14.2.4 Insurance Producers as Professionals.

• Jurisdiction: Arizona

14.2.4 Insurance Producers as Professionals. Under Arizona law, insurance producers were traditionally seen as salespeople, with a duty to follow only the orders of their insurance company principal.⁴⁰ Thus, an insurer’s agent was seen as owing no duty to advise the insured regarding the coverage being purchased.⁴¹ This view has been rejected in favor of elevating insurance producers to a professional status.⁴²

This more modern concept of insurance producer as professional is based on the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision in Darner v. Universal Underwriters, which held that “an insurance agent owes a duty to the insured to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence in carrying out the agent’s duties in procuring insurance.”⁴³ The court also stated there, “insurance agents cannot be considered as professional without assuming the responsibilities and duties generally associated with such a status,”⁴⁴ and “[o]ne of those...