As announced in the December 29, 2017, Personal Lines Bulletin, Citizens reinstated the disciplinary action for late submissions bound on or after January 1, 2018. We now are expanding the disciplinary process for performance violations that are issued on new-business applications bound on or after October 1, 2018.

Performance Violation Notices

As a reminder, Citizens issues Performance Violation Notices when an agent:

• Circumvents the document submission process
• Submits an ineligible risk
• Submits an uninsurable risk
• Posts premium on an unbound risk
• Fails to upload a premium finance company contract (when applicable)
• Incorrectly applies credits, discounts or surcharges
• Fails to acquire policyholder signature(s) on the application

As mentioned in the May 21, 2018, Agent Updates Bulletin, binding violations have been renamed performance violations. The Performance Standards Program measures the number of late submissions and the number of performance violations incurred by an agent. Agents and their office staff should be aware of and avoid performance violations and the disciplinary actions outlined below.

Disciplinary Process for Performance Violations

Beginning October 1, 2018, Citizens will use a progressive, four-step disciplinary process for performance violations, which will be based on individual agent’s submissions (not the agency level) and also on the number of submissions within a 12-month rolling cycle:

Notes

• Violations cannot be removed through corrective action taken after the violation occurs. For more details, refer to the resources below.
• Nothing in this communication alters or affects Citizens' disciplinary process for tracking or measuring late submissions.
• Performance violations and late submissions follow two different disciplinary tracks.

Citizens has developed training resources and frequently asked questions (FAQs) to help agents stay in compliance with new-business processes and to avoid disciplinary action. See the resources below for more information.

Resources

On the Public site, select News → Agent Bulletins for the agent communications:

• Agent Updates: Personal Lines: Agent Performance Standards Program
• Personal Lines Bulletin: Performance Standards Program Updates

Log in to the Agents site and select:

• Training → Personal for the following:
  • Disputing a Performance Violation job aid
  • Managing Late-Submission Violations job aid
  • New Business: Submission through Issuance module
  • Uploading and Linking Documents job aid
  • Creating an Effective Date Change Request job aid
  • Cancelling a Bound Submission with Payment job aid
  • Personal Lines Required Document Guides
    • Note: These guides also are on the PR-M and PR-W pages of the Personal section of the Agents site
• myAgency → Agency Forms → General for Agent/Agency Disciplinary Action Appeals Procedures
• Search → Search Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) from the website’s top menu. Enter Performance Violation in the search field.
  • Note: Agents also can access the FAQs via the Knowledge Base link at the top-right corner of every screen in PolicyCenter^®.