TCPA consent language for final expense landing pages: what the form must say and whom it must name

TCPA consent language on final expense forms must, under FCC rules for autodialed, prerecorded or AI-voice sales calls and texts, authorize your agency at the entered number, say agreeing is not a condition of purchase, and carry the consumer’s signature. Worded as an agreement to be contacted by your agency, it can double as Do Not Call Registry permission.

Every rule below was checked against its source on October 22, 2026: the eCFR, the U.S. Code, the Eleventh and Fifth Circuits’ opinions, FCC orders, the Federal Register, FTC staff guidance and six states’ statutes (four read from dated archive copies of the official pages, Oklahoma’s as enacted in 2022). This is not legal advice. Have counsel review your clause before launch and after any wording change.

What must TCPA consent language on a final expense form say, clause by clause?

The consent clause is the consent text beside the submit button plus the checkbox and button the consumer uses to accept it. When your agency calls for its own book, the seller is your agency (other cases are below), so the clause exists to authorize it. Whose words go in the clause depends on whose page it is: on a landing page your agency owns, the consent language can name your agency, and the agency in the consent text and the agency on the phone can be one business. When a vendor or a firm running final expense advertising for you builds the page, read its consent text against the elements below before launch.

What prior express written consent requires on a landing page

For autodialed and prerecorded telemarketing calls, the FCC’s TCPA consent requirements sit in one definition, 47 CFR 64.1200(f)(9), which can be read as six elements:

1. A written agreement. The definition starts with “an agreement, in writing”; on a landing page, the consent text is the writing.
2. The consumer’s signature. It must bear “the signature of the person called”. An electronic or digital signature counts where federal law or state contract law recognizes it ((f)(9)(ii)).
3. The seller. It “clearly authorizes the seller”, defined as “the person or entity on whose behalf a telephone call or message is initiated” to encourage a purchase ((f)(10)).
4. The methods. It covers calls “using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice”.
5. The number. It includes “the telephone number to which the signatory authorizes” those calls.
6. A clear and conspicuous disclosure. The TCPA disclosure must state two things: the agreement authorizes those calls, and the consumer “is not required to sign the agreement” as “a condition of purchasing any property, goods, or services.”

The definition asks for no opt-out line and no message-rates notice, two lines some templates add. The rule requires this consent before a telemarketing call placed by autodialer, or with an artificial or prerecorded voice, goes to a cell phone (64.1200(a)(2)), and before an artificial or prerecorded telemarketing message goes to a home line ((a)(3)). A live call dialed by hand meets different rules, covered below.

Lead forms that open inside Meta’s ads, not on your page, add Meta’s own rules: see how Meta’s Instant Form disclaimers differ from landing-page consent.

Which rule text governs the form today, with the one-to-one rule vacated?

The FCC’s written-consent rule quoted above is still the rule on the books. Its TCPA one-to-one consent version never took effect, and a 2026 appeals ruling reads the statute as asking for less:

The Eleventh Circuit addressed only the 2023 rule: “The 2012 Order is not at issue in this case.” That order is the source of the words “clearly authorizes the seller”. The court also noted: “As the FCC itself admits, consumers no doubt can give ‘prior express consent’ under the TCPA to receive robocalls from multiple parties without consenting to each caller separately” (Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC). Each seller must still be clearly authorized under (f)(9), so naming one seller per form remains a buyer-protection practice, not a federal rule.

The Fifth Circuit, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, went further in a private suit over prerecorded calls: “the statute does not require prior express written consent” (Bradford v. Sovereign Pest Control of TX). The opinion does not address state statutes or registry permission, which still ask for written consent or a signed writing, so a signed clause remains the record to build.

FCC 26-67, adopted September 30 and released October 1, 2026, changes how consent is revoked and leaves the written-consent definition alone. It takes effect 30 days after Federal Register publication, which had not happened as of October 22, 2026; search federalregister.gov for “FCC 26-67” to check its status and effective date.

How should the clause be worded so it also works as Do Not Call Registry permission?

