Ask Your Peers  P&C agency licensing question 

Hello,

I'm working on a project within the agency and wondering if anyone knows the legalities of building out a DBA/Division of the primary agency. In doing this do I need any additional licensing to do so? Is this dependent on the state(s) operating in? All policies will still be written under the primary agency license, the objective is to brand out and build a vertical specific website, product offering, and future program.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I would be interested in this information as well. Thanks!

You may wish to reach out to your state's Secretary of State and look into adding a "dba" "alias" and/or "trade name" to your current entity, as well as your state's OCI to ensure identity compliance (to avoid consumer confusion).

That said, your question by definition includes questions of law, therefore, it's really more appropriate to speak with an attorney because you may otherwise receive a response that appears correct on its face, albeit horribly wrong in reality. In fact, I would go so far as to say a few dollars in prevention is possibly going to save you lots in cure, as well as the potential embarrassment if Monday quarterbacking judges a mistake made....

Best of luck

Thanks Robert for the input, I've already filed the dba with the state so next steps sounds like calling the the AZDOI and going from there. An attorney is a great idea as well, cover all the bases.