In February the FCC issued clarifications to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) that have an impact on the way agents conduct business.

Requests made by consumers to be put on company do-not-call lists must be kept for five years. The five-year retention period is applicable to all consumer do-not-call requests, regardless of when the request was made. A company that has received a request from a consumer to place them on their internal do-not-call list must honor the request within thirty days.

The TCPA exempts calls to consumers with whom a company has an existing business relationship. Such a relationship originally allowed the company to continue calling a consumer on the National Do-Not-Call list for 18 months when the relationship stemmed from a purchase or transaction. Issues were raised by the insurance industry with respect to this date restriction, noting that many insurance relationships spanned far beyond this 18-month time frame. The FCC agreed with the insurance industry and excepted insurance policies. The TCPA now permits insurance companies to contact consumers for the life of an insurance policy. However, consumers retain the power to terminate the EBR at any time by request.

What is most important about this clarification is that the extended EBR does not apply to insurance agents. In their response to PIA, the FCC made clear that the exception applies only to insurance carriers. Thus, insurance agents may only maintain their EBR with a consumer for the 18-month period from the transaction’s completion. However, they may obtain written permission from the consumer to make telephone solicitations beyond this EBR period.

PIA couldn’t disagree more with this 18-month limit, and has filed a formal petition (our third overall on these rules since their issuance in 2003) with the FCC to urge the extension of the EBR to insurance agents for the life of a respective policy, and to take into account policy renewals.

PIA urges members to be aware of their state’s do-not-call and do-not-fax policies, as well as local regulations issued by their insurance departments, when deciding upon consumer marketing plans. PIA will continue to track any changes in both the TCPA and the Junk Fax rules.

What It Means to Agents:  From the rule as it appears to stand, agents would be precluded from contacting their clients on the do-not-call list beyond the original 18 month period, absent a written exception obtained from each client. This could have a detrimental impact on an agent's ability to discuss renewals and further lines of business. PIA plans to file formal comments on this policy with the Commission in the coming weeks. In the meantime, PIA encourages all members to voice their concerns about this issue through the FCC's website by using the following hyper link: http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/ecfs/Upload/. These comments will be considered by the FCC in future rule change decisions.

May 27, 2005