User Code of Conduct

• The account owner and every user, seat, contractor, virtual assistant, call center or vendor you give access to. You are responsible for their conduct as if it were your own.
• Each person uses their own login. Shared logins, and giving access to another agency or business, are a breach of the Terms of Use.
• If a downline agency or a contractor works contacts from your account, you must hold them to standards no weaker than this Code and monitor that they keep to it.

• Contact only people you have a lawful basis to contact. Marketing texts, and marketing calls placed with an automated system, an AI voice or a prerecorded message, require prior express written consent that names you or your agency.
• Keep a record of when, where and how each consent was obtained, and produce it to us within 2 business days of our request.
• APEX does not supply leads and does not obtain, validate or vouch for consent on your behalf. The consent fields in the Services hold what you enter.
• Do not buy or upload lists where consent was given to someone else, or in a way that does not meet the one-to-one consent standard where it applies.

• Do not place an excessive or oppressive volume of calls or texts to any one person. Stay within any contact-frequency limits in federal or state law, and stop when a person asks you to.
• Call and text only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the recipient’s local time, or within the stricter hours, Sunday and holiday rules that some states impose. The quiet-hours checks in the Services help; you remain responsible for the rules that apply to you.

Our state telemarketing guide summarises calling hours and do-not-call rules by state. It is general information, not legal advice.

• Transmit accurate caller ID: a number assigned to your account that accepts return calls. Never spoof or mask a number, and do not use local-presence numbers in a jurisdiction where that practice is prohibited.
• At the start of every call, give your name, the legal or registered name of your agency, and your license number where the law or a carrier requires it. Every text message identifies you or your agency.
• Never state or imply that you are, or are calling for, Medicare, Medicaid, the Social Security Administration, any government agency, a health insurance marketplace or the consumer’s carrier. Do not call yourself a “Health Enrollment Center”, “Medicare Helpline” or any other generic name that suggests official status. An unregistered DBA using such a term does not satisfy this rule.

• Scrub every list against the National Do Not Call Registry and any applicable state registry before contacting it, and keep an internal do-not-call list.
• Honor every opt-out at once, whether it arrives as STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, a spoken request or any other reasonable means. Do not disable, bypass or delay the automatic opt-out handling in the Services.
• Within 24 hours of a do-not-call or privacy request, add the person to your internal do-not-call list and, where they ask for it, delete their information from your systems and from anywhere else you have sent it.
• A person who has opted out of texts must not be texted again from any number on your account.

• Treat every consumer with courtesy. Do not yell, berate, threaten, pressure, mislead or hang up on them.
• Take no for an answer. Do not call back after being asked not to, and do not use repeated calls, voicemails or texts to wear someone down.
• Take extra care with older adults and with people who seem confused or in distress. Do not take advantage of them.

You must not:

• Offer or enroll a consumer in a product in a state where you are not licensed, or where that product is not permitted.
• Misrepresent the terms, benefits, network, carrier or cost of any product, or leave out a material limitation.
• Describe a short-term, limited-duration, limited-benefit, indemnity, discount or health-sharing plan as comprehensive or major medical coverage, or as the same as ACA or Medicare coverage.
• Promise free offers, gift cards, cash, rebates or other incentives that you do not provide exactly as stated, or use incentives that the law or carrier rules forbid.
• Enroll anyone, or change their plan or agent of record, without their informed and documented consent, or use negative-option or “cancel later” tactics.
• Send messages whose sender, subject or content is deceptive, or that do not match the use case you registered for the number.

Before a consumer enrolls, make sure they know:

• The carrier or plan sponsor, by name. Do not present a provider network, a marketing organisation or your agency as the insurer.
• What kind of plan it is, what it does not cover, any pre-existing-condition exclusions and benefit limits, and the full cost, including premiums, fees and deductibles.
• Where to read the official plan documents, such as the summary of benefits and the enrollment agreement, and that they should review them before enrolling.

For Medicare products, follow the CMS marketing and communications rules that apply to you, including any scope-of-appointment, disclaimer and call-recording requirements. For ACA marketplace plans, follow the marketplace agent and broker rules, including the consumer consent and eligibility-review documentation they require.

• Hold a valid insurance producer license in every state where you contact consumers about insurance, for every line you discuss. If you operate as an agency, hold the entity license as well.
• Every person who discusses or sells insurance from your account must be licensed and, where required, appointed with the carrier.
• Keep your license and agency details in your account current. We may ask for proof.

• Use consumer data in your account only to offer the products the consumer asked about, for your own business. Do not sell, share, rent or trade contacts or lists, and do not export them for anyone outside your business except a contractor working under your direction and this Code.
• Do not use contact or lead data to decide anyone’s eligibility for insurance, credit, employment or housing in a way that would make you a user of a consumer report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
• Protect the data. Use two-factor authentication, give each person only the access they need, remove users the day they leave, and tell us promptly if you believe an account has been compromised.

• Register your brand and campaign before sending application-to-person texts, give accurate information, and send only what matches the registered use case.
• Include “Reply STOP to unsubscribe” or an equivalent in the first text to any number and at least once a month in an ongoing conversation. Do not remove the opt-out language the Services add.
• Do not send content carriers prohibit, including anything related to SHAFT (sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, tobacco), cannabis or high-risk financial offers, and do not use public URL shorteners.

• Call recording is off by default. If you turn it on, you are the party recording: obtain the consent each state requires, including all-party consent where it applies, and follow CMS recording rules where they apply to you.
• You are the sender of every AI-drafted message and every AI or prerecorded voice call. Review AI drafts before they go out, use AI or prerecorded voice only with prior express written consent, and disclose an artificial voice where the law requires it.

• Keep your consent records, the call recordings you make, message history and call dispositions for as long as the law requires, and produce them to us on request.
• We may review message samples, complaint and opt-out rates, carrier feedback and consumer reports about your account. We are not your compliance monitor; checking your own conduct is your responsibility.
• Tell us within 5 business days if you receive a regulator, carrier, marketplace or law-enforcement inquiry about calls or messages sent from your account, or if you are or become subject to a consent decree or order concerning telemarketing, messaging, privacy or insurance sales. Cooperate with our review.

• Depending on severity we may warn you, throttle or suspend calling or messaging, or terminate your account, with or without notice. Fees already paid are not refunded.
• We may report violations to carriers and to regulators where the law requires or permits, and we cooperate with law enforcement.
• You remain responsible, and indemnify APEX, for claims, fines and carrier charges arising from your use, as set out in the Terms of Use.

Consumers. To stop texts from an APEX user, reply STOP. To report a call or text, email [email protected] with the number that contacted you and the date. We review every report.

Users. Report suspected misuse of your own account, or of another APEX account, to the same address with the subject line “Code of Conduct”.