The clause should use the verb from the National Do Not Call Registry rule: the consumer agrees to be contacted by your agency, at the number entered. Registered numbers may still be called with the subscriber’s “prior express invitation or permission”, and “Such permission must be evidenced by a signed, written agreement between the consumer and seller which states that the consumer agrees to be contacted by this seller and includes the telephone number to which the calls may be placed” (64.1200(c)(2)(ii)). Registry permission answers a different trigger from written consent:

• Written consent turns on how you dial: by autodialer, or with an artificial or prerecorded voice.
• Registry permission turns on the number. The registry bar covers every telephone solicitation to a registered residential number, so it reaches calls you dial by hand. A call made with the person’s “prior express invitation or permission” is not a telephone solicitation ((f)(15)(i)).
• Another route, an established business relationship ((f)(15)(ii)), has its own time limits and does not depend on the consent text: see which registered numbers you may call on a business relationship.

Where the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) applies to your calls, its version wants a writing showing “that calls made by or on behalf of a specific party may be placed to that person”, with the number and signature (16 CFR 310.4(b)(1)(iii)(B)(1)). FTC staff add, in their guide to complying with the Telemarketing Sales Rule, that the request “must be clear and conspicuous, and the consumer’s assent must be affirmative”; a pre-checked “Please call me” button does not count.

One signed clause can do both jobs: the autodialer and prerecorded-voice authorization, plus a line such as “I agree to be contacted by [Agency legal name] at the number I entered”.

Who is ‘the seller’ when an agency or IMO builds or buys forms for downline agents?

The seller is the business each call is made for, whoever dials it ((f)(10)); the telemarketer is “the person or entity that initiates” the call ((f)(12)). When the FCC adopted written consent in 2012, it said the consumer must receive “clear and conspicuous disclosure” that future calls delivering prerecorded messages will come “by or on behalf of a specific seller” (FCC 12-21, paragraph 33).

An agency whose own agents call

Calls your licensed agents place in the agency’s name are made on its behalf, so name the agency by its legal name and any trade name your agents use on the phone.

An IMO or agency that hands leads to downline agents

A downline agent who sells for their own book calls on their own behalf too, so a clause that names only the IMO (independent marketing organization) or the upline agency may not clearly authorize that agent. Two drafting routes keep the named seller and the caller the same:

1. Route before the consumer signs. Assign the lead by state or ZIP code while the form is open, and show the receiving agency’s name in the consent text.
2. List each agency by name in the consent text.

Wording such as “licensed agents in our network” names a category, not a seller: in our reading, no consumer could tell from it who will call. For prerecorded messages on calls the TSR covers, FTC staff go further: the seller “cannot rely on third-parties to obtain permission.”

Forms that serve several buyers

One form can carry consent for several companies, as the Eleventh Circuit’s note on the FCC’s concession shows, but each must still be clearly authorized. For prerecorded calls the TSR covers, FTC staff say the authorization “does not extend to other sellers, such as affiliates, marketing partners, or others.” On shared leads, where one record goes to several buyers, each buyer needs its own clear authorization, so read the consent text before the first dial.

When a setter desk or call center dials for you

The federal definition authorizes the seller to deliver “or cause to be delivered” the calls, so it is written around the business the calls are for. Florida, Oklahoma and Maryland word it as “the person making or allowing the placement” of the call, a phrase that can cover both the desk that dials and the agency that allows it. Connecticut authorizes “the telemarketer”, which it defines to include “any person, or any affiliate or subsidiary of any person” that makes or causes the call. If callers you hire to follow up the leads you already have, or a call center, will dial, decide with counsel whether the clause should name them too.

Which contact methods must the clause name: live calls, autodialed calls, prerecorded or AI voices, and texts?

The federal disclosure is written as “an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice” ((f)(9)(i)(A)): name each method you will use, and ask counsel before dropping either federal term. Whether your dialer counts as an autodialer under federal and state definitions is its own question. Only Connecticut requires written consent for live calls. Cells quote each law; Maine has no consent definition, so its column quotes its consent rule:

Live calls dialed by hand

A live call dialed by hand uses neither method the federal definition names, so the federal written-consent rule does not reach it; registry permission still does for registered numbers. Connecticut is the exception: it requires written consent for every telephonic sales call, live voice included (§42-288a(l)), and the agreement must disclose “the means by which the telemarketer will call or contact the consumer” (§42-284(14)).

