Add Appointments

Use the Add Appointments page to submit one or multiple state appointment requests for one or multiple appointing companies on behalf of an eligible producer. You also may use the Add Appointments page to manually add a "record-only" state appointment to a producer record.

The Add Appointments page uses a three-page, "wizard" process in which you select basic appointment information on the first page of the wizard, select additional information and submit the transaction on the second page, and confirm the transaction on the third page.

ClosedView screen capture of the selection of basic appointment information

ClosedView screen capture of the selection of additional information and submission of the transaction

ClosedView screen capture of appointment transaction confirmation

To open the Add Appointments page, choose one of the following methods:

  • Click the Add New Appointments link in the Appointments data section of a producer record that is open on the Review/Update Producer page

  • From the Licensing menu, select Appointments, and then select Add Appointments. Then, perform a Producer Search to open the record of the producer whom you wish to appoint

  • Click the Add Appointments link in the Task Links section of the Producer Manager Home page

  • Click the Appoint Producer button () on the Process Approved License Applications page

  • Click the Add Appointments link on any workflow transition page on which it appears

The Add Appointments page contains the following sections:

ClosedAppointee Record Summary

Fields and controls in the Appointee Record Summary section include the following:

  • Search Producer: Click the link to start a new search for a producer record. For more information, see Searching for Records.
  • [Producer Name]: Displays the name of the individual or firm producer whose record currently is open in theReview/Update Producerpage. An icon to the left of the producer name signifies the producer's entity type, either individual () or firm ().Click the producer name link to refresh the producer record that is currently open in the Review/Update Producer page or to re-open the producer's record in the Review/Update Producer page from any other page in the system.
  • Rating: If a producer has been assigned a productivity rating (no stars, meaning “not rated;” one star, “poor;” two stars, “satisfactory;” three stars, “good;” four stars, “outstanding;” or the symbol signifying a “Do Not Contract” alert), the display-only rating will appear to the right of the producer’s name.
  • SSN: Individual producers only. Displays an individual producer's Social Security Number. The Social Security Number can be set per security role to mask the first five digits and display only the last four digits. For more information, see Maintain Security Role.
  • EIN: Firm producers only. Displays a firm producer's Federal Employer Identification Number.
  • External System ID: Displays the producer's identifier code in the external system that has been Vertafore-configured as your company's "preferred" system. For more information, see External System IDs, Configuration Options, and Advanced Producer Search.
  • Active BU: Displays the short name of the business units to which a producer is actively assigned (sorted alphabetically). To expand the field to display all active business units, click the node ().
  • NPN: Displays a producer's unique National Producer Number, assigned by the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR).
  • Resident State/License: Displays the codes of the states that a producer claims as a resident state for licensing purposes (sorted alphabetically) and the producer's license numbers in those states. Includes active or inactive licenses. To expand the field to display all resident states and license numbers, click the node ().
  • Additional States/Licenses: Displays the codes of the states in which the producer holds non-resident licenses (sorted alphabetically) and the license numbers in those states. Includes active or inactive licenses. To expand the field to display all resident states and license numbers, click the node ().
  • Producer Contracting Workflow: If your company uses the onboarding and maintenance transaction component of the Sircon Platform, Producer Express, and a producer currently is associated with a request record in Producer Express, you can click the number in the field to launch Producer Express and view or work with the request record. (For more information, see the Sircon Producer Express Online Help.)
  • Missing Required Information Alert: Displays an alert that the producer record lacks information that has been configured to be required in your company's deployment of the Sircon Platform. A producer record deficient of required information is considered "incomplete," and appointment or termination requests may not be submitted for the producer until the deficiency is corrected. Review the Quick Links box to identify and correct the specific details sections in the record with missing required information. For more information, see Configuration Options.
  • CE Compliance: Display-only indication of a producer’s unfulfilled continuing education requirements. Indication will not appear if producer is current with continuing education requirements. Available by Vertafore configuration only; for more information, seeConfiguration Options.

ClosedEffective Date

Set the effective date for the selected producer's appointment.

Fields and controls include the following:

  • Effective Date: Required. May default to the current date. If you are submitting an electronic state appointment request, enter the date on which you are requesting the appointment to become effective, subject to state backdating or system future-dating rules. Or, if you are adding a record-only appointment, enter the date on which the producer appointment became effective. Use the mmddyyyy date format, or click the Calendar button () to open a popup calendar from which you can click to select a date.

