Advertising compliance refers to the rules, reviews, and controls that ensure insurance and annuity marketing materials meet regulatory and carrier standards. It covers brochures, websites, social media posts, seminar slides, emails, and any other communications that could be interpreted as advertising. Compliance teams verify that promotions are fair and balanced, avoid misleading claims, properly describe guarantees and risks, and include required disclosures such as member FINRA/SIPC statements or carrier identities. For variable products, advertising compliance must also satisfy FINRA content standards and, in some cases, broker-dealer review. Strong advertising compliance protects consumers from deceptive marketing and shields advisors, agencies, and carriers from regulatory sanctions, reputational damage, and liability for unsuitable or misleading sales practices.

Advisors interact with advertising compliance when submitting new marketing pieces, seminar invitations, or social media campaigns for pre-approval. Broker-dealers and carriers often require that all public-facing materials be reviewed and assigned tracking numbers before use. Compliance reviewers focus on claims about returns, guarantees, tax treatment, and comparative statements about competitors, ensuring that these are properly qualified and substantiated. In advanced planning, advertising compliance also governs how complex concepts-such as premium financing, indexed products, and tax strategies-are described to avoid oversimplification. Advisors who embrace advertising compliance build repeatable processes to submit, revise, and archive materials, making audits smoother. Understanding advertising compliance helps advisors create effective, scalable marketing while staying within regulatory guardrails and preserving strong carrier relationships.