Current through March 20, 2024
006.01 The
information required to be disclosed by these rules shall not be minimized,
rendered obscure, or presented in an ambiguous fashion or intermingled with the
text of the advertisement so as to be confusing or misleading.
006.02 No advertisement shall omit material
information or use words, phrases, statements, references or illustrations if
such omission or such use has the capacity, tendency or effect of misleading or
deceiving purchasers or prospective purchasers as to the nature or extent or
any policy benefit payable, loss covered, premium payable, or State or federal
tax consequences. The fact that the policy offered is made available to a
prospective insured for inspection prior to consummation of the sale, or an
offer is made to refund the premium if the purchaser is not satisfied, or that
the policy or contract includes a "free look" period that satisfies or exceeds
regulatory requirements, does not remedy misleading statements.
006.03 In the event an advertisement uses
"Non-Medical," "No Medical Examination Required," or similar terms where issue
is not guaranteed, such terms shall be accompanied by a further disclosure of
equal prominence and in juxtaposition thereto to the effect that issuance of
the policy may depend upon the answers to the health questions set forth in the
application.
006.04 An
advertisement shall not use as the name or title of a life insurance policy any
phrase which does not include the words "life insurance" unless accompanied by
other language clearly indicating it is life insurance. An advertisement shall
not use as the name or title of an annuity contract any phrase that does not
include the word "annuity" unless accompanied by other language clearly
indicating it is an annuity. An annuity advertisement shall not refer to an
annuity as a CD annuity, or deceptively compare an annuity to a certificate of
deposit.
006.05 An advertisement
shall prominently describe the type of policy advertised.
006.06 An advertisement of an insurance
policy marketed by direct response techniques shall not state or imply that
because there is no insurance producer or commission involved there will be a
cost saving to prospective purchasers unless such is the fact. No cost savings
may be stated or implied without justification satisfactory to the director
prior to use.
006.07 An
advertisement for a life policy containing graded or modified benefits shall
prominently display any limitation of benefits. If the premium is level and
coverage decreases or increases with age or duration, such fact shall be
prominently disclosed. An advertisement of or for a life insurance policy under
which the death benefit varies with the length of time the policy has been in
force shall accurately describe and clearly call attention to the amount of
minimum death benefit under the policy.
006.08 An advertisement for the types of
policies described in Sections 006.06 and 006.07 shall not use the words
"inexpensive," "low cost," or other phrase or words of similar import when the
policies being marketed are guaranteed issue.
006.09 Premiums;
006.09A an advertisement for a policy with
non-level premiums shall prominently describe the premium changes,
006.09B an advertisement in which the insurer
describes a policy where it reserves the right to change the amount of the
premium during the policy term, but which does not prominently describe this
feature, is deemed to be deceptive and misleading and is prohibited,
006.09C an advertisement shall not contain a
statement or representation that premiums paid for a life insurance policy can
be withdrawn under the terms of the policy. Reference may be made to amounts
paid into an advance premium fund, which are intended to pay premiums at a
future time, to the effect that they may be withdrawn under the conditions of
the prepayment agreement. Reference may also be made to withdrawal rights under
any unconditional premium refund offer,
006.09D an advertisement which represents a
pure endowment benefit as a "profit" or "return" on the premium paid rather
than as a policy benefit for which a specified premium is paid is deemed to be
deceptive and misleading and is prohibited,
006.09E an advertisement shall not represent
in any way that premium payments will not be required for each year of the
policy in order to maintain the illustrated death benefits, unless that is the
fact, and
006.09F an advertisement
shall not use the term "vanish" or "vanishing premium," or a similar term that
implies the policy becomes paid up, to describe a plan using nonguaranteed
elements to pay a portion of future premiums.
006.10 Analogies between a life insurance
policy or annuity contract's cash value and savings account or other
investments and between premium payments and contributions to savings accounts
or other investments must be complete and accurate. An advertisement shall not
emphasize the investment or tax features of a life insurance policy to such a
degree that the advertisement would mislead the purchaser to believe the policy
is anything other than life insurance.
006.11 An advertisement shall not 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.
006.12 If nonforfeiture values are shown in
any advertisement, the values must be shown either for the entire amount of the
basic life policy death benefit or for each $1,000 of initial death
benefit.
006.13 The words "free,"
"no cost," "without cost," "no additional cost," "at no extra cost," or words
of similar import shall not be used with respect to any benefit or service
being made available with a policy unless true. If there is no charge to the
insured, then the identity of the payor must be prominently disclosed. An
advertisement may specify the charge for a benefit or a service or may state
that a charge is included in the premium or use other appropriate
language.
