Compilation of Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia
Department 120 - OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INSURANCE, SAFETY FIRE COMMISSIONER AND INDUSTRIAL LOAN COMMISSIONER
Chapter 120-2 - RULES OF COMMISSIONER OF INSURANCE
Subject 120-2-11 - ADVERTISING OF LIFE INSURANCE AND ANNUITY CONTRACTS
Rule 120-2-11-.10 - Misleading Statements, Representations and Illustrations Prohibited
Universal Citation: GA Rules and Regs r 120-2-11-.10
Current through Rules and Regulations filed through March 20, 2024
(1) No insurer, agent or counselor shall in connection with the consultation, service or advertisement of a policy:
(a) State,
represent or imply that a prospective policyholder or certificateholder will
receive the right to benefits which are not a part of the policy itself, or
made an effective part of the policy by rider or other instrument approved by
and on file with the Georgia Insurance Department;
(b) Represent or imply that any financial
ratio, illustrative material or advertisement, including pictures, diagrams,
charts, projections, or other material, has been approved or sanctioned by the
Georgia Insurance Department;
(c)
Make or issue any statement or representation that premiums paid are ever
withdrawable without reference to the cash surrender value or loan provisions
of the policy, or in any manner other than that expressly contained in the
policy form, except that premiums paid in advance of the current due date may
be withdrawn under the conditions of the prepayment agreement;
(d) State, represent or imply that profits
are derived from lapses and surrenders;
(e) Represent that the mere size of a life
insurance company or its total insurance in force necessarily affects either
the solvency or the reliability of life insurance or annuity policies issued by
such insurer;
(f) Make or issue any
statement which would lead a prospective buyer or policyholder of life
insurance or annuity to believe that he is purchasing stock in an insurance
company by acquiring such life insurance or annuity;
(g) Make or issue any statement which will
tend to lead a prospective buyer or policyholder to believe that, by purchasing
a policy, he will acquire a position similar to that of a stockholder of the
company, or make or issue any statement which permits the inference that
policyholders are entitled to benefits or profits on the same basis as
stockholders;
(h) State or
represent that a prospective policyholder will receive dividends, or special or
favored treatment in the allowance or payment of dividends, or other monetary
benefits not expressly provided in the policy;
(i) Make or issue statements or illustrations
of projected future dividends unless the dividend formula or dividend scale
upon which such statements or illustrations were made complies with the
applicable provisions of the Georgia Insurance Code and the Rules and
Regulations of the Georgia Insurance Department;
(j) Make or issue statements indicating that
because a prospect has agreed to furnish leads, he is entitled to any specific
benefits not available to all policyholders generally;
(k) Represent as a return of premium or as a
return of cash surrender value an increasing term insurance provision in any
insurance policy, such as an amount of insurance equal to the sum of premiums
paid to a certain date, or as an amount of insurance equal to the cash
surrender value, as anything other than a guaranteed insurance benefit, a
charge for which is included in the premium;
(l) Use a dollar amount or any other figure
in printed material to be shown to prospective policyholders unless accompanied
by language in such material indicating the nature and source of the
figure;
(m) State or imply that a
policy contains features or benefits which are not found in other life
insurance policies, unless that be true;
(n) Make any reference or statement implying
that a policy is sold or issued or is serviced by the investment department of
an insurer; and
(o) Use terms such
as financial planner, investment advisor, financial consultant, or financial
counseling in such a way as to imply that the person who is engaged in the
business of insurance is generally engaged in an advisory business in which
compensation is unrelated to sales unless such is actually the case. During the
solicitation of, negotiation for, or procurement or making of a contract of
life insurance or annuity contract, no person may engage, advertise, or render
opinions as to the benefits promised under any contract of insurance or offered
by any insurer, or as to the terms, value, effect, advantages or disadvantages
thereof unless such person is properly licensed in accordance with Chapters
33-23-1 to 33-23-22 of the Georgia Insurance Code. Further, no person engaged
in the business of insurance may hold himself out, directly or indirectly, to
the public as a financial planner, investment advisor, financial consultant, or
financial counselor or as any other specialist engaged in the business of
giving complete financial planning advice relating to investments, insurance,
real estate, tax matters and trust and estate matters unless such person in
fact is generally engaged in such business and does, in fact, render such
services. Not included in "such services" is the presentations of computer
printouts that fall into the category of advanced programming for the purpose
of selling a policy and are routinely provided by insurers or other
organizations. Terms such as financial planner, investment advisor, financial
consultant, or financial counselor may not be used by a person engaged in the
business of insurance where such person provides advice relating to
investments, real estate, tax matters and trust and estate matters, which is
merely incidental to the conduct of his insurance business.
