NIPR Notes Price Reductions for 2004

The Board of Directors of the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) announced a 10 percent reduction in prices on all NIPR products effective Jan. 1, 2004, bringing unexpected savings to insurers, producers and brokers across the country. NIPR, a non-profit affiliate of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), provides products to streamline and bring uniformity to the insurance producer licensing process.

“It’s incredibly gratifying to take this step, which helps make great products affordable and accessible to the industry while continuing to ensure that state regulatory needs are being met,” said Joel Ario, Oregon Insurance Administrator, who also serves as Secretary-Treasurer of the NAIC and president of the NIPR Board. “It also indicates the continuing growth of NIPR, which has gone from a lean start-up entity to reach a tremendous level of success, making this price reduction possible. All 50 states now participate in NIPR’s Producer Database (PDB), illustrating the self-fulfilling success of our process: more users means NIPR can reduce prices, which in turn can lead to more users, and potentially more revenue growth.”

The reduction applies to all NIPR products, including PDB, which compiles information on licensed producers, the Electronic Nonresident Licensing (ENRL) service, and an electronic appointment and termination agent tracking service. All told, the price reduction will reportedly amount to a projected reduction in NIPR revenue of nearly $1 million, although Ario acknowledged that anticipated increased usage should mitigate that impact.

“I’m pleased that NIPR’s arrangement of public/private governance has built such a successful entity,” said Ario. “It shows how we can come together and meet challenges to the benefit of industry, regulators and consumers. Certainly, however, we have many more priorities on the horizon and we are aggressively pursuing those as part of our overall modernization efforts.”

The revised pricing structure eliminates any prepayment on the part of users, and reportedly creates a “guaranteed amount of usage” agreement that runs for one year and is automatically renewable.

For more information, log onto: www.naic.org .