006.14 No insurance
producers may use terms such as "financial planner," "investment advisor,"
"financial consultant," "financial counseling" or other similar terms in such a
way as to imply that he or she is generally engaged in an advisory business in
which compensation is unrelated to sales unless such actually is the case. This
provision is not intended to preclude persons who hold some form of formal
recognized financial planning or consultant designation from using this
designation even when they are only selling insurance. This provision also is
not intended to preclude persons who are members of a recognized trade or
professional association having such terms as part of its name from citing
membership, providing that a person citing membership, if authorized only to
sell insurance products, shall disclose that fact. This provision does not
permit persons to charge an additional fee for services that are customarily
associated with the solicitation, negotiation or servicing of
policies.
006.15 Nonguaranteed
policy elements;
006.15A an advertisement
shall not utilize or describe nonguaranteed policy elements in a manner which
is misleading or has the capacity or tendency to mislead,
006.15B an advertisement shall not state or
imply that the payment or amount of a nonguaranteed policy element is
guaranteed. Unless otherwise specified in 210 Neb. Admin. R. & Reg. 72, if
nonguaranteed policy elements are illustrated, they must be based on the
insurer's current scale and the illustration must contain a statement to the
effect that they are not to be construed as guarantees or estimates of amounts
to be paid in the future,
006.15C
an advertisement shall not use or describe determinable policy elements in a
manner that is misleading or has the capacity or tendency to mislead,
006.15D an advertisement may describe
determinable policy elements as guaranteed but not determinable at issue. This
description should include an explanation of how these elements operate, and
their limitations, if any,
006.15E
an advertisement that includes any illustrations or statements containing or
based upon nonguaranteed elements shall set forth with equal prominence
comparable illustrations or statements containing or based upon the guaranteed
elements,
006.15F if an
advertisement refers to any nonguaranteed policy element, it shall indicate
that the insurer reserves the right to change any such element at any time and
for any reason. However, if an insurer has agreed to limit this right in any
way; such as, for example, if it has agreed to change these elements only at
certain intervals or only if there is a change in the insurer's current or
anticipated experience, the advertisement may indicate any such limitation on
the insurer's right,
006.15G an
advertisement shall not refer to dividends as "tax free" or use words of
similar import, unless the tax treatment of dividends is fully explained and
the nature of the dividend as a return of premium is indicated clearly,
and
006.15H an advertisement may
not state or imply that illustrated dividends under either or both a
participating policy or pure endowment will be or can be sufficient at any
future time to assure without the future payment of premiums, the receipt of
benefits, such as a paid-up policy, unless the advertisement clearly and
precisely explains the benefits or coverage provided at that time and the
conditions required for that to occur.
006.16 An advertisement shall not state that
a purchaser of a policy will share in or receive a stated percentage or portion
of the earnings on the general account assets of the company.
006.17 Testimonials, appraisals, analysis, or
endorsements by third parties;
006.17A
testimonials, appraisals or analysis used in advertisements must be genuine;
represent the current opinion of the author; be applicable to the policy
advertised, if any; and be accurately reproduced with sufficient completeness
to avoid misleading or deceiving prospective insureds as to the nature or scope
of the testimonial, appraisal, analysis or endorsement. In using testimonials,
appraisals or analysis, the insurer or insurance producer makes as its own all
of the statements contained therein, and such statements are subject to all the
provisions of these rules,
006.17B
if the individual making a testimonial, appraisal, analysis or an endorsement
has a financial interest in the insurer or a related entity as a stockholder,
director, officer, employee or otherwise, or receives any benefit directly or
indirectly other than required union scale wages, such fact shall be
prominently disclosed in the advertisement,
006.17C an advertisement shall not state or
imply that an insurer or a policy has been approved or endorsed by a group of
individuals, society, association or other organization unless such is the fact
and unless any proprietary relationship between an organization and the insurer
is disclosed. If the entity making the endorsement or testimonial is owned,
controlled or managed by the insurer, or receives any payment or other
consideration from the insurer for making such endorsement or testimonial such
fact shall be disclosed in the advertisement, and
006.17D when an endorsement refers to
benefits received under a policy for a specific claim, the claim date,
including claim number, date of loss and other pertinent information shall be
retained by the insurer for inspection for a period of five (5) years after the
discontinuance of its use or publication.
006.18 An advertisement shall not contain
statistical information relating to any insurer or policy unless it accurately
reflects recent and relevant facts. The source of any such statistics used in
an advertisement shall be identified therein.
006.19 Policies sold to students;
006.19A the envelope in which insurance
solicitation material is contained may be addressed to the parents of students.
The address may not include any combination or words which imply that the
correspondence is from a school, college, university or other education or
training institution nor may it imply that the institution has endorsed the
material or supplied the insurer with information about the student unless such
is a correct and truthful statement,
006.19B all advertisements, including but not
limited to informational flyers, used in the solicitation of insurance must be
identified clearly as coming from an insurer or insurance producer, if such is
the case, and these entities must be clearly identified as such, and
006.19C the return address on the envelope
may not imply that the soliciting insurer or insurance producer is affiliated
with a university, college, school or other educational or training
institution, unless true.
