IT Support for Insurance Agencies and Brokerages
Producers need reliable access to the agency system, carrier portals and client documents wherever they work. NetSys manages the devices, identities, Microsoft 365 and recovery behind those workflows. Agree vendor responsibilities and access boundaries before an outage or staff change makes them urgent.
The short answer
NetSys provides IT support and managed security for insurance agencies and brokerages. The work covers devices, Microsoft 365, identity and email protection, remote producer access and tested recovery. A clear scope identifies the agency-management and carrier systems you use, the responsibilities of each vendor, and how staff access is approved and removed. For agencies with regulatory or insurer evidence requests, technical reviews are scoped to the controls and records needed; NetSys does not determine your legal obligations or certify compliance. Support agreements are month to month.
IT support for insurance agencies: what it covers
IT support for insurance agencies covers the systems producers and CSRs use all day: managed laptops and phones, Microsoft 365, named logins around the agency management system, raters and carrier portals, email defenses against payment fraud, and backups with tested restores. It also keeps the evidence a DFS Part 500 filing or a carrier's security questionnaire asks for.
Sound familiar?
- Client financial and medical detail moving through email all day, every day
- Impersonation fraud dressed as a carrier, a client, or a premium finance company
- A DFS cybersecurity certification due annually, with nobody sure what they'd be certifying
- An agency management system that is the whole business, backed up by assumption
- Producers working from home and their own devices, outside the office's controls
- Carrier security questionnaires that now read like the ones underwriters send insureds
What we deliver for insurance agencies
Fraud-Resistant Email & Identity
- Multifactor authentication and conditional access on every account
- Email defense tuned for lookalike carrier domains and reply-chain hijacking
- Alerts on inbox rules that quietly forward or delete mail — the classic precursor
- An out-of-band callback procedure for any change to payment instructions, written down
DFS-Aligned Controls, With Evidence
- The technical safeguards behind 23 NYCRR 500: access control, MFA, monitoring
- An incident response plan written before it's needed
- Evidence organized so the annual certification is answered from records
- Interpretation and filings stay with your counsel — we supply the controls and the proof
Agency System Uptime & Access
- Your agency management system monitored, patched, and access-controlled
- Producer onboarding and same-day offboarding when someone leaves for a competitor
- Personal and home devices fenced away from client records via conditional access
- Secure client-document exchange instead of applications sent as attachments
Continuity You Have Measured
- Immutable backups covering the agency management system and document store
- Restores performed, timed and dated — not merely reported as green
- A written recovery-time objective, so renewal season has a real answer
- 100% of NetSys clients hit by ransomware have fully recovered
Insurance agency compliance: DFS, privacy and health data
Agencies licensed in New York answer to the Department of Financial Services, and other states are adopting their own insurance data security laws. Your agency and counsel confirm exemptions and filings; we implement the controls and keep the evidence ready.
NYDFS 23 NYCRR 500
Licensed agencies and brokers are covered entities. The regulation requires a cybersecurity program, a risk assessment, MFA, an asset inventory, notice to DFS within 72 hours of a qualifying cybersecurity event, and a certification of compliance or acknowledgment of noncompliance every April 15.
Limited exemptions and individual producers (23 NYCRR 500.19)
An agency below the thresholds in 500.19(a) (fewer than 20 employees and contractors, under $7.5 million in revenue in each of the last three years, or under $15 million in year-end assets) is exempt from some sections, not all. Individually licensed producers working under the agency's program can claim an exemption for themselves. Exemptions are filed with DFS.
Insurance privacy: NY Regulation 169 (11 NYCRR Part 420)
New York's privacy regulation for licensees governs how consumer financial and health information is shared, including privacy notices and authorization before health information is disclosed. Access and sharing settings in the agency system should match what your notices promise.
Insurance data security laws in other states
Many states have adopted the NAIC Insurance Data Security Model Law, Connecticut among them (Conn. Gen. Stat. §38a-38). Licensees there need a written information security program based on a risk assessment and must notify the Insurance Commissioner of qualifying cybersecurity events.
Benefits work: HIPAA (45 CFR Parts 160 and 164)
An agency that handles protected health information for a group health plan, for enrollment or claims help, can be a business associate. That calls for a business associate agreement and Security Rule safeguards for the files, mailboxes and portals where the information lands.
This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm your obligations with counsel.
Agency software we support around
The agency management system, comparative raters and carrier portals are where producers and CSRs spend the day. We manage their devices, Microsoft 365 and sign-ins, keep portal access tied to each role, and escalate to the software vendor when the fault is on their side.
- Applied Epic
- Vertafore AMS360
- HawkSoft
- EZLynx
DocuSign
Product names are their owners’ trademarks. We manage the devices, accounts and access around these applications and work with each vendor’s support. A listing here doesn’t mean we resell an application or partner with its maker.
An agency owner, a DFS certification, and a blank page
The specific engagements behind this profile are under NDA, so it is written as a generalization rather than a named client. Our published, client-approved outcomes are in case studies.
A New York-licensed agency with a dozen staff got its annual reminder: the cybersecurity certification was due. The owner had signed it the year before on the strength of an antivirus subscription and good intentions, and did not want to sign it that way twice.