ClosedSubmission Method

Choose the method by which you want to submit an appointment request or add "record-only" appointment information for the selected producer.

Note that if you leave the default Electronic Processing option selected, the system automatically will choose the best allowable processing method for each state, with the exception of Florida outsourced individual appointments. (See Notes and Tips, below.)

Choose from among the following:

  • Electronic Processing: Default. Click the radio button to trigger the system to submit the appointment request to a state electronically. The Appointments data section of the selected producer record will be updated automatically with system and state processing information, including state approvals, denials, and errors.

  • Paper: Required for Florida outsourced individual producer appointments only. SeeNotes, below. Click the radio button to trigger the system to send the appointment request to a holding queue for processing by Vertafore Outsourcing Services.

  • Record Only: Click the radio button to trigger the system to only update the Appointments data section of the selected producer record with state appointment information. The system will not submit an appointment request to a state, and state regulators may not have a record of the appointment.

ClosedAppointment Profile

An appointment profile is a pre-defined collection of state, appointing company, and appointment type criteria that you can apply to frequently-requested appointment requests, saving manual data entry. For more information, see Add Appointment Profile.

If no appointment profile is available, the following message will display "No profiles are available for the appointee's active license states."

Fields and controls include the following:

  • : Click to select the radio button to activate use of an appointment profile, rather than use of the fields and controls in the States and Appointing Companies section.

  • Appointment Profile: Select from the dropdown menu the name of an appointment profile to apply to a manual appointment request.

ClosedStates and Appointing Companies

Offers input fields to allow you to manually select one or multiple states and appointing companies to include in the appointment request or "record-only" appointment.

Fields and controls include the following:

  • States: Displays a table listing states to which you may submit an appointment request or for which you may add a "record-only" appointment. Available states are limited to only those states in which the selected producer holds an active license. Fields and controls include the following:

  • : For each state to which you want to submit an appointment request or for which you want to add a "record-only" appointment for the selected producer, click to checkmark its corresponding checkbox.

  • Select All States: Click to checkmark the checkboxes of all states displaying in the States section.

  • Unselect All States: Click to uncheckmark the checkboxes of all states displaying in the States section.

  • Appointing Companies: Displays a table listing appointing companies for which you may submit an appointment request or for which you may add a "record-only" appointment. Available appointing companies are derived from Vertafore-configured company information, viewable on the Review/Update Company page. Fields and controls include the following:

  • : For each appointing company for which you want to submit an appointment request or add a "record-only" appointment for the selected producer, click to checkmark its corresponding checkbox.

  • ID: For each appointing company listed, displays its Producer Manager company record identifier.

  • NAIC ID: For each appointing company listed, displays its National Association of Insurance Commissioners identifier.

  • Company: For each appointing company listed, displays its name as a blue hyperlink. Click the hyperlink to open the appointing company record in the Review/Update Company page.

  • Select All Companies: Click to checkmark the checkboxes of all appointing companies displaying in the Appointing Companies section.

  • Unselect All Companies: Click to checkmark the checkboxes of all appointing companies displaying in the Appointing Companies section.

ClosedCurrent Appointments

Displays a table listing existing appointment information for the selected producer in the selected appointment state.

If no active or inactive appointments exist for the selected producer in the appointment state, the following message will display: "No current appointments in this state for this producer."

Fields and controls include the following:

  • NAIC ID: For each appointment listed, displays the appointing company's National Association of Insurance Commissioners identifier.

  • Company:  For each appointment listed, displays the appointing company's name.

  • Appointment Type: For each appointment listed, displays the state-specific description of the appointment type.

  • Tied to an Application:  For each appointment listed, displays a checkmark if the appointment is related to a state license application for the selected producer. Displays no checkmark if the appointment is not related to a state license application.

  • Status: For each appointment listed, displays the current status of the appointment, either Active or Inactive. (Note that Pending status will display as Active.)

ClosedBackground Investigations

Displays a table listing background investigations that were submitted on the selected producer either through PLM or external to PLM, with the results recorded on the producer's record in Producer Manager.

