The public state databases, on the other hand, appear incomplete. Insider checked state licensing databases for current or former Arias agents who had been cited in an action by a state insurance regulator or had a criminal conviction. None of the databases surfaced these histories.

“Insurance producers face little risk of prominent public disclosure for their conduct,” said Colleen Honigsberg, a law professor at Stanford University who coauthored a 2022 study of regulatory failures in the insurance industry. “We talked to securities regulators who said they make referrals all the time to insurance regulators and they go nowhere.”