As the insurance industry embraces the use of social media as a marketing tool, it must consider risks that are unique to the insurance industry. The degree of insurance regulation and the industry's reliance upon agency distribution channels combine to create special regulatory and legal risks for both insurance companies and agents.

If insurance companies and agents do not use Facebook and Twitter carefully, they may find themselves not only in violation of insurance laws, but also with an increased risk of errors and omissions claims. Insurance companies may find themselves responsible for the actions of their agents in both civil and regulatory arenas.

State insurance regulators recently began discussions about social networking and regulatory compliance. At the winter meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, regulators held a meeting on the "Use of Social Networking Sites in Insurance," but no formal guidance has been issued.

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.