You can select a pending or processed background investigation to link to an appointment request and set submission options based on the results of the background investigation.

Fields and controls include the following:

  • Add New Background Investigation (record only): Click to open the Add Background Investigation page, where you can record the summary results of a background check request obtained external to Producer Express or Producer Manager.

  • Submit Background Investigation: Click to open the Submit Background Investigation page, where you can submit a background investigation request for the selected producer. When you are finished, the Add Appointments page will re-open, allowing you to select the newly submitted BI to link it with the appointment request.

  • : Click to select a listed background investigation to link it with the appointment request. Or, click the radio button corresponding to None to submit the appointment request independent of a background investigation.

  • BI Firm: For each background investigation listed, displays the name of the background investigation firm that processed the BI request. Or, displays None, to allow you to submit the appointment request independent of a background investigation.

  • Investigation Types: For each background investigation listed, displays the types of background investigation(s) performed. Click a node () to expand the field to display all types performed; click the node () to collapse the field.

  • Request Date: For each background investigation listed, displays the date on which the background investigation request was submitted.

  • Status: For each background investigation listed, displays the status of the background investigation request (i.e., the actual request, not the result).

  • Status Date: For each background investigation listed, displays the date on which the value displaying in the Status field was updated.

  • BI Result: For each background investigation listed, displays the result of the background investigation request as reported by the background investigation firm (e.g., Pass, Fail, Needs Review).

  • Review Result: For each background investigation listed, displays the result of the internal staff review of the background investigation results (e.g., Fail, Pass, Review).

  • Result Details: Click the link to open in a separate browser window the BI firm's website, where an authorized user may log in to review detailed BI results.

  • BI Processing Instruction: Offers submission options for the appointment request based on the results of a submitted background investigation. Do not select an option if you are tying an already-processed background investigation to the appointment request. Select from among the following:

  • Auto Proc Request if BI Passes: Select to trigger the system to hold the appointment request until and if the BI vendor returns a "Pass" BI result, at which point the system will automatically submit the appointment request.

  • Hold Request Until BI Review: Select to trigger the system to hold the appointment request indefinitely. Once the BI vendor returns any BI result, you can review the result using the Background Investigation Request - Review Results page, determine whether to process or cancel the appointment request, and then manually release the request. To open the Background Investigation Request - Review Results page, from the Express Services menu select Background Investigations, and then click the Review Background Investigation Responses/Process Related Transactions - Individual link. (For more information, consult the Compliance Express online help.)

  • Submit Request linked to BI: Select to trigger the system to immediately submit the appointment request as linked to a selected background investigation.

ClosedSelect Appointments

Displays a table listing available appointment types for the selected producer in the selected appointment state. Click to checkmark a selected appointment type to submit or record it for the selected producer.

Available appointment types are limited to the types supported by the selected producer's active license LOA (qualifications) and the selected appointing company's active authorized lines (appointment type).

Fields and controls include the following:

  • Select All (): Click the checkbox in the header row to checkmark the checkboxes corresponding to all appointment types displaying in the section. Click again to clear checkmarks from all checkboxes corresponding to all appointment types displaying in the section.

  • : For each appointment type listed, click to checkmark to select it. Click again to de-select it.

  • NAIC ID:  For each appointment type listed, displays the National Association of Insurance Commissioners identifier of the appointing company for which the appointment type is available.

  • Company:  For each appointment type listed, displays the name of the appointing company for which the appointment type is available.

  • Appointment Type: For each appointment type listed, displays its state-specific description.

ClosedCost Center

Offers edit fields you can use to select a cost center to which to assign the cost of an appointment request submitted to a state.

Fields and controls include the following:

  • State Cost Center: From the dropdown menu, select a cost center to which to globally apply the costs of all appointment requests that you are submitting to the selected state in this transaction. Your selection will automatically populate the Cost Center fields displaying in the Companies sub-section. If only one cost center has been configured in your user account for the producer's business unit, it will display as the only option.

  • Companies: Sub-section displays a table listing all appointing companies selected in the Appointing Companies field in the State and Appointing Companies section. Fields and controls include the following:

  • NAIC ID: For each appointing company listed, displays the appointing company's National Association of Insurance Commissioners identifier.

  • Company: For each appointing company listed, displays its name.

