FCC/TCPA Consent Management and Insurance Lead Generation

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With insurance being one of the most heavily regulated markets, there’s absolutely no doubt the upcoming TCPA update will change the lead generation game once and for all. Marketers will no longer be able to use ATDS systems to make thousands of cold calls. By January 27, 2025, individual consent will be required to connect with consumers.

All this turmoil, though, also presents a brilliant opportunity to set yourself apart from other insurance carriers by implementing advanced TCPA-compliance lead acquisition technologies. Consent management and lead gen is changing, and carriers adopting the right consent strategies will likely come up on top in 2025 and further.

via GIPHY

 

Read on to learn how to adjust your consent management to ensure your lead acquisition pipeline is TCPA-compliant.

A Brief Explanation of TCPA and FCC

There’s no chance you’ve missed all the news, but let me give you a brief summary of what has been going on compliance-wise recently:

➥ In 2023, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a regulatory agency that adopts the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), announced new rules regarding robotic calls and texts. Since January 27, 2025, these types of communication will require prior written consent from the consumer.

As simple as that. No consent – no right to call or message the consumer. 

And that’s a big deal for insurance brokers, agents, and affiliates relying on Automatic Telephone Dialing Systems (ATDS). They will not be able to make hundreds of thousands of calls daily unless they’ve somehow managed to receive individual consent from every consumer.

Ensure FCC-compliant lead generation for your business with Consent Branches – Phonexa’s proprietary one-to-one consent solution integrated into Phonexa’s Smart Tree technology.

How Will Insurance Consent Management Change?

First of all, here’s the part of the FCC update where all the juice is:

“First, we require terminating mobile wireless providers to block text messages from a particular number following notification from the Commission unless their investigation determines that the identified text messages are not illegal. Next, we codify that the National DNC Registry’s protections apply to text messages. Third, we encourage providers to make email-to-text, a major source of illegal texts, a service that consumers proactively opt into. Next, we close the lead generator loophole by prohibiting lead generators, texters, and callers from using a single consumer consent to inundate consumers with unwanted texts and calls when consumers visit comparison shopping websites.”

For insurance providers, this means new consent management routines, where they obtain consent from every consumer and – no less importantly – ensure their agents and sub-agents also receive consent before directing this consumer to the carrier.

Again, as a carrier, you might be held responsible for consent issues on the side of your sub-agents, even if you don’t work with them personally. There’s already a case that proves that insurance carriers might be held liable for compliance violations of third-party agents.

Hossfeld v. Allstate Lawsuit

In 2022, Robert Hossfield – a TCPA plaintiff who filled out insurance quotes using pseudonyms to collect information about who was calling – filed a motion for class certification against Allstate, claiming they allowed their telemarketers to call numbers on the DNC list.

The original motion was denied for not having sufficient grounds for class certification, and a year later, the plaintiff soon filed a new one, claiming that he “reviewed the infirmities relied upon by the Court in its original opinion denying his first motion for class certification and modified the class definitions and arguments to address them.”

In January 2024, the Illinois federal court dismissed Hossfield’s second motion as well, so he and Allstate both asked the court to make a summary judgment around three questions:

• Whether prior consent is enough to make calls to the numbers on Allstate’s internal DNC list
• Whether the plaintiff actually provided his consent
• Whether Allstate could be held responsible for the actions of their contractors who are making calls on Allstate’s behalf

The court sided with the plaintiff, stating that Allstate is liable for the actions of its sub-agents, even if they didn’t know about these sub-agents.

Here’s the takeaway: Insurance companies can be held liable for the actions of independent contractors and sub-agents, even if they do not have a contractual relationship with the provider, as long as the company authorizes its agents to cooperate and control telemarketing vendors.

Long story short, as an insurance carrier, you are responsible for your entire network consent-wise. This also means you need comprehensive consent management and lead generation strategies covering all your contractors and their sub-agents.

Here are some practical consent management changes coming in 2025:

#1 Ensuring TCPA Compliance within Lead Generation Forms

One of the most obvious consent management strategies would be using checkboxes for lead generation forms – and it might be enough to ensure one-to-one consent in insurance. Previously used tricks like linking to a page with hundreds of advertisers won’t work anymore.

However, you don’t necessarily have to develop individual consent language for every brand. If all your brands can be covered with one consent language, you can use it while allowing users to choose the brand to which they provide consent.

#2 Ensuring All Agents and Sub-Agents are TCPA-Compliant

I’d recommend that you act now so that you are not held liable for the missteps of your sub-agents. Peruse the official FCC document and establish clear compliance guidelines for your contracts and agents, including the DNC rules and record-keeping.

Likewise, you might want to revise your list of agents and monitor them thoroughly. Again, start doing it now so as not to be caught off guard in a few months. It’s not out of the question that you might have to introduce or increase non-compliance penalties for your agents.

#3 Picking Brands That Match the Consumer’s Intent

Marketing-wise, the biggest change would be that you’ll have to cherry-pick the most relevant brand you want to offer to consumers. Theoretically, you can include any number of brands on your lead generation form, but it’s also clear that consumers would not browse through many pages of insurance companies.

Therefore, I would recommend that you have around 5 to 7 brands on your form. This way, most consumers will feel that they have a decent choice while not being overwhelmed.

How Will Insurance Lead Generation Change?

#1 Prioritizing Quality Leads

With mass ATDS calls and texts being impossible, you will inevitably have to focus on the quality of the leads you generate. Whether custom or multi-brand consent, you will only have a realistic chance to offer around 10 insurers, so it will matter even more how you choose them.

