Submit Background Investigation

Using Producer Manager, you can submit a request for an individual producer background verification and/or credit check to one of the following background investigation vendors -- Business Information Group (BIG), First Advantage, General Information Services (GIS), Interstate Background Research, or Application Insight.

Background investigation capabilities can include submitting your company's account login information with a chosen BI firm, requesting one or multiple background or credit check types, retrieving a secure link to the results, and/or pending an appointment request to the retrieval of a favorable background report.

Available background investigation types from most vendors include the following:

  • Credit check

  • Criminal county

  • Criminal federal

  • Criminal state

  • Education verification

  • Employment verification

  • Licensing state verification

Use the Submit Background Investigation page to submit a background investigation request for an individual licensee.

ClosedView screen capture

To open the Submit Background Investigation page, choose one of the following methods:

The Submit Background Investigation page contains the following sections:

ClosedRecord Summary

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

ClosedView screen capture

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.

ClosedCurrent Background Investigations

Displays a list of existing background investigation information for a selected individual producer.

Fields and controls include the following:

  • BI Firm: For each background investigation listed, displays the name of the background investigation firm that processed the BI request.

  • Investigation Types: For each background investigation listed, displays the types of background investigation(s) performed.

  • 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 Firm 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 a hyperlink to the background investigation firm's website, where an authorized user can log on and review details of the BI report.

  • Transfer All Related: For a listed background investigation with a Status of Error, click to checkmark the checkbox to transfer all related appointment requests to a newly submitted background investigation.

ClosedSubmit Background Investigation

Use the Submit Background Investigation section to enter the information necessary for submitting a background investigation.

Fields and controls include the following:

  • Cost Center: From the dropdown menu, select a cost center to assign the background investigation. If you do not have at least one cost center configured in your user account, the dropdown menu is disabled.

  • BI Firm: Required. Click to select the radio button corresponding to a background investigation firm to which to submit the background check request. If only one firm is configured in your company's instance of Producer Manager, the radio button corresponding to the single firm is selected by default.

  • Available BI Types: At least one required. Click to checkmark a checkbox corresponding to request one or multiple background investigation types.

ClosedPage Controls

Fields and controls include the following:

  • Submit: Click to submit a background investigation request.

  • Return: Click to exit the page without submitting a background investigation request.

Notes

Note: To submit a background investigation, an individual producer record must contain the following required information: birth date, residential address type address information, at least one education entry (if requesting a BI that includes verifying education), at least one employment history entry (if requesting a BI that includes verifying employment), and at least one active license (if requesting a BI that includes verifying active licensure). If any of the above requirements is not met, corresponding error messages are displayed.

Note: If no cost centers are defined for your user account, the Cost Center dropdown menu in the Submit Background Investigation section is disabled. A Vertafore-configured business rule (COST_CNTR_RQD) can be set to require a cost center when submitting a background investigation. For more information, see Configuration Options.

Note: The Available BI Types checkboxes are Vertafore-configurable only. No options are customer-configurable.

Note: If your company also is using Sircon Producer Express, Vertafore can set a global system rule to allow an automated BI request submitted through a Producer Express producer onboarding, maintenance transaction, or bulk BI request to go through only if the last prior BI request for a producer was a specified number of months or longer ago. For more information, see Configuration Options and Producer Express online help.

Note: An individual producer for whom you are requesting a background investigation request must have a Social Security Number on record in order to submit the request. If the producer lacks a Social Security Number, the Submit button in unavailable and the following message displays on the Submit Background Investigation page: "SSN is required on a producer record in order to submit a background investigation." To complete submission, cancel the request, navigate to the Details section of the producer record, enter the producer's Social Security Number in the SSN field, click the Save button, and then re-open the Submit Background Investigation page and try again.

Tips

You can submit producer background requests in batches, using the Bulk Business Data Updates capability in Producer Express. For more information about Bulk Business Data Updates, contact your Vertafore representative. Also, see Printable Help Guides.

Background investigation responses in either Sircon Producer Manager or Producer Express now can be simulated for testing purposes in your company's user acceptance testing (UAT) environment. If you are interested in testing background investigations with simulated responses, please contact your Vertafore representative for more information.