  • Cost Center: By default, displays the selected value of the State Cost Center dropdown menu. If multiple cost centers have been configured in your user account for the producer's business unit, you may override the default selection on an individual appointment basis by selecting a different option.

ClosedLicense

For a state that requires license information to be included in an appointment request, displays a table listing one or multiple licenses held the selected producer in the state to which you are submitting an appointment request. Allows you to select the state license you wish to include in the appointment request. If the selected producer has only one license in the appointment state, it will be selected by default and cannot be unselected.

Fields and controls include the following:

  • : Click to select the radio button that corresponds to the license you wish to include in the appointment request. Maximum one license per appointment transaction.

  • License: For each license listed, displays its description.

  • Status: For each license listed, displays its current status on the producer's record in Producer Manager.

  • Status Date: For each license listed, displays the date on which the value of the Status field last was updated.

  • License Number: For each license listed, displays its license number.

ClosedSelect Additional Appointment Counties

For a state that allows or requires producer appointments at the county level, offers data input fields to submit one or multiple county appointments.

Fields and controls include the following:

  • Create state appointment only (no county appointments at this time): Default .Click the radio button () to submit the appointment request only to the state, ignoring county appointments. (After you submit the state appointment request, you may subsequently request a county appointment. For more information, see Add Appointment Counties.)

  • Appoint in the following counties: Click the radio button () to add one or multiple county appointment requests to the state appointment request. Then, click to checkmark the checkbox corresponding to one or multiple counties to which you want to submit an appointment request for the selected producer.

  • Select All Counties: Click to checkmark the checkboxes corresponding to all counties displaying in the Appoint in the following counties field.

  • Unselect All Counties: Click to uncheckmark the checkboxes corresponding to all counties displaying in the Appoint in the following counties field.

ClosedLicense Category

For a state that requires a state-specific license category to be included in an appointment request, offers an input field in which you can select a license category.

Fields and controls include the following:

  • License Category: Click the radio button () corresponding to the state-specific license category that you want to include in the appointment request.

ClosedShared Appointment

Available for a firm appointment request to a state offering shared appointments and requiring the designation of an affiliated individual producer on the request.

Displays a table listing all individual producers affiliated (associated) with the selected firm producer. (For more information, see Associations.)

Fields and controls include the following:

  • : For each affiliated individual producer, displays a radio button to the left of the producer name. Click the radio button associated with an individual producer whom you want to select to share the firm appointment.

  • Associated Producer: For each affiliated individual producer, displays the producer's last, first, and middle name.

  • Association Type: For each affiliated individual producer, displays the relationship the individual producer has with the firm producer.

  • Begin Date: For each affiliated individual producer, displays the date on which the individual producer's affiliation with the firm producer began.

  • End Date: Inactive affiliations only. For each individual producer with an inactive affiliation with the firm producer, displays the date on which the individual producer's affiliation with the firm producer became inactive.

ClosedComments

Offers an input field to enter a free-form text comment.

Fields and controls include the following:

  • Comment: Enter a text comment. Maximum 2000 characters.

ClosedPage Controls

Fields and controls include the following:

  • Save and Continue: Click to save a record-only appointment or submit a state appointment request. The appointment confirmation page of the "wizard" will open.

  • Skip State: Click to cancel appointing processing for the state for which you are currently entering data.

  • Refresh: Click to reload the Add Appointments page to review an update in appointment processing status.

  • Next: Click to validate data entered on the current page and open the successive page in the "wizard." If you selected more than one appointment state, then the available appointments for each state will display in sequence based on alphabetic order.

  • Return: Click to open the Producer Manager Home page.

Warnings

Vertafore PLM Producer Manager does not generate paper appointment or termination forms. Unless your company subscribes to Vertafore Outsourcing Services, the system will ignore any appointment or termination request with aSubmission Methodof "Paper." For more information, seeNotes(below) andApprove/Deny Appointments.

