A. An agent or broker shall share a commission or compensation for or on account of the solicitation or negotiation in this state of insurance on individuals or property or risks in this state only with the agent's duly licensed solicitor, or duly licensed agent of the insurer with which the insurance was placed, or duly licensed broker.

B. No such licensee shall share in commission or compensation as to a kind of insurance for which not licensed.

C. Such sharing in commissions and compensation between the same such licensees shall be infrequently only, and shall not unduly obviate the general necessity of appointment of the agent by the insurer with which the insurance is placed.

D. Nothing in the Insurance Code [Chapter 59A NMSA 1978] shall be deemed to prohibit payment, to or for the account of a former owner of an insurance agency or brokerage, of commissions or part thereof currently accruing on business of the agency or brokerage, as part of the purchase price of the agency or brokerage, whether or not such former owner is currently licensed as agent, solicitor or broker.

E. Nothing in the Insurance Code shall be deemed to prohibit the payment of a commission, compensation or other valuable consideration to the personal representative of the estate, their trust or beneficiary, of a deceased agent or broker or the heirs or devisees if the estate has been distributed, if that agent or broker would otherwise be entitled to that payment.

History: Laws 1984, ch. 127, § 225; 1999, ch. 272, § 14; 1999, ch. 289, § 15; 2017, ch. 37, § 1.

The 2017 amendment, effective June 16, 2017, allowed for payment of incurred insurance agent and broker commissions and other compensation to deceased agents' and brokers' estates, and added Subsection E.

The 1999 amendment, effective June 18, 1999, in Subsection A, substituted "broker shall share a commission" for "nonresident broker or nonresident agent shall share a commission" near the beginning; deleted "resident" preceding "agent of the insurer" near the middle; and deleted "nonresident" preceding, and "or nonresident agent" following, "broker" at the end.