The Legal Status Of The Insurance Agent In China

The insurance agent is an important force in the insurance industry in China.As more and more attention has been given to the undesirable phenomena during insurance sale procedure in recent years,, insurance agent’s legal status has begun to receive attention. To investigate the legal status of the insurance agent, we must first define the legal status of the insurance agents, however, there is not much study on the legal status, according to the research results, but from them we can see the legal status contains concepts such as legal subject,legal relationship and rights and obligations.So the insurance agent’s legal status can be defined as the location of an insurance agent in the insurance legal relationship, and it is embodied by the insurance agent’s rights and obligations.Based on this definition, the description of the legal status of the Chinese insurance agent consists of three parts, specific legal relationship that insurance agents are involved in, the identity of the insurance agents and rights and obligations of insurance agents in the legal relationship.Insurance agents engage in agency activities dealing with the two sides of the insurers and the insured.The principal-agent legal relationship exists between insurance agents and insurers, while whether there is a legal relationship between insurance agents and policyholders has differences in theoretical circles. Under usual circumstances, according to the conditions of the legal relationship establishment, there is no existence of rights and obligations between insurance agents and policyholders and therefore there is no legal relationship only in exceptional circumstances, such as an insurance agent does business without authorization,the insurance agent has to compensate for the losses of the insured.According to China’s insurance laws and regulations, with respect to an insurer, the insurance agent is entitled to rights to get paid and require the insurer’s support of the sale activities, and shall make its best efforts to facilitate transactions and to safeguard the insurer’s interest based on the insurance agent contract, together with report, loyal, and other obligations.At this point, the legal status of the insurance agent can be described as:the insurance agent is commissioned by the insurer, within the range authorized by the insurer to handle the insurance business, and establishes a principal-agent legal relationship with the insurer as a commercial subject independent of and equal to the insurer, entitled to the commission claim specific performance of insurance agents in the legal relationship.Such a status can be embodied by the insurance agent’s rights to get paid and require the insurer’s support of the sale activities, and obligations to make its best efforts to facilitate transactions and to safeguard the insurer’s interest based on the insurance agent contract, together with report, loyal, and others.Although insurance agents have independent legal status equal to the insurer, there are two problems in the insurance agent’s legal status.First, all types of insurance agents are present imbalance in the rights and obligations of the legal provisions, rights fewer than obligations.Second, the subject type of personal insurance agent is unidentified by law. One of the consequences of these problems is the insurer may invade the insurance agent, especially the personal insurance agent while no corresponding legal provisions can stop it, making the actual status of the insurance agents vulnerable and violations of law increasing.These problems arise for two reasons.First, insurance laws and regulations are unsound in this area,as well as civil law and the Contract Law.Second, the insurance industry has been developing rapidly in a short time in mainland China, and legislative practice is insufficient to cope with the changes in the insurance industry. However, to improve the legal status of the insurance agent can only proceed from the improvement of legislation. Comparing insurance agency legislation in other countries and regions can inspire the improvement in China, which can be divided into two parts, one is civil law and the Contract Law, the other is insurance law and department regulations.Improving the legal status of Chinese insurance agents, is ultimately in order to promote the development of China’s insurance industry and to improve the image of the industry, so it is necessary to reverse the relatively weak actual status of the individual insurance agent. In addition to a number of suggestions having been proposed by other scholars, a personal insurance agent association can also be created, which can provide a more rational management of personal insurance agent.