Notes

Note: The following states have proprietary transaction processing systems with which PLM Producer Manager cannot process certain electronic appointment requests: Massachusetts (all appointment requests), Arkansas (appointment requests for firm producers), and Florida (state and/or county appointment requests for individual producers with Florida resident licenses). To process appointments in these states, you may subscribe to Vertafore Outsourcing Services. If your company subscribes to the outsourcing service, you can submit appointment requests to these states through Producer Manager as you would normally for any other appointment state. Choose a Submission Method of Paper or Electronic Processing; the Request Type field on the confirmation page will display "Paper." Vertafore’s outsourcing team will intercept the requests and submit them to each state’s proprietary transaction processing system on your company's behalf. If your company does not subscribe to the outsourcing service, add a Massachusetts, Arkansas firm, or Florida resident individual appointment to a producer record using a Submission Method of Record Only, and then process the actual producer appointment on the state website. For more information about outsourcing services, please contact your Vertafore representative.

Note: You may submit any type of Florida individual producer state and county appointment request through Vertafore Outsourcing Services for expedited processing. If your company subscribes to the outsourcing service, select a Submission Method of Paper. Or, for a regular Florida non-resident individual appointment request submitted through PLM, select a Submission Method of Electronic Processing. Please note that you may not submit an electronic Florida state or county appointment request for a Florida resident producer using Producer Manager (see note above). For more information about outsourcing services, please contact your Vertafore representative.

Note: The appointment types displaying in the Select Appointments section includes only those types that are available through Vertafore PLM and that are Vertafore-configured for use in your company's instance of PLM. (For more information, see Code Use Indicators.) If you do not see an appointment type that you believe should be available, please contact your Vertafore representative.

Note: You cannot add an appointment for a producer who is associated with a business unit that has not been configured for use in your user account. For more information, see Maintain Staff Member Business Unit.

Note: By default, the Effective Date field is populated with the current date. However it is Vertafore-configurable to contain no default value. Default date value options are governed by the Vertafore-configurable APPT_TRMN_DFLT_EFF_DTE_IND business rule. For more information, see Configuration Options.

Note: By default, for an appointment request with a Submission Method of Electronic Processing or Paper, you may enter a past date in the Effective Date field that complies with the maximum number of days prior to the current date that is allowed under the appointment state's backdating rules. The Effective Date field, however, is Vertafore-configurable through the APPT_TRMN_DFLT_EFF_DTE_IND business rule to allow only the current or a future date. Note that no backdating restriction applies to a record-only appointment, except that is must not pre-date the Effective Date of the selected producer's license or qualification. For more information, see Configuration Options.

Note: Vertafore may temporarily alter a state's usual allowable backdating limitation in the Effective Date field, in order to support the state's appointment renewal cutoff date requirements. If you have questions, please contact your Vertafore representative.

Note: The Cost Center section displays only if the COST_CNTR_RQD business rule has been Vertafore-configured to require a cost center to be selected with every appointment transaction. For more information, see Configuration Options. All data input fields in the Cost Center section are active only if a cost center has been configured for the producer's business unit in your user account. For more information, see Maintain Staff Member Cost Center. If you attempt to submit an appointment request when a business unit cost center has not been configured for your user account, the following error message will display: "Company Cost Center must be configured for all selected companies."

Note: The Background Investigation section displays only under the following conditions: a) your company's deployment of Producer Manager has been Vertafore-configured to integrate background investigations with appointment requests and b) the state to which you are submitting an appointment request requires carriers to perform a background investigation on their producers. For more information about the DISP_APPT_BI_IND business rule linking background investigations with appointment requests, see Configuration Options.

Note: The License section displays only if the state to which you are submitting an appointment request requires the request to include the appointee's license class and number in the request. Should an appointee hold multiple licenses in the appointment state, you must select the license that you want to associate with the appointment request. (To avoid state denial of the appointment request, select the license that together with any related license lines (qualifications) supports the requested appointment.)

Note: The Select Additional Appointment Counties section displays only for a state that requires both state and county appointments for specific license classes. Using Producer Manager, you may submit a state appointment separate from a county appointment; however state regulations may require a producer to hold both a state and county appointment before soliciting, negotiating, writing, or otherwise representing your company's product lines. For more information, see Add Appointment Counties and consult the state department of insurance for more details about state and county appointment regulations.

