AGENTS' COMMISSIONS; NON-RESIDENT; COUNTERSIGNATURE

Due to certain situations which have come to the attention of the Department, the following comments are in order.

Please be advised that:

(1) A non-resident fire and/or casualty agent may not directly or indirectly solicit any risk of any kind or nature inside the limits of the State of Mississippi. This law embraces disability, accident and health insurance, whether individual or group policies. Likewise, there can be no division of commission on insurance of this category with a non-resident agent. No commission can be divided with a non-resident agent on property located in the State of Mississippi owned by a resident of the State of Mississippi.
 

(2) The Mississippi insurance laws do not permit solicitation of insurance via credit card; the placing of advertising brochures and/or applications for insurance in credit card mailing constitutes soliciation under our laws and is a violation on the part of the insurance company underwriting the business.
 

(3) All future filings made to the Insurance Department and/or Insurance Commission must state the method of solicitation to be employed in marketing the filing if other than through a licensed local agent.
 

This notice is an effort to clarify the apparent erroneous interpretation given to our Ruling Governing Payment and Division of Agents Commissions, dated September 5, 1963. Item (3) above is prompted by the fact that many companies make'routine filings of policy forms which are approved, and it is later found that the method of solicitation to be employed in their use is in violation of our laws, such as credit card, diners club, athletic and religious group connections.

WALTER DELL DAVIS
Commissioner of Insurance