The following definitions apply to this chapter:

(1)  “Business entity” means a corporation, association, partnership, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, or other legal entity;

(2)  “Contracted producer report” means the annual report that all insurers contracting with insurance producers must provide to the department on or by March 1 listing each insurance producer to whom the insurer paid one hundred dollars ($100) or more in commissions for the preceding calendar year of January 1 to December 31. The department shall prescribe the form and manner of reporting.

(3)  “Department” means the department of business regulation;

(4)  “Home state” means any state or territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia, in which an insurance producer maintains his or her principal place of residence or principal place of business and is licensed to act as an insurance producer;

(5)  “Insurance” means any of the lines of authority set forth in this title;

(6)  “Insurance commissioner” means the director of the department of business regulation or his or her designee;

(7)  “Insurance producer” means a person required to be licensed under the laws of this state to sell, solicit or negotiate insurance;

(8)  “Insurer” means: (i) any person, reciprocal exchange, interinsurer, Lloyds insurer, fraternal benefit society, and any other legal entity engaged in the business of insurance, including insurance producers; (ii) notwithstanding §§ 27-19-2, 27-20-2, 27-20.1-2, 27-20.2-2, 27-20.3-2, and 27-41-22, all of whom shall be engaged in the business of insurance for the purpose of this chapter, nonprofit hospital and/or medical service corporation, a nonprofit dental service corporation, a nonprofit optometric service corporation, a nonprofit legal service corporation, a health maintenance organization as defined in chapter 41 of this title or as defined in chapter 62 of Title 42, or any other entity providing a plan of health benefits subject to state insurance regulation; and (iii) an organization that for consideration assumes certain risks for an insured. Insurer organizations may include corporations, stock companies, mutual companies, risk retention groups, reciprocals, captives, Lloyds associations, and government residual plans.

(9)  “License” means a document issued by this state’s insurance commissioner authorizing a person to act as an insurance producer for the lines of authority specified in the document. The license itself does not create any authority, actual, apparent or inherent, in the holder to represent or commit an insurance carrier;

(10)  “Limited line credit insurance” includes credit life, credit disability, credit property, credit unemployment, involuntary unemployment, mortgage life, mortgage guaranty, mortgage disability, guaranteed automobile protection (gap) insurance, and any other form of insurance offered in connection with an extension of credit that is limited to partially or wholly extinguishing that credit obligation that the insurance commissioner determines should be designated a form of limited line credit insurance;

(11)  “Limited line credit insurance producer” means a person who sells, solicits or negotiates one or more forms of limited line credit insurance coverage to individuals through a master, corporate, group or individual policy;

(12)  “Limited lines insurance” means those lines of insurance that the insurance commissioner deems necessary to recognize for purposes of complying with subsection 27-2.4-10(e);

(13)  “Limited lines producer” means a person authorized by the insurance commissioner to sell, solicit or negotiate limited lines insurance;

(14)  “NAIC” means National Association of Insurance Commissioners;

(15)  “Negotiate” means the act of conferring directly with or offering advice directly to a purchaser or prospective purchaser of a particular contract of insurance concerning any of the substantive benefits, terms or conditions of the contract, provided that the person engaged in that act either sells insurance or obtains insurance from insurers for purchasers;

(16)  “Person” means an individual;

(17)  “Resident” means a person who either resides in Rhode Island or maintains an office in Rhode Island where the business of producing insurance is transacted and designates Rhode Island as the residence for purposes of licensure;

(18)  “Sell” means to exchange a contract of insurance by any means, for money or its equivalent, on behalf of an insurance company;

(19)  “Solicit” means attempting to sell insurance or asking or urging a person to apply for a particular kind of insurance from a particular company;

(20)  “Terminate” means the cancellation of the relationship between an insurance producer and the insurer or the termination of an insurance producer’s authority to transact insurance;

(21)  “Uniform application” means the current version of the NAIC uniform application for resident and nonresident insurance producer licensing.