December 27, 2023
2023 Annual Advertising Notification
Regulations vary by which channel you are in and by state, so it is vital to know what is required before you create advertising.
National Life Group (“NLG”) approved advertising and sales materials are an important tool for you to use to help your clients and prospects understand NLG, National Life Insurance Company (“NLIC”), Life Insurance Company of the Southwest (“LSW”), and the products and services we have available. NLG is committed to providing advertising and sales materials that are clear, consistent, and accurately disclose relevant information. Whatever advertising medium you use, the Advertising Guidance Team (“AGT”) within Life & Annuity Compliance is here to help guide you in creating and utilizing content that meets these standards.
Advertising requirements are set by state and federal regulatory authorities to protect consumers and, because of this, are under constant scrutiny. State regulations vary, and it is important to know what is required in the state(s) in which you are licensed to do business. At least once a year, NLG is required by the regulations to notify all individuals who may create and use their own advertisements (instead of using NLG pre-approved materials) of the regulatory requirements and procedures for AGT approval prior to using those materials. Non-compliance with NLG procedures or any applicable laws or regulations may result in disciplinary action up to, and including:
- Training or re-training.
- Additional monitoring of your sales.
- Adjustment of your commissions or other compensation.
- Issuance of a verbal or written disciplinary warning to you.
- Assessing a monetary fine.
- Termination of your contract appointment with NLG, up to and including, termination for cause.
What Requires Advertising Compliance Approval?
How you determine what requires pre-approval from NLG Life & Annuity Compliance begins with if you are securities registered or not. From there, it will depend on if what you have created meets the definition of advertising. The sections below will help guide your decisions.
If you decide to create your own content, prior approval from Life & Annuity Compliance is needed for the following:
- Advertising mentioning an NLG company, product, or information specific to us (i.e. our critical injury ABR, ratings, features, history, images, logos, etc.).
- Advertising used to sell retirement products in one of our K-12 403(b)/457(b) plans, even if NLG is not mentioned.
- Advertising in which the intent is to specifically create interest in NLG products and features, even if NLG is not mentioned, such as a brochure on indexed universal life insurance that is not branded with NLG but you only intend to sell a NLG product.
Definition of Advertising
The definition of “advertising” by insurance and securities regulators is broader than most people believe. For insurance regulators, advertising is any material designed to create public interest in life insurance, annuities, or an insurer (i.e., NLIC or LSW or any affiliated company), or in you as an agent/Registered Representative (“RR”)/Investment Adviser Representative (“IAR”), or any material designed to induce the public to purchase, increase, modify, reinstate, borrow on, surrender, replace, or retain a policy.
If you are securities registered, “retail communications” are defined as any written (including electronic) communication that is distributed or made available to more than 25 retail investors within any 30 calendar-day period.
Both definitions of advertising materials may include, but are not limited to the following:
- Printed and published material, audiovisual material, descriptive literature of an insurer or insurance producer used in direct mail, newspapers, magazines, radio and television scripts, telemarketing scripts, billboards and similar displays, and the Internet or any other mass communication media such as Social Media sites.
- Descriptive literature and sales aids of all kinds authored by the insurer, its insurance producers, or third parties, issued, distributed or used by the insurer or insurance producer; including but not limited to circulars, leaflets, booklets, web pages, depictions, illustrations and form letters.
- Material used for the recruitment, training, and education of an insurer’s insurance producers which is designed to be used or is used to induce the public to purchase, increase, modify, reinstate, borrow on, surrender, replace, or retain a policy.
- Prepared sales talks, presentations, and materials for use by insurance producers.
- Prepared sales talks and presentations, including seminars and live webinars.
- Videos and recorded webinars.
- Social media, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, etc.:
- Static profiles/pages.
- Interactive content on those profiles/pages, such as likes, comments, posts, etc.
- Podcasts that will be posted on social media sites or websites.
- Print Ads and other printed or published materials, including form letters and direct mail.
- Business cards, email signatures, and letterhead.
- Websites, website listings, or online presences of any type for an agency, individual, or Doing Business As (“DBA”) entity.
- Newspaper, radio, television, computer, audio recordings, and billboard ads.
- Descriptive literature, including brochures, circulars, and leaflets.
- Agent training materials:
- Including training that will be used with agents to instruct them on the companies or products of NLG or on the sale of such products.
- Telephone solicitations and sales scripts.
- Fact finders, illustrations, and proposals.
- Newsletters, press releases, articles, and reprints.
- Emails:
- For unsolicited sales or recruiting – Additional guidance is located on the Agent Portal of the NLG website.
- Signatures – Additional guidance is located on the Agent Portal of the NLG website.
Special Types of Advertising
The following process applies if your social media site is subject to compliance review.
- For existing social media profiles, no form is needed; you may send the link for the page to AdReview@nationallife.com with a message asking us to review it.
- The only social media sites allowed for business purposes include LinkedIn (profile and company), Facebook Business Pages, Instagram Business, YouTube, and X.
