Sec. 4001.104. ISSUANCE OF LICENSE: INTENT TO ACTIVELY ENGAGE IN BUSINESS OF INSURANCE FOR GENERAL PUBLIC. (a) The department may not issue a license as an agent to write any line of insurance unless the department determines that:

(1) the applicant is or intends to be actively engaged in the soliciting or writing of insurance for the general public and is to be actively engaged in the business of insurance; and

(2) the application is not made to evade the laws against rebating and discrimination, either for the applicant or for another person.

(b) This subchapter does not prohibit an applicant from insuring property that the applicant owns or in which the applicant has an interest. It is the intent of this subchapter to prohibit coercion of insurance and to preserve to each individual the right to choose that individual's own agent or insurer and to prohibit the licensing of an applicant to engage in the business of insurance principally to handle business that the applicant controls only through ownership, mortgage, sale, family relationship, or employment. An applicant for an original license must have a bona fide intention to engage in business in which, in any calendar year, at least 25 percent of the total volume of premiums is derived from persons other than the applicant and from property other than that on which the applicant controls the placing of insurance through ownership, mortgage, sale, family relationship, or employment.

(c) The department may not deny a license application solely on the ground that the applicant will act only part-time as an agent.

Added by Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 1274, Sec. 7, eff. April 1, 2005.