee for an agent's license is twenty-five dollars for each license. An agent's license shall be renewed biennially on the anniversary date of issuance and continue in effect until refused, revoked or suspended by the director in accordance with section 375.141; except that if the biennial renewal fee for the license is not paid within ninety days after the biennial anniversary date or if the agent has not complied with section 375.020 if applicable within ninety days after the biennial anniversary date, the license terminates as of ninety days after the biennial anniversary date.

     9. Any nonresident agent who has not complied with the provisions of section 375.020 may not reapply for an agent license until that agent has taken the continuing education courses required under section 375.020.

     10. An agent whose license terminated for nonpayment of the biennial renewal fee or noncompliance with section 375.020 may apply for a new agent's license because of such nonpayment or noncompliance, except that such agent must comply with all provisions of this section regarding issuance of a new license if such license was terminated for noncompliance with section 375.020, or shall pay a late fee at the rate of twenty-five dollars per month or fraction thereof after the biennial anniversary date if such license was terminated for nonpayment of the renewal fee, except that nothing in this subsection shall require the director to relicense any agent determined to have violated the provisions of subsection 1 of section 375.141.