Insurance Agent To Inform The Obligations Of Institutional Research

With the expanding of the insurance market, Insurance agents play the more and more important role during the insurance transactions. The growing number and the uneven quality of the insurance agents, especially the personal agents, make the insurance business developing in an abnormal road, which aggravate the mess of the insurance market. The dishonest advertising and misleading introduction of the insurance services by the insurance agents harms the interests of the insurers and the insurants. This phenomenon has much thing to do with the asymmetric information which can be settled by founding a regulation of disclosing obligation of insurance agents. This article fully and wildly reviews the disclosing obligation of insurance agents, in a train of thought which based on practice and implemented with theories of law and economics, comparative jurisprudence, Legal History and Analysis of Law, aiming to have the duty of the disclosure of the insurance agent reasonably positioned. The main points are that the duty of the disclosure of insurance agents in practice should be prompted to a high theory level, and the contents about the issue and the legal liability of insurance agents should be reasonably positioned and designed. The article reviews the information subjects and the duty of the disclosure in the insurance market in a renewed angle of vision, and addresses a designation for regulation which carries weight for the regular development of the insurance and insurance agency markets to both theory and practice.The main of this article is divided into four parts:The first part gives an introduction of the general theories of the duty of the disclosure of insurance agents. Firstly, the connotation of the duty of the disclosure of insurance agents is defined, which includes the clear position of the insurance agent as well as his disclosing obligations. Secondly, we analyze the characteristics of the disclosing obligations of the insurance agent and emphasize that the insurance agent is independent, as an informing party, of the insurer and the insurant. Lastly, illustrating in detail the theoretical basis for the disclosing obligations of an insurance agent by both analyzing methods of economic and the science of law, based on which we indicate that asymmetric information theory and good faith with equity are the main theoretical points.The second part analyzes the contents of the obligations to disclose of the insurance agent, which is the key point of the article. The regulation of the disclosing duties of the insurance agent aims at enhancing the protection for the insurant's interests. The contents include three parts: First, The obligation of informing the affairs about insurance services and the articles of the contract related, which includes the agent information of the insurer as well as of the insurant. Second, The obligation of explaining the interests conflict. This obligation, coming from the common law, requests the insurance agent to deal with the affairs in good faith including no conflict dual duties or secret profits, explaining in time and avoiding any loss as soon as possible once interests conflict. Third, The duty to advise the insurance services. These obligations are widely accepted in the United States. In the country there are three kinds of attitudes about whether the agent should undertake an initiative advising obligations to the insurants as well as the standards. The article holds the opinion that the insurance agent should undertake an initiative advising obligations to the insurants and the standard for the obligation is acting as an insurance professional rather than a reasonable cautious person.The third part expounds the breach of the disclosing obligations of the insurance agent and the responsibility herein resulted. With regard to the composition elements of the breach of the disclosing obligations, we stand for or advocate objectivism, which means when a conduct breaches the above-mentioned duties, it composes a breach of the obligations of disclosure regardless of the subjective intention of the conductor. Among the agent's responsibilities to the breach of the said information obligations, the civil responsibility, including the responsibility of contract and the liability for tort, will mainly be discussed in such article. On the basis of referring to the English laws and American laws, the article gives a general analysis of the five common manners in order to provide some reference resources for the practical application.The fourth part of the article makes a discussion of the present conditions of regulations of the obligations to disclose of the insurance agent as well as relevant measures for perfection. The related litigation about the disclosing obligations of the insurance agent is of some shortcomings to some degree. And the insurance agency contract and the internal rules of the insurance company are too trivial to be systematic. What's more, the rules of supervision of the Insurance Regulation and Administration Authority and its branches, insurance companies and the Association of Insurance Industry are not so perfect and the strength should be strengthened. With the consideration of the conditions mentioned, the article brings up some immature advices to the perfection of the law system and the regulations of supervision according to the reality of the insurance business in China, hoping to give some helps to the foundation and the perfection of the regulations of the disclosing obligations of the insurance agent.