For agents, agencies, and individuals
Recording consent before you touch an application
Consent is not a courtesy. It is the record that shows a client asked you to act for them.
What a usable consent record contains
What does consent need to establish?
Who the client is, who you are, that they understand you will help with their coverage, what you may do on their behalf, and the date they agreed. A record missing the date is close to useless.
Does it have to be a signed form?
Not necessarily, but it has to be documented and retrievable. A recorded call, a completed form or a clear written exchange can all work; a remembered conversation cannot.
Does one consent cover everything forever?
Treat it as bounded. It covers the work the client agreed to, and a materially different task or a later plan year deserves fresh agreement rather than an assumption.
Who is the record actually for?
For the client, so they know what they authorised, and for you, if anyone later asks why you had access to someone’s information. It protects the agent at least as much as the consumer.
Making it routine
When in the conversation should I ask?
Before you gather anything personal. Asking first sets the tone and avoids the awkward position of holding information you were never authorised to hold.
How should I store it?
Somewhere you can find it by client name in under a minute, with the same protection as the rest of their file. A consent record you cannot locate is a consent record you do not have.
Work with Safeguard and Associates
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