§ 58-21-65.  Licensing of surplus lines license.

(a) For insureds whose home state is this State, no insurance producer licensed by the Commissioner shall directly procure any contract of surplus lines insurance with any nonadmitted domestic surplus lines insurer or nonadmitted insurer, unless he possesses a current surplus lines insurance license issued by the Commissioner.

(b) The Commissioner shall issue a surplus lines license to any qualified holder of a current insurance producer license with property and casualty lines of authority, but only when the agent has done all of the following:

(1) Remitted the fifty dollars ($50.00) annual fee to the Commissioner.

(2) Submitted a completed license application on a form supplied by the Commissioner, and the application has been approved by the Commissioner.

(3) Passed a qualifying examination approved by the Commissioner; except that all holders of a license prior to July 11, 1985 shall be deemed to have passed such an examination.

(4) Repealed by Session Laws 2004-199, s. 20(c), effective August 17, 2004.

(c) Corporations shall be eligible to be surplus lines licensees, upon the following conditions:

(1) The corporate licensee shall list individuals within the corporation who have satisfied all requirements of this Article to become surplus lines licensees; and

(2) Only those individuals listed on the corporate license and who are surplus lines licensees shall transact surplus lines business.

(d) Each surplus lines license shall be issued on September 1 of each year and expire August 31 of the following year unless renewed. Application for renewal shall be made 30 days before the expiration date. The license shall be renewed upon payment of the annual license fee and compliance with the other applicable provisions of this section. Any person who places surplus lines insurance without a valid surplus lines license in effect shall pay a penalty of one thousand dollars ($1,000) and be subject to such other penalties as provided by law.

The clear proceeds of civil penalties provided for in this subsection shall be remitted to the Civil Penalty and Forfeiture Fund in accordance with G.S. 115C-457.2.

(e) Any person who does not renew a surplus lines license and applies for another surplus lines license more than two years after the expiration date of the previous license shall be required to satisfy every condition in this section, including the written exam, before the Commissioner issues another surplus lines license to that person.

(f) Repealed by Session Laws 2011-120, s. 8, effective July 21, 2011. (1985, c. 688, s. 1; 1985 (Reg. Sess., 1986), c. 928, s. 6; c. 1013, ss. 4, 16; 1987, c. 629, s. 18; c. 752, s. 6; 1987 (Reg. Sess., 1988), c. 975, s. 14; 1991, c. 212, s. 1; c. 644, s. 41; 1998-215, s. 85; 2004-199, s. 20(c); 2008-124, s. 10.2; 2009-566, s. 11; 2011-120, s. 8; 2015-101, s. 4; 2015-281, s. 14; 2018-120, s. 2.1(j); 2022-46, s. 14(x).)