| Advisory opinion request as to whether Aaron "Bo" Melvin, a member of the Lafourche Parish Council, can receive commissions from AFLAC for certain insurance policies that he writes. |
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Aaron "Bo" Melvin, a member of the Lafourche Parish Council, is an independent insurance agent appointed by AFLAC to write insurance policies on its behalf. Generally, Mr. Melvin handles various companies' supplemental insurance needs, which are paid by their employees through a payroll deduction. In those cases, he handles the supplemental insurance needs for a company and AFLAC pays him a commission for every policy that he writes. In other cases, the insurance company that handles a business' health and/or property and casualty insurance may refer him to that business to handle its supplemental insurance needs. AFLAC pays Mr. Melvin a commission for every policy that he writes for employees of that business and pays a commission to the insurance company that referred him to the business.
Mr. Melvin provided a proposed scenario in which Laris Insurance, an insurance company that writes the property casualty insurance policies for Lafourche Parish, refers him to a business that does not have AFLAC supplemental insurance and does not have a business or financial relationship with Lafourche Parish. AFLAC would pay him a commission for every policy that he writes for the business and pay a commission to the Laris Insurance based on the referral.
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La. R.S. 42:1111C(2)(d) prohibits a public servant from performing compensated services to a person that has or seeks a business, financial or contractual relationship with the public servant's agency.
La. R.S. 42:1115A(1) provides that no public servant shall solicit or accept, directly or indirectly, anything of economic value as a gift or gratuity from any person or from any officer, director, agent, or employee of such person, if such public servant knows or reasonably should know that such person has or is seeking to have a business, financial or contractual relationship with the public servant's agency.
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Adopt the proposed advisory opinion.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
Jennifer Land |
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