Kansas 2025-2026 Regular Session

Kansas House Bill HB2049

Introduced
1/21/25  
Refer
1/21/25  
Report Pass
1/30/25  
Engrossed
2/7/25  
Refer
2/10/25  

Caption

Updating public adjuster and insurance agent statutes pertaining to suspension, revocation, denial of licensure and licensure renewal.

Summary

HB 2049 updates Kansas statutes governing the licensing of insurance agents and public adjusters, focusing on when the insurance commissioner may deny, suspend, revoke, or refuse to renew a license. The bill restates and expands the list of disqualifying or sanctionable conduct, including inaccurate application information, fraud, misrepresentation, misuse of funds, cheating on licensing exams, accepting business from unlicensed persons, failure to respond to the commissioner, and certain criminal convictions. It also preserves the commissioner’s authority to act after notice and hearing, and allows lesser discipline such as censure or administrative penalties instead of license action in appropriate cases. The bill also adds or clarifies standards the commissioner must consider when evaluating applicants with misdemeanor or felony convictions, and when deciding whether to reinstate a revoked license. Those factors include the age and recency of the conduct, seriousness, rehabilitation, candor, moral fitness, and current competence in the insurance industry. For business entities, the bill allows discipline where a partner, officer, or manager knew or should have known of an employee’s violation and failed to report it or correct it. It also authorizes assessment of hearing costs against the subject of the proceeding and bars suspended or revoked agents and public adjusters from working for insurers in Kansas during the suspension or revocation period.

Impact

HB 2049 amends K.S.A. 40-5510 and K.S.A. 2024 Supp. 40-4909, replacing the prior versions of those statutes and updating the disciplinary framework for insurance agents and public adjusters. It strengthens the Kansas Insurance Commissioner’s enforcement tools, clarifies grounds for discipline, codifies rehabilitation-based review factors for applicants with criminal histories, and imposes additional procedural and financial consequences in administrative hearings. The bill affects licensed insurance agents, public adjusters, insurance businesses, and applicants seeking initial licensure or renewal in Kansas.

Sentiment

The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial. It passed the House 114-0 and the Senate 40-0, indicating unanimous approval in both chambers. The available record contains no committee testimony or recorded opposition, suggesting the measure was viewed as a technical or administrative update to insurance licensing and enforcement laws rather than a contentious policy change.

Contention

No significant points of contention are reflected in the available materials. The main policy choices in the bill are administrative in nature: expanding disciplinary grounds, preserving commissioner discretion, and adding explicit rehabilitation factors for applicants with criminal convictions. If any issue could have drawn scrutiny, it would likely be the commissioner’s broad authority to deny or discipline licenses and the assessment of hearing costs against the regulated party, but the unanimous votes suggest these provisions were not controversial in practice.

Companion Bills

No companion bills found.

Previously Filed As

KS SB7

Authorizing federally licensed firearm dealers, in addition to county sheriffs, to receive applications for concealed carry licenses and forward such applications to the attorney general, prohibiting sheriffs from assessing any fee related to application services and allowing dealers to assess a fee related to application services not to exceed $20.

KS HB2002

Expanding medical assistance eligibility and enacting the cutting healthcare costs for all Kansans act.

KS SB1

Modifying income tax rates for individuals, exempting all social security benefits from Kansas income tax, increasing the Kansas standard deduction and the Kansas personal exemption, increasing the income tax credit amount for household and dependent care expenses, decreasing the privilege tax normal tax, excluding internal revenue code section 1031 exchange transactions as indicators of fair market value for property tax valuation purposes, increasing the extent of property tax exemption for residential property from the statewide school levy, providing for certain transfers to the state school district finance fund and abolishing the local ad valorem tax reduction fund and the county and city revenue sharing fund.

KS HB2001

Authorizing the secretary of commerce to enter into agreements with major professional sports franchises to establish STAR bond projects for a major professional sports complex, providing for additional revenue sources, expanding the powers and discretion of the secretary and making other changes to the STAR bonds financing act to facilitate such projects, limiting the secretary’s authority to approve such projects to one year unless extended by the legislative coordinating council, authorizing the Kansas development finance authority to issue STAR bonds for such projects, transferring funds under certain circumstances from the state gaming revenues fund to the attracting professional sports to Kansas fund for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, and, if approved by the legislative coordinating council, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026.

KS HB2003

Establishing the veterans' valor property tax relief act providing for an income tax credit or refund for eligible individuals, modifying the definition of household income and increasing the appraised value threshold for eligibility of seniors and disabled veterans related to increased property tax claims and citing the section as the homeowners' property tax freeze program, providing property tax exemptions for certain personal property including watercraft, marine equipment, off-road vehicles, motorized bicycles and certain trailers, excluding internal revenue code section 1031 exchange transactions as indicators of fair market value, providing for certain exclusions from the prohibition of paying taxes under protest after a valuation notice appeal and providing four prior years' values on the annual valuation notice.

KS SB2

Eliminating the income limit to qualify for the subtraction modification exempting social security benefits, increasing the income tax credit amount for household and dependent care expenses, establishing the veterans' valor property tax relief act providing for an income tax credit or refund for eligible individuals, citing the increased property tax homestead refund claim section as the homeowners' property tax freeze program, decreasing the normal privilege tax rate, increasing the extent of property tax exemption for residential property from the statewide school levy, decreasing the rate of ad valorem tax imposed by a school district; providing for certain transfers to the state school district finance fund, reducing the state rate of tax on sales of food and food ingredients and modifying the percent credited to the state highway fund from revenue collected.

KS SB5

Authorizing counties to impose an earnings tax.

KS HB2004

Authorizing counties to propose an earnings tax for ballot question.

KS SB8

Exempting the sale of firearms, firearms accessories, ammunition, firearm safes and firearm safety devices from the retatilers' sales tax.

KS SB6

Providing a sales tax exemption for sales of electricity to residential premises by municipally owned or operated utilities.

Similar Bills

No similar bills found.