At the same time, insurance companies will have to pay more for the leads they buy. But then again, since the lead quality also grows, it’s not out of the question that you can find a decent balance there. Some turbulence should be expected, though, until the market calms down.

#2 Doubling Down on Organic Lead Acquisition

With on-to-one consent making lead generation more expensive, it’s natural that insurance companies will use organic marketing more extensively. From blogging to SEO to social media, organic traffic channels might get a significant boost.

#3 Using TCPA-Compliant Lead Generation Software

Consent management software will play an increasing role in insurance lead generation. Even now, insurance marketers are concerned about the source of their leads, how the one-to-one consent was obtained, and whether the consent revocation took place.

The good news is that advanced TCPA-compliant lead management software – like, for example, Phonexa – can automatically ensure compliance for all your leads while letting you focus on more urgent tasks. Software suites like Phonexa will likely get a boost in subscriptions and sign-ups.

Phonexa’s Consent Branches: Your Ultimate TCPA Compliance Solution

There’s a lot of TCPA-related buzz among insurance carriers, agents, and affiliates, but the truth is that you can come on top by adopting one of Phonexa’s form solutions that come along with our proprietary Consent Branches technology.

Here’s how each of the two TCPA consent forms works:

Custom Consent Language Form

Custom consent language on your forms guarantees TCPA compliance, taking consent to the granular level. In practice, when a consumer fills out a form, they will receive a list of brands relevant to the provided information and – most importantly – containing unique information about each offered brand: name, logo, how the chosen brand can contact them, and what rates may apply.

Here’s how it looks:

As you can see, the consumer gets exhaustive information about the company, including how they will be contacted. You can provide such custom consent language forms to your agents and sub-agents, ensuring TCPA compliance across the network.

 

Generic Consent Language Form

Generic consent language is less granular yet enough to satisfy the new TCPA compliance requirements as long as the language accurately covers all represented brands.

In practice, a consumer will get one statement covering several brands – remember, they provide similar services via the same promotional method – and checkboxes to choose the companies they want to grant consent to.

Here’s how it looks:

The generic consent language form allows the consumer to choose providers individually, but they can also select all providers at once by clicking the correspondent button.

 

And now, let’s get to the nitty-gritty of Phonexa’s Consent Branches.

How Phonexa Consent Branches Work, Step by Step

First of all, if you’re unaware, Phonexa is one of the most advanced all-in-one performance marketing software suites that allows marketers to sell and buy leads instantly at a fair marketing price and follow their journey across touchpoints from A to Z.

Here’s the gist of Phonexa’s Consent Branches, also known as legs:

➥  Phonexa’s Consent Branches allow you to match the consumer with the best buyer – or buyers – while ensuring TCPA compliance by asking about what brands the customer authorizes to contact them.

Here’s how Consent Branches Work:

Phase 1 – Lead Sellers Send Non-PII Pings to Phonexa

When someone wants to sell a lead, they send a non-PII ping to the system, which is general information about the consumer – for example, their country, gender, device type, etc. Any data that might possibly allow the advertiser to identify the leads is hidden for now.

Phase 2 – Phonexa Matches the Lead with Relevant Advertisers and Sends a Consent Request to the Consumer

Having received non-PII information about the offered lead, Phonexa finds matching advertisers and they decide on whether they want to buy the offered lead. Then, the advertisers who agreed to buy the lead in question are offered this lead via a multi-brand or custom consent form.

Phase 3 – The Picked Companies Receive the Rest of the Consumer Data

Once the consumer gives consent to one or several of the offered brands, these buyers receive the rest of the consumer details specified in the form – ZIP code, name, phone number, email, etc. – and the consent details so they can know for sure how they are allowed to contact the consumer.

 

With Phonexa, it’s so simple: no matter how many advertisers you work with, you can ensure TCPA compliance equally smoothly and quickly – in fact, automatically and with no room for error. At the same time, consumers will already be warmed up before the contact.

Explore Consent Branches, a Phonexa’s proprietary solution that turns lead generation forms FCC-compliant while connecting opted-in leads to a matching advertiser.

Get Your Eight-in-One Insurance Lead Generation Software Suite at a Single Price

TCPA-compliant lead generation is a reality you must adjust to here and now so as not to be left behind in 2025. At the same time, it’s a brilliant opportunity to increase your lead quality, earn more for your leads, or buy high-intent leads that are truly interested in your products.

Phonexa’s TCPA-compliant eight-in-one performance marketing software suite is all you need to sell or buy insurance and other leads in bulk at a fair price while being fully protected against legal issues. Moreover, each of the eight solutions synergizes with the other seven, so you can know how your consumers interact at every step of the sales funnel.

Here’s Phonexa’s groundlaying ping tree technology, all TCPA-compliant:

 

Here are the eight proprietary solutions you get at a single price (online price calculator):

Get your all-in-one performance marketing software suite now, or book a demo to learn more about Phonexa.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is TCPA compliance?

TCPA compliance is a set of requirements businesses must adhere to when marketing to consumers, including obtaining prior written consent for robotic calls and robotic messages and prior conspicuous consent for informational communication.

The new TCPA rules will come into force on January 27, 2025.

What is consent management?

Consent management is, if fact, your strategy to comply with regulatory requirements. 

For example, a way to manage the FCC consent requirements is by implementing custom multi-company consent language on your forms, informing customers about the offered brands, and letting them pick the brands they provide consent to.

How will the FCC update/TCPA update affect insurance lead generators?

Insurance carriers will have to make sure every consumer they contact has provided prior consent, including prior written consent for marketing messages. To reduce non-compliance risks, insurance carriers will also have to make sure all their agents and sub-agents comply with the FCC one-to-one consent rule.