Add Associations

Use the Add Individual Firm Association/Association State page to add a "record-only" affiliation between an individual producer (e.g., agent or broker) and a firm producer (e.g., agency or brokerage).

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To open the Add Individual Firm Association/Association State page, choose one of the following methods:

From the Licensing menu, select Associations, and then select Add Associations. Then, perform a Producer Search for both the individual and the firm producer whose association information you want to correct.
With the record of an individual producer open in the Review/Update Producer page, in the Firm Associations data section click the Add New Firm Association link. Then, perform a Producer Search for the firm producer to associate with the selected individual producer.
With the record of a firm producer open in the Review/Update Producer page, in the Individual Associations data section click the Add New Individual Association link. Then, perform a Producer Search for the individual producer to associate with the selected firm producer.
With the record of an individual producer open in the Review/Update Producer page, in the Firm Associations data section click the Add New Association State link. Then, perform a Producer Search for the firm producer to associate with the selected individual producer.
With the record of a firm producer open in the Review/Update Producer page, in the Individual Associations data section click the Add New Individual Association or State Association link. Then, perform a Producer Search for the individual producer to associate with the selected firm producer.

The Add Individual Firm Association/Association State page contains the following sections:

Record Summary

Displays summary information of the producer record currently open for review and/or updating.

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Fields and controls in the 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.

Active Qualifications

Current Association

Displays basic information about existing individual-to-firm associations and the states in which the association is recorded on the selected individual and firm records.

When no affiliation information exists, the following message displays: "No Association exists."

Fields and controls include the following:

Begin Date: Displays the date on which the individual became associated with the firm.
End Date: Inactive associations only. Displays the date on which the association between the individual and the firm became inactive.
Current Association States: Displays a table listing the states in which the selected individual and firm producers hold existing associations and association details. When no state association information exists, the following message displays: "No State Association exists."

Fields and controls include the following:

State: For each association state listed, displays the association state name.
Association Type: For each association state listed, displays the type of individual-to-firm association.
Position: For each association state listed, displays the employment title the individual holds in relation to the firm.
Begin Date: For each association state listed, displays the date on which the individual-to-firm association began.
End Date: Inactive firm associations only. For each association state listed, displays the date on which the individual-to-firm association ended.
State Registered: For each association state listed, displays Yes if the individual-to-firm association is recorded with the department of insurance in the selected association state; displays No if the individual-to-firm association is not recorded with the department of insurance in the selected association state (i.e., recorded only in your company's internal records).
Association State: Required. From the dropdown menu, select the name of a state in which to add an individual-to-firm affiliation. Both the firm and individual producer should be licensed and hold active and matching qualifications in the selected state.
Association Type: Required. From the dropdown menu, select a relationship of the individual to the firm in a selected association state.
Position: From the dropdown menu, select an employment title of the individual with the firm in a selected association state.
Begin Date: Enter the date on which the individual's association with the firm became effective in a selected association state. Use the mmddyyyy date format. Or, click the Calendar button () to open a popup calendar from which you can click to select a date.
State Registered: Click the Yes radio button if the individual-to-firm association is recorded with the department of insurance in the selected association state. Or, click the No radio button if the individual-to-firm association is not recorded with the department of insurance in the selected association state (i.e., recorded only in your company's internal records).

Page Controls

Warnings

All data that is added or updated using this page will apply only to the affected record in Producer Manager. The data will not be transmitted directly from Producer Manager to states nor update state records.

Notes

Note: Firm associations recorded on the Add Individual Firm Association/Association State page automatically will update the Firm Associations data section of the individual producer record and the Individual Associations data section of the firm producer record.

Note: When a producer holds at least one active individual-to-firm association in a state, the Status field in the Details data section of the producer's record will hold a value of Active. This condition persists even after the producer no longer holds an active state appointment. To set the Status field to Inactive, you must terminate all active appointments and individual-to-firm associations. For more information, see Review/Update Producer, Terminate Appointments, and Terminate Associations.

Note: In a state selected in the Active Qualifications section, where either a firm or individual producer does not hold an active LOA, the following message will appear: "No Active Qualification exists." Otherwise the system displays the value of an active LOA as derived from the Qualification Type field in the Qualifications data section of the producer's record.

Note: The values available in the Association Type and Position dropdown menus can be user-configured on the Maintain Codes page by users with administrative permissions. Set values for the Association Type dropdown menu using the INDV_ORG_ASSC_ASSC_CD code group. Set values for the Position dropdown menu using the INDV_ORG_ASSC_POS_CD code group. For more information, see Maintain Codes.

Note: Individuals recorded in Producer Manager as being actively associated with a firm may be selected to be included on a shared firm appointment request submitted to Arkansas. A shared appointment requires the selection of at least one affiliated (associated) individual producer, typically an agency principal. Once a firm's shared appointment request is submitted, the shared appointment automatically will populate the Appointments data section of selected individual's producer's record and the firm record. For more information, see Add Appointments.

Note: When you add an association between an individual producer and a firm, and the associated firm has an active agreement, the system automatically will add an indirect agreement with the associated firm to the Agreements data section of the individual producer's record. Note, however, that if you terminate the association, the system will not automatically inactivate the individual producer's indirect agreement with the associated firm.

Tips

You may use the Association Maintenance service in Compliance Express to register, maintain, or terminate individual agent-to-agency affiliations ("firm affiliations" or "associations") with certain states. Using the service, a firm affiliation transaction is submitted electronically to a selected state department of insurance and updates state records. The Association Maintenance service is available on the Service Requests page under the Express Services menu. For more information, refer to the Compliance Express online help.

Firm association information can be loaded to a batch of producer records through a custom data load, performed by Vertafore Managed Services. For more information, consult your Vertafore representative.

Individual-to-firm affiliations recorded in the Associations data section is just one way to track producer relationships in Producer Manager. Depending on your business objectives, you may also use Business Units, Agreements, External System IDs, and Locations and Departments to logically group and record business connections among individual and firm producers.

To research specific state regulations regarding individual-to-firm affiliations, we recommend Sircon Regulatory Reference Library, an online reference tool that maintains updated information on state insurance rules and requirements. For more information, contact your Vertafore representative.

Run the Individual Associations Inquiry to obtain a report of individual producers affiliated with a specific firm as recorded in Producer Manager. Or, you may review a selected firm's individual-to-firm associations (affiliations) as officially registered in a selected "Sircon State" by running the Firm Status Inquiry in Compliance Express. The Firm Status Inquiry is available from the Inquiries page under the Express Services menu. For more information, refer to the Compliance Express online help.