March 2010
Use of Professional Designations
You work hard to educate yourself on the technical details of annuities and insurance services and the professional designations you’ve earned inspire confidence in your clients. However, it’s unlikely they can tell the difference between the months of studies behind one of your designations and the lunchtime hotel seminar that provided a less educated colleague with an impressive-sounding certification.
Several states have adopted the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Model Regulation on the Use of Senior-Specific Certifications and Professional Designations in the Sale of Life Insurance and Annuities. Adoption of this rule makes it an unfair and deceptive act for an insurance producer to use a senior-specific certification or professional designation in a manner that misleads a prospective purchaser by implying that the producer has special training in advising seniors about life insurance or annuities. A few states have expanded protection to annuity purchasers of all ages.
A professional designation may imply special training in advising seniors when it combines words such as senior, retirement, or elder with words like certified, registered, chartered or advisor. According to the NAIC model rule, you may not use a designation you earned from an organization that is primarily engaged in the business of marketing instruction. However, even if a certification’s issuer doesn’t meet the model rule’s requirements, one of its designations still may qualify for use if it does not primarily apply to marketing and if the organization has been accredited by one of three nationally-recognized accrediting institutes.
We’re confident that the brokers who represent The Standard share our commitment to ensuring that our products are offered with adherence to these rules. Please review your state’s requirements and make sure your use of professional designations follows them. If your state has not yet adopted a rule, please review The Standard’s detailed summary of the NAIC model rule. The rule’s commonsense requirements are a good guide to follow when you engage in annuity sales for The Standard.