006.20 Introductory, initial or special
offers and enrollment periods;
006.20A an
advertisement of an individual policy or combination of such policies shall not
state or imply that such policy or combination of such policies is an
introductory, initial or special offer, or that applicants will receive
substantial advantages not available at a later date, or that the offer is
available only to a specified group or individuals, unless such is the fact. An
advertisement shall not describe an enrollment period as "special" or "limited"
or use similar words or phrases in describing it when the insurer uses
successive enrollment period as its usual method of marketing its
policies;
006.20B an advertisement
shall not state or imply that only a specific number of policies will be sold,
or that a time is fixed for the discontinuance of the sale of the particular
policy advertised because of special advantages available in the
policy;
006.20C an advertisement
shall not offer a policy which utilizes a reduced initial premium rate in a
manner which overemphasizes the availability and the amount of the reduced
initial premium. A reduced initial or first year premium may not be described
as constituting free insurance for a period of time. When an insurer charges an
initial premium that differs in amount from the amount of the renewal premium
payable on the same mode, all references to the reduced initial premium shall
be followed by an asterisk or other appropriate symbol which refers the reader
to that specific portion of the advertisement which contains the full rate
schedule for the policy being advertised; and
006.20D an enrollment period during which a
particular insurance policy may be purchased on an individual basis shall not
be offered within this State unless there has been a lapse of not less than
five months between the close of the immediately preceding enrollment period
for the same policy and the opening of the new enrollment period. The
advertisement shall specify the date by which the applicant must mail the
application, which shall be not less than ten days and not more than forty days
from the date on which such enrollment period is advertised for the first time.
This Subsection applies to all advertising by any one insurer or insurance
producer. The phrase "any one insurer" includes all the affiliate companies of
a group of insurance companies under common management or control. This
Subsection does not apply to the use of a termination or cutoff date beyond
which an individual application for a guaranteed issue policy will not be
accepted by an insurer in those instances where the application has been sent
to the applicant in response to his request. It is also inapplicable to
solicitations of employees or members of a particular group or association
which otherwise would be eligible under specified provisions of the insurance
laws for group, blanket or franchise insurance. In cases where an insurance
product is marketed on a direct mail basis to prospective insureds by reason of
some common relationship with a sponsoring organization, this rule shall be
applied separately to each sponsoring organization.
006.21 An advertisement of a particular
policy shall not state or imply that prospective insureds shall be or become
members of a special class, group, or quasi-group and as such enjoy special
rates, dividends or underwriting privileges, unless such is the fact.
006.22 An advertisement shall not make unfair
or incomplete comparisons or policies, benefits, dividends or rates of other
insurers. An advertisement shall not disparage other insurers, insurance
producers, policies, services or methods of marketing.
006.23 For individual deferred annuity
products or deposit funds, the following shall apply:
006.23A any illustrations or statements
containing or based upon nonguaranteed interest rates shall likewise set forth
with equal prominence comparable illustrations or statements containing or
based upon the guaranteed accumulation interest rates. The nonguaranteed
interest rate shall not be greater than those currently being credited by the
company unless the nonguaranteed rates have been publicly declared by the
company with an effective date for new issues not more than three months
subsequent to the date of declaration;
006.23B if an advertisement states the net
premium accumulation interest rate, whether guaranteed or not, it shall also
disclose in close proximity thereto and with equal prominence, the actual
relationship between the gross and the net premiums;
006.23C if any contract does not provide a
cash surrender benefit prior to commencement of payment of any annuity
benefits, any illustrations or statements concerning such contract shall
prominently state that cash surrender benefits are not provided; and
006.23D Any illustrations, depictions or
statements containing or based on determinable policy elements shall likewise
set forth with equal prominence comparable illustrations, depictions or
statements containing or based on guaranteed policy elements.
006.24 An advertisement of or for
a life insurance policy or annuity that illustrates nonguaranteed values shall
only do so in accordance with current applicable state law relative to
illustrating such values for life insurance policies and annuity
contracts.
006.25 An advertisement
for the solicitation or sale of a preneed funeral contract or prearrangement as
defined in Subsection 003.06 above which is funded or to be funded by a life
insurance policy or annuity contract shall adequately disclose the following:
006.25A the fact that a life insurance policy
or annuity contract is involved or being used to fund a prearrangement as
defined in Section 003.06 of these rules;
006.25B the nature of the relationship among
the soliciting agent or agents, the provider of the funeral or cemetery
merchandise or services, the administrator and any other person.
