The Advertising Review Unit (ARU) in Market Conduct and Compliance (MC&C) hit a major milestone this week, receiving their 100,000th submission of advertising materials in the ARU database.
The submission that brought the department to the 100,000 mark was from an agent in the Pacific Northwest Agency.
The database was created 22 years ago as a means of more efficiently tracking and retaining all information necessary to comply with state insurance and securities regulations.
Prior to this time, all records were maintained in paper format with historical records stored in boxes in the Records Center. Twenty-two years ago, the ad review team consisted of Kathy Ruel and Barb Fitch in MC&C for insurance related ads, and Greg Teese for securities materials.
Many improvements have occurred since then, including: automation, electronic storage and delivery of completed reviews, merging the insurance and securities review to one area, and assigning dedicated reviewers by agency for faster turn-around times. Then in 2016, the ARU team took over the review of annuity materials.
State insurance and Securities regulations require that advertising materials created by the home office and its producers be reviewed and approved prior to first use. The ARU team reviews materials to ensure they comply with 50 state regulations, FINRA and SEC regulations. The area receives about 9,000 new submissions each year.
In addition, the area reviews all social media related posts created by the home office and Registered Reps utilizing an automated platform called Hearsay.
Hats off the ARU team (Mark Bates, Myra Brainard, Deb LaRose, Donna Morgan, Bonnie Pemberton and Laura Plourde) on hitting this milestone mark!