For the month of February, Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler issued fines to insurers who violated the state’s insurance regulations. The fines issued reached a total of $17,675.
Madison National Life Insurance Co. was fined $4,500 for allowing insurance producers to sell policies with lapsed appointments. The law requires insurers to file a notice and pay a fee to the Insurance Commissioner for every licensed producer acting as an agent of an insurer. Madison let 112 insurance producers with lapsed appointments to compete 147 transactions, generating more than $15,000 in premiums.
LPL Financial Corp. was fined $2,000; the insurer is a nonresident licensed insurance producer. LPL had appointed insurance producer Charles C. Fackrell to conduct business on its behalf, but the Insurance Commissioner had revoked Fackrell’s license September for violating several state insurance licensing regulations. LPL did not report Fackrell’s violations nor did it take correction action, and the insurer agreed to pay the fine.
Assurance Group, Inc. was fined $3,000 for allowing 35 producers during its first nine years in the region to sell its policies without being formally affiliated with the company.
Insurance producer Garcia Gilberto, Jr. of Kennewick was fined $500 for pressuring a consumer into purchasing a Medicare supplement policy that she did not want. According to the consumer, she felt threatened and coerced by Gilberto.
Koby Leach of Medical Lake was fined $250 for failing to disclose a misdemeanor conviction on her insurance producer licensing application, which was detailed in her background check results. After paying the fine, the Insurance Commissioner will process Leach’s licensing application.
Licensed insurance producer Kyle Jensen of Forest Park was fined $250 for erroneously issuing a policy for a consumer with a boat while listing the Port of Edmonds as an additional insured party.
Producer Scott R. Daniels was fined $5,000. According to a consumer who purchased seven new and replacement annuities from Daniels, the annuities were not suitable to their needs. Daniels also failed to give the consumer adequate information about the annuities he was selling.
The CEU Institute was fined $2,175 for not properly documenting attendance at its courses. The continuing insurance education provider was also fined for issuing certificates of completion to individuals who did not complete the courses.
Both Matthew Gingerich and Giovanna Sierra Chavez were revoked of their licenses as insurance producers; the former for misappropriating nearly $30,000 in consumers’ premium payments and the latter for not only taking premium payments from customers, but also for issuing a fake insurance card to a customer without a policy.
