S.B. No. 1009
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the sanctions for acting as a life insurance counselor
1-2 without a license or violating certain laws applicable to life
1-3 insurance counselors; providing a criminal penalty.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 7, Chapter 29, Acts of the 54th
1-6 Legislature, 1955 (Article 21.07-2, Vernon's Texas Insurance Code),
1-7 is amended to read as follows:
1-8 Sec. 7. (a) A person commits an offense if the person acts
1-9 as a life insurance counselor without a license issued under this
1-10 Act or otherwise violates this Act. Each violation constitutes a
1-11 separate offense. An offense under this subsection is a Class C
1-12 misdemeanor.
1-13 (b) In addition to being subject to the penalty imposed
1-14 under Subsection (a) of this section, a person who commits a
1-15 violation of this Act is subject to license revocation under
1-16 Section 5, Article 21.01-2, Insurance Code. If the department
1-17 revokes the license, the license holder is not eligible for a new
1-18 license for two years after the effective date of the license
1-19 revocation. <Any person who shall act as a Life Insurance
1-20 Counselor, as defined herein, without having first obtained a
1-21 license as herein provided, or who violates any of the provisions
1-22 of this Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction,
1-23 shall be fined not more than Five Hundred Dollars ($500), or
1-24 imprisoned not more than six months, or both, each such violation
2-1 being a separate offense hereunder. In addition, if such offender
2-2 holds a license hereunder, such license shall automatically expire
2-3 upon such conviction and the offender shall be barred from license
2-4 for a period of at least two (2) years.>
2-5 SECTION 2. (a) Section 7, Chapter 29, Acts of the 54th
2-6 Legislature, 1955 (Article 21.07-2, Vernon's Texas Insurance Code),
2-7 as amended by Section 1 of this Act, applies only to an offense
2-8 committed on or after the effective date of this Act. For purposes
2-9 of this section, an offense is committed before the effective date
2-10 of this Act if any element of the offense occurs before that date.
2-11 (b) An offense committed before the effective date of this
2-12 Act is governed by the law in effect when the offense was
2-13 committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that
2-14 purpose.
2-15 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-16 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-17 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-18 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-19 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.