Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
(A) Purpose
The purpose of this rule is to set forth standards to protect
consumers from dishonest, unfair, deceptive,
misleading, and fraudulent trade practices with respect to the use of
senior-specific certifications and professional designations in the marketing,
solicitation, negotiation, sale, or purchase of,
or advice made in connection with, life or health insurance, or an annuity
product.
(B) Authority
This rule is
promulgated pursuant to the
authority
vested in the superintendent under sections
3901.041,
3901.21,
3901.212,
3905.0611, and
3905.28
of the Revised
Code.
(C) Application and
scope
This rule
applies to any marketing, solicitation,
negotiation, or sale or purchase of, or advice made in connection with, a life
or health insurance policy, or annuity product by an insurance agent in this
state.
Nothing in this rule
limits the superintendent's
authority to enforce existing provisions of law.
(D) Definitions
(1)
"Agent" or "insurance
agent" means any person who, in order to sell, solicit, or negotiate life and health insurance and
annuities, is required to be licensed under the laws of this state.
(2) "Financial services regulatory agency"
means an agency that regulates insurers,
insurance agents, broker-dealers, investment advisers, or investment companies
as that term is defined
in the
"Investment Company Act of 1940,"15
U.S.C. 80a-3, as amended.
(3) "Health insurance"
means any policy of individual or group sickness
and accident insurance, long term care insurance, medicare advantage, medicare
supplement, and medicare part D.
(E) Prohibited uses of senior-specific
certifications and professional designations
(1) It is an unfair and deceptive trade
practice under sections
3901.19 to
3901.26 of the Revised Code and
a dishonest practice under division (B)(9) of section
3905.14 of the Revised Code for
an insurance agent to use a senior-specific certification or professional
designation that indicates or implies in such a way as to mislead a purchaser
or prospective purchaser that the insurance agent has special certification or
training in advising or providing services to seniors in connection with the
marketing, negotiating, soliciting, selling, or purchase of a life or health
insurance policy, or annuity product or in the provision of advice as to the
value of or the advisability of purchasing of a life or health insurance policy
or annuity product, either directly or indirectly, through publications or
writings, or by issuing or promulgating analyses or reports related to a life
or health insurance or annuity product.
(2) The prohibited use of senior-specific
certifications or professional designations includes, but is not limited to,
the following:
(a) Use of a certification or
professional designation by an insurance agent who has not actually earned or
is otherwise ineligible to use such certification or designation;
(b) Use of a nonexistent or self-conferred
certification or professional designation;
(c) Use of a certification or professional
designation that indicates or implies a level of occupational qualifications
obtained through education, training or experience that the insurance agent
did not complete or does not have; or
(d) Use of a certification or professional
designation that was obtained from a certifying or designating organization
that:
(i) Is primarily engaged in the business
of instruction in sales or marketing;
(ii) Does not have reasonable standards or
procedures for assuring the competency of its certificants or
designees;
(iii) Does not have
reasonable standards or procedures for monitoring and disciplining its
certificants or designees for improper or unethical conduct; or
(iv) Does not have reasonable continuing
education requirements for its certificants or designees
to maintain the certificate or
designation.
(F)
There is a rebuttable presumption that
a certifying or designating organization is not disqualified under this rule
when the certification or designation issued by the organization does not
primarily apply to sales or marketing and has been accredited by one of the
following accrediting entities:
(1)
The "American National Standards Institute"
("ANSI");
(2)
The "National Commission for Certifying Agencies";
or
(3)
Any organization actively recognized as an accrediting
agency by the U.S. Department of Education pursuant to 34 CFR part
602.
(G) Words or
combinations of words implying special training in advising or providing
services to seniors
(1)
Factors to be
considered when determining whether a combination of words or an acronym
standing for a combination of words constitutes a certification or professional
designation indicating or implying that
an insurance agent has special
certification or training in advising or servicing seniors include:
(a) Use of one or more words such as
"senior," "retirement," "elder," "medicare," or
like words combined with one or more words such as "certified," "registered,"
"chartered," "advisor," "specialist," "consultant," "planner," or like words,
in the name of the certification or professional designation; and
(b) The manner in which those words are
used or combined.
(2) For purposes of this rule, a job title
within an organization that is licensed or registered by a state or federal
financial services regulatory agency is not a certification or professional
designation unless it is used in a manner
that would confuse or mislead a reasonable consumer, when the job title:
(a) Indicates seniority or standing within
the organization; or
(b) Specifics
an individual's area of specialization within the organization.
(H) Penalties
A violation of this rule is an unfair and deceptive trade
practice under sections
3901.19 to
3901.26 of the Revised Code and
a dishonest practice under division (B)(9) of section
3905.14 of the Revised
Code.
(I) Severability
If any portion of this rule or the application thereof to
any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect
other provisions or applications of the rule or related rules which can be
given effect without the invalid portion or application, and to this end the
provisions of this rule are severable.
