Application Responsibilities and Marketing Methods (FL)

The agent-customer relationship is a fiduciary duty — trust and good faith, acting in the customer's best interest. The agent must ask ALL application questions and record answers honestly; caution self-completing applicants that intentional misrepresentation risks loss of coverage, denied claims, and legal trouble; obtain every signature and deliver required disclosures; and collect and promptly forward the premium and application. An agent NEVER signs an application for an applicant. Advertisements include newspaper/magazine communications, notices, circulars, pamphlets, letters, posters, and radio/TV ads; they exclude agent training and education material, internal insurer communications, and correspondence during negotiations with a prospective group policyholder. Required disclosures must be conspicuous, connected to the statements they qualify, and never minimized, obscured, or intermingled into confusion. Florida's unfair trade practice standards apply to all lines, including accident and health.

Ask everything, write it straight, get every signature but never forge one, and move the money along.