Note: Many states require detailed information about your carrier group's appointing company to be included in an appointment request. Producer Manager automatically derives the necessary information from stored appointing company information and applies it to the appointment request. However, if the company information stored in Producer Manager is incomplete, the following message may display: "[Appointing company data element] is required to process an Electronic Appointment for the Company: [Appointing Company Name]" If this occurs, first check the information stored in Producer Manager pertaining to the cited appointing company and make any necessary corrections in the State Appointment Details section of the company record. If the error persists, contact your Vertafore representative. (For more information, see Review/Update Company.)

Note: The License Category section displays only for an appointment request submitted to South Carolina. If you are unsure which license category to select, click the Local radio button for an appointment of an independent or affiliated agent or General for a managing general agent or agency principal. Click the Travel Baggage radio button only for an appointment of any producer representing only travel baggage for producer and limited lines (i.e., South Carolina qualification/LOA code 234).

Note: The Shared Appointment section displays only for a firm appointment request submitted to Arkansas. A shared appointment requires the selection of at least one affiliated (associated) individual producer (typically an agency principal) to include on the appointment request. Once a firm's shared appointment request is submitted, the shared appointment automatically will populate the Appointments data section of the selected individual's producer's record. (Warning: Do not first add a "record-only" Arkansas appointment for the individual producer before submitting the firm shared appointment.) Depending on your company's interpretation of state regulations, all agents affiliated with the firm -- not just the individual producer included in the firm appointment request -- may be covered in Arkansas under the firm's shared appointment. For more information, see Appointments, Firm Associations, and Individual Associations.

Note: A value entered and saved in the Comments section is viewable in the Comments data section of a producer's record open in the Review/Update Producer page.

Note: Some states do not require an appointment for an individual or a firm producer holding a certain type of license. Therefore, it is not necessary or possible to submit or record appointments under those licenses in Producer Manager. However, if your company maintains an internal system that is integrated with Producer Manager and requires the existence of an appointment on the producer’s record in order to authorize the producer to sell a related product type, you may select the “Carrier Requests” appointment type. (The "Carrier Requests" appointment type is considered record-only.) For more information, please consult your Vertafore representative.

Note: Producer Manager performs a high degree of validation and error-checking on requested appointments. Should you encounter an error, seeError Messages for troubleshooting guidance. For additional assistance, contact your Vertafore support representative.

Note: You may request a "future-dated" appointment by entering a date in the Effective Field that, by default, is no more than 12 months subsequent to the current date. The system will hold the appointment request until the specified date, at which point it will submit the request to the selected state. The system is Vertafore-configurable through the FUTR_APPTTRMN_EFF_DTE_IN_MNTHS business rule, however, to allow entry of a future date that is more or less than 12 months. For more information, see Configuration Options.

Note: If you overwrite the default, current date value in the Effective Date field with a future date, a popup box will display with the following message: "You have entered a future effective date. Do you want to proceed?" If you wish to proceed with a future-date appointment request, click the OK button. If the future-dated request is for termination of a state-verified appointment, the systemwill hold the appointment request until the specified date, at which point it will submit the request to the selected state. However, if the future-dated request is for a record-only appointment, the record-only appointment will be added immediately to the producer's Appointments data section with the requested future date inserted as the values of the Status Date and Active Date fields. If you did not intend to submit a future-dated appointment, click the Cancel button to close the popup box and return to the Add Appointments page, where you can enter a non-future date in the Effective Date field.

Note: You may use the Abort Appointment Request page to cancel any appointment request (including future-dated) that the system has not yet passed to the Vertafore PLM transaction engine (Compliance Express) for subsequent submission either to the NIPR Gateway or a Sircon State database. Such requests will bear a Status in the Appointments data section of "Active-Pending Submission."

Note: By default, as long as the Status of a license or qualification (LOA) is "Active," even if the Expiration Date is prior to the current date, the system will permit you to submit or record an appointment based on the license or LOA. However, the system can be Vertafore-configured (using the appointment.consider.licQualExpDte business rule) so that any license or qualification (LOA) with a past Expiration Date that has not been specifically inactivated either manually or by an automated data reconciliation will bear a Status of “Active-Lapsed.” With the configuration option enabled, a license or qualification with a Status of "Active-Lapsed" will be considered inactive, and the system will prevent the submission or recording of a related appointment. The appointment type that is related to an "Active-Lapsed" license or qualification will not be available for selection in the Select Appointment Type section. Furthermore, if an "Active-Lapsed" license or qualification is otherwise the only license or qualification eligible for appointment in a state, the state name will not display as an option in the State and Appointing Companies section. For more information, see Configuration Options.