- An inventory of the controls the regulation asks about, mapped to what the agency had and lacked
- Multifactor authentication rolled out across email, the agency management system and remote access
- Managed endpoint protection on office and producer machines
- Email defense plus a written callback rule for any change to premium payment instructions
- An incident response plan and an evidence folder, so the certification answers from records
The intended result is an owner who signs the next certification over documentation instead of hope, and an evidence folder that updates as a side effect of how the systems run, which is what the regulation asks for.
Work we have done for insurance clients
- Insurance
Insurance brokerage relocating its headquarters
Deployment of 40 workstations, installation of 60 network drops, firewall setup, and office Wi-Fi configuration.
- Insurance
Regional title insurance company
Barracuda email protection for 85 users, phishing simulations, employee security training, and MFA deployment.
Client names are withheld. Each card is the scope of a real NetSys engagement, as delivered.
Insurance Agencies & Brokers IT FAQs
Does managed IT replace our agency-management system vendor?
No. The scope should distinguish the agency-system vendor’s application responsibilities from NetSys responsibilities for devices, access, connectivity, Microsoft 365 and backups. Record the escalation contacts and which provider coordinates an issue when its cause is unclear. That avoids each vendor assuming the other owns the problem.
What should an agency include in the first scoping conversation?
List producer and office users, remote-work arrangements, agency applications and carrier portals, and any upcoming vendor renewal or evidence request. Describe access or recovery concerns without sending client policy records. We can then discuss the boundaries of support and any separate technical review.
Do you work with insurance agencies and brokerages?
Yes — agencies sit squarely in the professional-services practice we run for accounting and advisory firms: businesses whose entire inventory is sensitive client information moving through email and one line-of-business system. The service covers the environment end to end: helpdesk, 24/7 monitoring, identity and email security, endpoint detection and response, your agency management system, and tested backups.
Can you help with the NY DFS cybersecurity regulation (23 NYCRR 500)?
We implement and operate the technical safeguards the regulation describes — access controls, multifactor authentication, monitoring, encryption, incident response documentation — and we keep the evidence organized so the annual certification is answered from records. What we deliberately do not do is practice law: interpreting your obligations, exemptions and filings stays with your agency and its counsel. What you get from us is the control set and the proof it runs.
How do you stop premium and payment fraud?
In layers. Multifactor authentication so a stolen password isn't enough. Email defense tuned for lookalike carrier domains and reply-chain hijacking. Alerts on quiet inbox-forwarding rules. And the control that isn't technology at all: a written callback procedure for any change to payment instructions, enforced no matter who appears to be asking.
Our producers work from home on their own laptops. Is that fixable?
Yes, and without buying everyone hardware. Conditional access separates managed devices from personal ones, so client records and the agency management system are reachable from the former while email and lighter work still function from the latter. It's the highest-value control per dollar in most agencies we assess.
Will you name our agency in your marketing?
No. Professional-services clients engage under confidentiality and we honor that in marketing, not just contracts — this page carries no named clients and no invented metrics. References can be arranged privately with a client's consent.
Do you require a long-term contract?
No — every NetSys agreement is month to month. We keep clients by performing rather than by locking them in; retention runs 98%.
What do managed IT services for insurance agencies include?
They include the whole agency environment under one monthly agreement: help desk, 24/7 monitoring, Microsoft 365, managed laptops, endpoint detection, email defense, backups of the agency management system and documents, and the evidence for your DFS filing. Producers working from home get the same controls as the office, through conditional access and managed devices.
Is IT support for an insurance agency different from IT for an insurance carrier?
Yes, mainly in scale and ownership. A carrier runs its own policy administration and claims systems with an internal IT team, so outside help is usually co-managed. An agency depends on an agency management system, raters and dozens of carrier portals it does not control, so its IT provider manages access and devices around them.
Does the DFS limited exemption mean our agency can skip Part 500?
No. The limited exemption in section 500.19 removes some requirements, such as a CISO, penetration testing and audit trails, but not the risk assessment, access limits, MFA, incident notice or the annual filing. The agency must also file a notice of exemption with DFS. We keep the controls and evidence behind each remaining section.
How do you secure carrier portal and rater logins?
Each person gets a named login wherever the carrier allows one, with MFA turned on where it is offered. Credentials that cannot be individual go into Keeper, shared only with the roles that need them and changed when someone leaves. Offboarding removes portal access the same day, which matters most when a producer joins a competitor.
How much do managed IT services for an insurance agency cost?
They are priced per user per month, and we publish no rate card. Producer and staff counts, offices, how the agency management system is hosted, email security and the DFS Part 500 evidence you need set the figure. Office moves and migrations are quoted separately as projects, and agreements run month to month.
Guides for insurance agencies & brokers leaders
- Review the technical scope of NYDFS support
- Compare agency support responsibilities and quote factors
- Cyber Insurance Readiness — the other side of the desk
- Business Email Compromise: How Small Businesses Get Hit
- Cyber Insurance in 2026: What Small Businesses Must Have
- Our Financial Services Practice
- insurance agencies around Hartford
- managed IT services in Florham Park
- Garden City managed IT and cybersecurity
- IT support for Uniondale insurance offices
- Cybersecurity for DFS-licensed agencies and other financial firms
- 23 NYCRR 500 for small agencies: exemptions and filings
- AI automation for agency service and renewals
- Encrypted email for applications and policy documents
- IT Support for Insurance Agencies: 13 Questions Owners Ask
Other industries we support
Services behind this work
Make ownership of your agency systems clear.
Tell us about your agency applications, producers, offices and current support providers. Request a call to discuss access, recovery and any evidence you need to assemble.