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Dear Friends,
Another bill introduced in the Missouri House of Representatives will ADVERSELY affect the bail bond industry in Missouri.
House Bill (HB 628) introduced by Representative Brain Yates of Lee’s Summit is another attempt to limit the competition in the bail bond business. If this bill is passed all persons seeking to be licensed as General bail bond agents would have to put up $50,000.00 on assignment with the state of Missouri before they could obtain a license. Each new bail bond agent hired by a General bail bond agent would require an additional $5,000.00 cd deposit. The language states that currently licensed General agents would only be affected if hiring a new agent or an agent previously working for another company.
If passed, those of you currently licensed as Bail Bond Agents who hope to become General Agents one day will have to commit $50,000.00 to a CD that can not be touched to pay forfeitures, and at the present rates of return will draw a paltry 1 to 2 percent interest. For every agent you hope to hire you would have to put up an additional $5,000.00 that could not be touched. The way the language reads, if you are currently licensed as a bail bond agent and change companies the new general would still have to put up $5,000.00 for you to be able to change companies.
As a General Agent myself I can tell you that the additional $5,000.00 per agent would be passed on to the new agent. Bottom line, every new agent hired in the industry would have to be able to commit $5,000.00 to something they don’t even know is going to work for them.
Proponents of the bill would say that raising the required deposit from $10,000 to $50,000 for General Agents would help to eliminate general agents who don’t have the money to pay their forfeitures. There is already language in place in RSMo 374.715 whereby the Department of insurance can raise the General Agents deposit from $10,000 to $35,000 by requiring an additional $25,000 be deposited if the business of the General Agent warrants it. The fact is that anytime a General Agent can’t pay a forfeiture he is shut down by the state anyway.
This was not initiated by the MPBBA. And as a founding member and a board member of Associated Bail Agents of Missouri, I can say that it is not a piece of legislation that our association is pushing either. This is the brain child of Bart Cooper, who even though he is currently the president of ABAM, is doing this completely on his own and independent of the association membership. This new bill is purely a new version of the same old rhetoric we have seen in the past designed to eliminate the competition and give an advantage to bigger companies.
If you oppose this bill as I do, please contact your representative and let them know how you feel. The following is a list of the representative who I believe will be hearing the bill in committee.
Yates, Brian, Chair
Nance, Bob, Vice Chair
Colona, Mike
Dixon, Bob
Faith, Sally
Hoskins, Theodore
Liese, Albert Joseph
Molendorp, Chris
Spreng, Michael
Wasson, Jay
Wilson, Kevin
Zimmerman, Jake
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After all is said and done, more is said than done.
-X-
St. Louis, MO
FRN#2
Member of The C.B.C
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