Tips

An appointment request submitted to certain states using an electronic submission method is routed directly to the state's department of insurance regulatory management system. A request to one of these states, referred to as a "Sircon State," will result in a rapid state response (i.e., "real-time" response) and can offer significant business advantages. A transaction request submitted to all other states, however, goes first through a third-party, electronic interface (the NIPR Gateway) and then to the state and can vary in response time. Ask your Vertafore representative for more information and for the current list of "Sircon States."

Don't be concerned if you unintentionally leave the default Electronic Processing option selected in the Submission Method section. In spite of the default selection, the system automatically will choose the correct submission type -- Electronic Processing, Record Only, or Paper, depending on the type allowed or required by the appointment state. The only exception is a Florida appointment for a non-resident individual producer: If your company subscribes to Vertafore Outsourcing Services, click the Paper radio button to send the request to the Vertafore Outsourcing Services team. Otherwise, if you accept the default Electronic Processing option, the request will be sent to Florida via the NIPR Gateway processing interface, which can result in a delayed response. For more information about Vertafore Outsourcing Services, please contact your Vertafore representative.

Use the following guidelines for choosing an option from the BI Processing Instruction dropdown menu in the Background Investigations section: a) If you are requesting a new background check on a producer, select the Auto Proc Request if BI Passes option to automate the appointment/background investigation process and handle only the exceptions. Once the system receives a BI response with a "Pass" result, it will automatically submit the related appointment request. Any other BI result will hold the appointment request. You can review the result using the Review Background Investigation Responses/Process Related Transactions page, determine whether to process or cancel the appointment request, and then manually release the request; b) if you are requesting a new background check on a producer, select the Hold Request Until BI Review option to manually review all BI results prior to submitting the appointment request. You can review the BI result using the Review Background Investigation Responses/Process Related Transactions page, determine whether to process or cancel the appointment request, and then manually release the request, or c) if your company's producer background investigation expiration policies allow it, select the Submit Request linked to BI option to link the new appointment request to a recent, existing background investigation that was already run on the selected producer. (To open the Review Background Investigation Responses/Process Related Transactions page, from the Express Services menu select Background Investigation.)

For county appointments in Florida, use the following guidelines: a) Resident Producer (available in Producer Manager only through Vertafore Outsourcing Services): Select the producer's resident county, where the producer lives; b) Non-Resident Producer: If the producer will not be physically in Florida representing your company's insurance products, click the Create state appointment only (no county appointments at this time) radio button in the Select Additional Appointment Counties section, and c) Non-Resident Producer: If the producer will be physically in Florida representing your company's insurance products, click the Appoint in the following counties radio button in the Select Additional Appointment Counties section, and then checkmark the checkbox corresponding to each county in which the producer will sell. For more information, consult the state department of insurance for more details about state and county appointment regulations.

If your company is using both PLM Producer Manager and Producer Express, you may potentially avoid unnecessary appointment costs in states that allow "indirect" appointments. Under an indirect appointment, an individual producer that holds a state-registered, corporate affiliation with the firm producer is considered appointed indirectly by virtue of the firm's active, state appointment. You may use the Association Maintenance service on the Service Requests page under the Express Services menu to file an individual-to-firm affiliation with certain states. For more information, see the Details data section.

You can set the system to send one or multiple recipients an email alert whenever a state responds to an appointment or termination request. For more information, see Producer Manager Message Center under Express Services.

State regulations or internal policies may require your company to issue a letter informing a producer about a new appointment. Although not available in PLM Producer Manager, automated correspondence capabilities are available through the Bulk Appointments and Bulk Record-Only Appointments utilities in PLM Producer Express. For more information, see Producer Express Bulk Processing Module User Guide or contact your Vertafore representative.

The system is Vertafore- and customer-configurable to allow the automatic submission of an appointment request following an automated data reconciliation of a producer's record to any state in which the producer is found to hold an eligible license or qualification. The "AutoAppoint" feature can save manual effort in appointing producers in states that your company considers "restricted" or "pre-appoint" states. For more information, see Configuration Options, Administer Producer Business Rules, or consult your Vertafore representative.