Colorado § 10-2-103 - Definitions.

§ 10-2-103. Definitions.

As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "Catastrophic disaster" means an event, as declared by the president of the United States or the governor, or both, which results in large numbers of deaths or injuries; causes extensive damage or destruction of property or facilities that provide and sustain human needs; produces an overwhelming demand on state and local response resources and mechanisms; causes a severe long-term effect on general economic activity; or severely affects state, local, and private sector capabilities to begin and sustain response activities.

(1.5) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of insurance.

(2) "Health coverage" means accident and health or sickness and accident policies or contracts including other health coverages provided by insurers, health maintenance organizations, or nonprofit hospital and surgical plans.

(2.5) "Home state" means the District of Columbia and any state or territory of the United States in which an insurance producer meets the following:

(a) Maintains the producer's principal place of residence or principal place of business; and

(b) Is licensed to act as an insurance producer.

(3) "Individual" means any private or natural person as distinguished from a partnership, corporation, association, or any foreign or domestic entity as defined in section 7-90-102, C.R.S.

(4) "Insurance" means any of the lines of authority set forth in section 10-2-407 (1).

(5) "Insurance agency" or "business entity" means a corporation, partnership, association, or foreign or domestic entity as defined in section 7-90-102, C.R.S., or other legal entity that transacts the business of insurance.

(6) "Insurance producer" or "producer", except as otherwise provided in section 10-2-105, means:

(a) A person who solicits, negotiates, effects, procures, delivers, renews, continues, or binds:

(I) Policies of insurance for risks residing, located, or to be performed in this state;

(II) Membership in a prepayment plan as defined in parts 2 and 3 of article 16 of this title; or

(III) Membership enrollment in a health-care plan as defined in part 4 of article 16 of this title; and

(b) A public adjuster.

(6.5) "Insurer" means every person engaged as principal, indemnitor, surety, or contractor in the business of making contracts of insurance.

(7) "License" means a document issued by the commissioner that authorizes a person to act as an insurance producer for the lines of authority, specified in such document. The license itself does not create any authority, actual, apparent, or inherent, in the holder to represent or commit an insurance carrier to a binding agreement.

(7.1) "Limited line insurance" means those lines of authority other than those defined in section 10-2-407 (1)(a) to (1)(e) or any other line of insurance that the commissioner may deem necessary to recognize for the purpose of complying with section 10-2-502.

(7.3) "Limited line producer" means a person authorized by the commissioner to sell, solicit, or negotiate limited lines of insurance.

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

(7.7) "Limited lines credit insurance producer" means a person who sells, solicits, or negotiates one or more forms of limited lines credit insurance coverage to individuals through a master, corporate, group, or individual policy.

(7.9) "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, if the person engaged in that act either sells insurance or obtains insurance from insurers for purchasers or acts as a public adjuster.

(8) "Person" includes any individual or a business entity.

(8.5) "Public adjuster" means any person who, for compensation or any other thing of value on behalf of the insured:

(a) Acts or aids, solely in relation to first-party claims arising under insurance contracts that insure the real or personal property or allied lines of the insured, on behalf of an insured in negotiating for, or effecting, the settlement of a claim for loss or damage covered by an insurance contract;

(b) Advertises for employment as a public adjuster of insurance claims or solicits business or represents himself or herself to the public as a public adjuster of first-party insurance claims for losses or damages arising out of policies of insurance that insure real or personal property or allied lines; or

(c) Directly or indirectly solicits business, investigates or adjusts losses, or advises an insured about first-party claims for losses or damages arising out of policies of insurance that insure real or personal property or allied lines for another person engaged in the business of adjusting losses or damages covered by an insurance policy for the insured.

(9) (Deleted by amendment, L. 2001, p. 1190, § 3, effective January 1, 2002.)

(10) "Sell" means to exchange a contract of insurance by any means, for money or its equivalent, on behalf of an insurance company.

(11) "Solicit" means attempting to sell insurance, asking or urging a person to apply for a particular kind of insurance from a particular company, or asking or urging a person to use the services of, or services in connection with activities as, a public adjuster.

(12) "Terminate" means the cancellation of the relationship between an insurance producer and the insurer or the termination of a producer's authority to transact insurance.

(13) "Uniform business entity application" means the current version of the national association of insurance commissioners' uniform business entity application for resident and nonresident business entities.

(14) "Uniform application" means the current version of the national association of insurance commissioners' uniform application for resident and nonresident producer licensing.

Source: L. 93: Entire article R&RE, p. 1348, § 1, effective January 1, 1995. L. 2001: (2.5), (6.5), (7.1), (7.3), (7.5), (7.7), (7.9), (10), (11), (12), (13), and (14) added and (3), (4), (5), (7), (8), and (9) amended, p. 1190, § 3, effective January 1, 2002. L. 2009: (7.1), (7.3), (7.5), and (7.7) amended, (SB 09-292), ch. 369, p. 1940, § 10, effective August 5. L. 2013: (1), (6), (7.9), and (11) amended and (1.5) and (8.5) added, (HB 13-1062), ch. 61, p. 200, § 1, effective January 1, 2014.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former §§ 10-2-102 and 10-2-202 as they existed prior to 1993.