Social Media Policy Template Released Today for Insurance & Financial Services Marketplace

WASHINGTON, DC -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/27/10 -- The Insurance Marketplace Standards Association (IMSA) today announced that it has expanded its efforts to provide compliant social media guidance and resources within the annuity, life insurance and long term care insurance arenas with today's release of the IMSA Social Media Policy Template.

The IMSA Social Media Policy Template was designed for companies who feel the prohibition of social media use is too great a risk. It is available to all industry stakeholders, including both IMSA-qualified and non-IMSA-qualified insurers, as well as non-carrier companies, at www.IMSAethics.org.

"With so much change in electronic communication and the marketing of insurance and financial products, social media solutions and guidance are extremely important at this time," said Brian Atchinson, IMSA President and CEO. "The emergence of social media challenges proves clearly that compliance is not a static endeavor, but rather one that grows, changes, and requires evolving standards and policies."

Future plans include:

• The release of social media monitoring and testing guidance that can be incorporated into an insurance company's supervisory programs.
• A social media training program for both life insurance company staff and the company's distribution partners.

FINRA's release of "Regulatory Notice 10-06" earlier this year clarifies the responsibilities of broker-dealer firms to supervise the use of social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs, to ensure that recommendations are suitable and customers are not misled. IMSA is working to ensure that the life insurance marketplace is provided with the same type of guidance.

The "IMSA-AARP Social Networking Summit," held in October 2009, brought life insurance companies, distributors, state and federal regulators and social media thought leaders together to explore emerging compliance challenges and potential solutions. As an outgrowth of that meeting, IMSA convened a "Social Media Working Group" of leading life insurance company representatives from marketing, compliance, and technology disciplines in November 2009, to create needed marketplace solutions.

Through webinars and speaking appearances, IMSA has addressed life insurance company, distribution, and regulatory groups about critical social media and compliance awareness and management, and IMSA continues to release pertinent benchmarking information to gauge how life insurance companies are addressing the use of social media.

IMSA is the premier standards-setting and compliance solutions organization for the life insurance, annuity and long-term care insurance marketplace for individually sold products. Qualified companies commit to maintaining high ethical market conduct standards and to being fair, honest, and open in the way they advertise, sell and service their products. For more information and a list of IMSA-qualified companies, visit www.IMSAethics.org.

For information, contact: Jennifer Kalita 240-744-3021