Methodology

Where listings come from

Unclaimed listings are built from state insurance departments' public license files. The first source is the Florida Department of Financial Services individual licensee file, imported in July 2026; it includes every valid Florida license, including non-resident licenses held by agents based in other states, which is why most states already have listings. Further states are added one public file at a time. The directory holds 966,793 public listings today.

From each record InsureGrades keeps the agent's name, the license type and lines of authority, the license status, the expiration date where the state publishes one, and the business city and state. The National Producer Number is used only to merge one person's license classes into a single profile and to match a claim; it is never displayed. Business email and phone from the file are stored but not shown until the agent claims the profile.

Every profile shows a "License records last updated" date, which is the date that profile's records were last written from a state file or a NIPR check. The official record is always the state regulator's; the Florida Department of Financial Services keeps Florida's, and each state directory page links to its own regulator.

What Verified means

A profile is Verified when the agent has claimed it, holds an active subscription, and InsureGrades has confirmed the license against the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) Producer Database: the license is active, the name on the record matches the account, and the lines of authority are recorded for every state where the agent holds a license. The first time a profile is verified, a one-time code is sent to the business email on the NIPR record; if NIPR has no email on file, or the name does not match exactly, the verification goes to manual review within 24 hours.

The badge is withdrawn, and the embeddable badge turns grey, whenever the subscription ends, the profile is suspended, or a verified license is found to have lapsed. A listing that has been claimed but not yet verified says "verification in progress"; a listing nobody has claimed says it comes from state public records. The word "Verified" is never applied to an unclaimed listing.

How often records are re-checked

• Verified agents can re-run the NIPR check from their license dashboard (up to three runs a day).
• After a verified license's expiration date passes, NIPR is re-checked daily for 45 days so an on-time renewal is picked up without the agent doing anything.
• Professional and Elite subscribers are enrolled in NIPR change alerts, which InsureGrades retrieves every weekday and applies to the profile.
• Unclaimed listings are refreshed when a new state file is imported; their "last updated" date says when that was.

The compliance score

The compliance score is a 0 to 100 number shown on Professional and Elite profiles. It uses only inputs InsureGrades can verify:

Continuing-education hours are not scored: they are self-reported, and an agent early in a renewal cycle may legitimately have none yet. An upcoming expiration never lowers the score either, because renewing on time is normal; only a lapse costs points, and the daily re-check above restores them as soon as NIPR shows the renewal. The score is recomputed whenever one of its inputs changes.

Client ratings

A rating is four scores from 1 to 5 stars, one for each of responsiveness, clarity of explanation, claims & service support, trust & transparency. The overall rating is their average, and an agent's displayed rating is the average of all their overall ratings. There is no written review text.

• Only signed-in consumer accounts can rate, one rating per agent; a consumer can update their own rating at any time.
• Ratings publish immediately and are shown anonymously. Agents can reply publicly on Professional and Elite plans.
• Agent accounts cannot rate agents. A new account can rate right away, but no account can leave more than five ratings in seven days, and unconfirmed accounts are limited per network.
• Agents cannot pay to add or remove ratings. An agent can flag a rating; InsureGrades reviews it and, if it is removed, both parties are told by email. A rating removed by moderation cannot be replaced by the same account.
• Profile JSON-LD carries the same ratings the page shows, never more.

How agents are ordered

In search results and directory pages, verified agents are listed first. Among verified agents, Elite subscribers rank above Professional, and Professional above Starter; within a tier, higher average rating and then more ratings rank first. Unclaimed public-record listings follow. Subscription tier affects order only among agents who have already passed the same NIPR check; it never affects whether a profile is Verified.

Corrections and removals

• Agents: claim your listing to edit it. License facts come from the state file and NIPR, so a correction at the regulator is reflected on the next check.
• Anyone can report an error in a listing by email to support@insuregrades.com with the profile link.
• Consumers can download or delete their account data from My Account; deleted accounts keep their ratings anonymised.
• Legal, privacy and data-rights requests go to the same address. See the privacy policy.