A lack of email security, audit trails and administrative controls expose information and leave the agent open to complaint investigation and liability from both state and federal authorities. Agents are liable, not their employees.

The founders of ASN Secure LLC are licensed insurance agents with over 50 years in the business and their staff has additional decades of insurance agency knowledge. ASN Secure President, Jim Hermes saw the circumstances and worked with a leading provider of electronic security provider to customize a solution for insurance agencies. Jim was featured on Channel 11 CBS affiliate KHOU and said, "we cannot control the information our customers may decide to send us and once we have it, we are legally responsible."

In a later interview Jim expanded on the problem and the solution. "With over thirty years of owning and managing an agency, I understand risk. We have liability and compliance regulations. We also have privacy and compliance directives placed on us by our principal companies. Every solution we found was designed for large organizations and just too expensive for even a large individual agency. We worked with an experienced electronic security firm to customize a system that allows compliance at a reasonable cost. After serious testing in our own agency, we found that protection of client information such as medical records, MVR data and social security numbers more than justified the expense. The email tracking feature is great to have in case of a Corporate Office or State Board complaint."

Every agent, employee, or client, may be a codefendant or a plaintiff. Since most communication is now via email, documented communication via audit trailed email can be the best defense.

A lack of email security, audit trails and administrative controls expose information and leave the agent open to investigation. The investigation might be overt or covert and may be started by complaints of service, quality, poor documentation, lack of control leading to identity theft, failure to execute requested coverage, and dozens of other potential liabilities

For more information, contact Jeff Hermes at 713-962-5332 or Jeffhermes @ ASNsecure.com

ASN Secure, LLC is the leader of electronic regulatory communication for Insurance Agencies