(2) The following are applicable to the advertising of all policies:
(a) The
basic life policy death benefit must be shown as a single amount, not
arbitrarily or deceptively split into two or more parts, implying that there is
a relationship between some part of a premium and some part of the death
benefit, unless such is the fact and provided the relationship is not for the
purpose of nor may likely have the effect of misleading or deceiving an
individual.
(b) If nonforfeiture
values are shown, they must be shown either for the entire amount of the basic
life policy death benefit or for each $1,000 of initial death
benefit.
(c) No statement or
representation may imply the existence of an actuarial relationship between a
specific premium, or portion thereof, and a specific benefit, or portion
thereof, provided under a policy where, in fact, none exists. No premiums, or a
portion of a premium, may be presented as an "additional," "separate," or
"special" premium unless there is an actuarial relationship between such
premium, or portion thereof, and some specifically identifiable benefit or
portion thereof.
(d) No artificial
relationships among interest rates, premiums and benefits or portions thereof,
may be implied or created.
(e) No
person or advertisement shall state or imply that on the death of the insured,
the beneficiary will receive, or should have received, the cash value of a
policy in addition to the face amount. This rule is not intended to prohibit
the advertising of an increasing term benefit equal to the cash value and for
which a premium has been paid.
(f)
No person or advertisement shall state or imply in any way that interest
charged on a policy loan or the reduction of death benefits by the amount of
outstanding policy loans is unfair, inequitable, or in any manner an incorrect
or improper practice.
(g) No person
or advertisement shall state or imply in a misleading manner that the policy
cash value is the policyowner's "savings" or that the policyowner owns the cash
value. The use of savings "passbooks" and such similar misleading techniques is
prohibited.
(h) Analogies between
cash value and savings accounts and between premium payments and contributions
to savings accounts are prohibited unless such analogy completely and clearly
explains both the similarities and the difference between the items so compared
and further, unless it is made clear that such representation is an analogy
only and that, in fact, cash values and premium payments are not the same as a
savings account and contributions thereto.
(i) No advertising material or oral
presentation may make incorrect, misleading or unfair statements about other
life insurance products, agents, and insurers.
(j) No advertising shall state or imply that
a policy being offered for sale is pure term insurance unless the policy is in
fact pure term insurance.
(k) Life
insurance policies shall not be compared to savings accounts, stocks, bonds, or
any other financial instrument or investment in such a way as to mislead a
person as to the true nature of life insurance or life insurance surrender
values or other policy benefits.
(l) Advertisements may not imply or state
that all older policies are more costly than newer policies or that all newer
policies are more costly than older policies unless such is a provable
fact.
(m) No advertisement shall
imply or state that if a life insurance company becomes insolvent, other
companies will always take over the liabilities of the insolvent
company.
(n) The use of words such
as "deposit," "deposit premium," "investment," or other such misleading or
confusing terminology to refer to an amount which is a premium as defined in
Section 33-24-1 of the Georgia Insurance
Code is prohibited.
(o) A system or
presentation which does not recognize the time value of money through the use
of appropriate interest adjustments shall not be used for comparing the cost of
two or more life insurance policies. Such a system may be used for the purpose
of demonstrating the cash-flow pattern of a policy if such presentation is
accompanied by a statement disclosing that the presentation does not recognize
that, because of interest, a dollar in the future has less value than a dollar
today.
(3) The use of materials, statements or communications of any kind, which when used alone is not misleading, but becomes deceptive or misleading when combined, is prohibited.
Ga. L. 1960, pp. 289, 305, 394, 395.
Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. Georgia may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
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