To clear up any confusion, the recent Work From Home legislation did not alter the agency licensing and collector registration requirements for entities and persons covered by Minnesota’s licensing statute.
- Agencies (and others covered by the statute) collecting from Minnesota consumers still must be licensed.
- All individual collectors collecting from Minnesota consumers still must be registered with the Department of Commerce by their employer agencies.
- The Work From Home legislation did NOT change these long-standing obligations.
Instead, what the WFH legislation did accomplish was to give licensed collection agencies the flexibility of allowing their registered collectors collect from home.
Under the former version of Minnesota’s licensing statute, if an Agency wanted to allow its registered collector to work from home, the Agency was obligated to secure a separate location license for a collector’s home. The separate “location” license for an employee’s home is no longer needed. That’s what changed. Nothing more.
In sum, it is vital to ensure complete compliance with all aspects of Minnesota’s Licensing Statute, especially when it comes to continued and ongoing agency licensure and collector registration.