- If you are planning to create a new page, please use our social media submission forms to submit the information you want to add to the profile for our review before publishing it. These submission forms can be found on the Agent Portal on the NLG website on the NLG Life & Annuity/Advertising/Social Media tab.
- As required by securities regulations, after approval, you will be instructed to connect your social media site to Hearsay, the Company’s monitoring tool.
- As an agent who is not securities-registered, we do not need to approve your social media page or website if you do not post NLG-created content (in other words, download or copy our content, or create new content mentioning NLG, then post it. Only affiliated agents with an approved profile and Hearsay account are allowed to do this). If you are registered with another broker/dealer, you will need to verify their requirements.
- Sharing NLG-created content from our corporate social sites can be done without prior AGT review and approval of your social media page, as long as you have not posted any content discussing NLG, our companies, products, or unique features, or your intention is not to sell retirement products in one of our K-12 403(b)/457(b) plans, even if NLG is not mentioned, or the intent is not to specifically create interest in NLG products and features, even if NLG is not mentioned. You can find content on our corporate social accounts and then click “share” on specific posts.
- RRs/IARs of ESI desiring their own business-related website can choose between FMG and Broadridge as approved website providers.
- You can find information about both providers on the Agent Portal of the NLG website.
- Once you choose a provider and sign-up, new content and changes come directly to AGT for prior approval through the website provider’s compliance tool. You do not need to submit anything else.
- You may choose any website provider. If you are registered with another broker/dealer, you will need to verify their requirements.
- If there is no mention of NLG, its companies or products, or unique product features etc., then your website is not subject to the AGT’s review and prior approval.
- If you would like to add NLG content to your website, the content will need to be submitted to AGT for review and approval prior to use.
- If you need to submit your content, please complete both pages of the Compliance Review Request submission form, include the link to your site on the form, and send it to adreview@nationallife.com. We may ask you to make changes before allowing our content to appear.
- Once your site is reviewed and approved by AGT, you will be required to submit any additional changes to the site for AGT review and written approval before the content can be published.
Looking for a quick way to get your name on professional-looking marketing? Check out NLG’s CoBrand OnDemand marketing system located on the Agent Portal. This allows you to easily personalize flyers, ads, postcards, business cards, etc. for delivery to you in either print or email. The pieces go straight to the AGT for review and written approval – there is no need to create a separate submission.
For more information on the AGT’s review process, please refer to NLG’s Compliance Manual located on the Agent Portal of the NLG website.
For specific questions regarding what needs to be submitted, you may email adreview@nationallife.com, or call our main number at (802) 229-3129 and we will put you in touch with an AGT member.
How to Submit Advertising Material
To submit materials for the AGT’s review, please complete the Compliance Review Request Form (the form has two pages) found on the Agent Portal of the NLG website located at Training/Compliance/NLG Life & Annuity Compliance/Advertising/Social Media and submit it, along with the materials for review, to AdReview@nationallife.com.
RRs and IARs of ESI, please work with your agency to submit materials as they need to keep track of your advertising.
Once received, a member of the AGT will review the material and contact you with questions or any necessary changes. If changes are required, we will ask you to send us a final copy before we give you approval to begin using the material.
Tracking Control (TC) Numbers
For most pieces we review, we assign a unique tracking control (“TC”) number to help identify the material used. An example would be TC111234(0821)3.
The numbers in parentheses are the month and date the piece was reviewed, and the final number represents how long the piece is approved for – 1 (one year) or 3 (three years). If there is no number at the end, it means a piece is approved for a specific event date or single use. If you have any questions about a piece you submitted, please reach out to us – we are happy to help.
Resources Found on the Agent Portal Under Training>>Compliance
- NLG Compliance Manual
- Compliance Review Request Form
- Advertising Guidance Field Guide
- Guidelines for Creating Videos/Podcasts/Recordings
- List of Previously Approved and Unapproved Marketing Systems
- Social Media Resources:
- You can find the links to our corporate social sites from our website: nationallife.com.
- There are flyers explaining the guidelines for sharing corporate social media.
- NLG’s Social Media Playbook for Affiliated agents and RRs of ESI, using Hearsay.
- NLG’s Social Media Guide for agents not affiliated with ESI, not using Hearsay.
- Here are the links to the Do Good versions of our social sites with the NLG-branded content to share to your own social sites:
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/do-good-be-good-make-good
- https://www.facebook.com/pg/DogoodBegoodMakegood
- https://twitter.com/DoBeMakegood
- https://www.instagram.com/dogood.begood.makegood/
National Life Group® is a trade name of National Life Insurance Company, Montpelier, VT, Life Insurance Company of the Southwest, Addison, TX and their affiliates. Each company of National Life Group is solely responsible for its own financial condition and contractual obligations. Life Insurance Company of the Southwest is not an authorized insurer in New York and does not conduct insurance business in New York.
Equity Services, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC, is a Broker/Dealer and Registered Investment Adviser affiliate of National Life Insurance Company. One National Life Drive, Montpelier, VT 05604. (800) 344-7437. In CO, MO, NH and WI, Equity Services, Inc. operates as Vermont Equity Services, Inc.