Artificial, prerecorded and AI voices

The FCC has confirmed that the TCPA’s restrictions on an artificial or prerecorded voice “encompass current AI technologies that generate human voices” (FCC 24-17). If an AI voice agent or a recorded message may reach the consumer, the clause should say so.

Texts

The FCC reads “call” to include text messages, as the Eleventh Circuit noted, and every state in the table except Maine names texts, so a clause that covers texts should say “text messages”.

What has to be captured with the clause so the consent can be proved later?

The consent record has to show what the consumer saw and did, because proving consent falls on you. In its 2012 order the FCC wrote: “should any question about the consent arise, the seller will bear the burden of demonstrating that a clear and conspicuous disclosure was provided and that unambiguous consent was obtained” (FCC 12-21, paragraph 33).

The signature step

The signature is an act, so build one that cannot happen by accident. On a TCPA consent form the signature is usually electronic, and the E-SIGN Act defines an electronic signature as an electronic “sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with” a record and “executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.” The FCC accepts E-SIGN consent “including permission obtained via an email, website form, text message, telephone keypress, or voice recording” (paragraph 34). Florida counts “checking a box indicating consent” as a signature, and for calls the TSR covers, FTC staff reject a pre-checked button. Build it as an unchecked box the consumer ticks, plus a button whose label matches the consent text.

The text, its version and the number

For each submission, keep:

• the consent text exactly as displayed, with its version date;
• the seller name the page showed;
• the phone number the consumer entered;
• the timestamp and the page URL;
• the signature act: the box ticked and the button pressed.

Never edit live consent text in place: publish a new dated version and keep the old one, because each consumer agreed only to the words shown that day. The list is practice, not rule text: it is the record that meets the seller’s burden above.

What a certificate adds

A consent certificate is evidence of a web session, not a legal verdict. ActiveProspect says TrustedForm certificates “provide the landing page URL, timestamp, and a replay of the consent event”, but the consent text still has to carry the elements above; see what a consent certificate records, and what it cannot show.

Which states add their own written-consent rules: Florida, Oklahoma, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maine?

Florida, Oklahoma, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maine write their own written-consent rules into statute; these are the six our state-by-state read of telemarketing statutes found on October 14, 2026. Connecticut’s reaches live calls too, and only Oklahoma exempts licensed insurance agents from its consent rule:

Where the consumer’s own request changes the answer

These laws carve out some calls that follow the consumer’s own request, consent or relationship:

• Florida does not treat as unsolicited a call made “In response to an express request of the person called” (§501.059(1)(k)).
• Maryland exempts from its consent rule a single solicitation made “in response to an inquiry or request from the customer or client” (§14-4502(a)(1)(v)).
• Connecticut excludes from a telephonic sales call one made “in response to a request or inquiry made by a resident consumer” (§42-284(18)(B)(i)).
• Pennsylvania excludes from a telephone solicitation a call made “In response to the prior express written consent of the subscriber”, or to a subscriber with whom the seller or telemarketer has “an established business relationship within the past 12 months preceding the call” (§2). An inquiry can start that relationship, but continuing it “beyond the initial inquiry” needs the subscriber’s consent.
• Maine does not bar automated or prerecorded calls that “Respond to a telephone inquiry initiated by the person” called (§1498(6)(B)).

None of these changes the federal written-consent rule; whether your callbacks fit them is a question in check 10 below.

Pennsylvania’s amended act also bars “any unfair or deceptive act or practice in an effort to obtain” a subscriber’s consent (§5(a)(12)). Florida’s agent exemption (§501.604(8), in part IV of chapter 501) does not reach §§501.608 and 501.616(6)–(7), so the hours and call cap in §501.616(6) still bind licensed agents; §501.059, in part I, has no insurance exemption. For those hours and caps, see Florida’s and Pennsylvania’s calling hours and other limits.

An annotated clause-by-clause example and a pre-launch checklist

Example wording written for this guide, not a template. The rows are not assembled into one clause, because the right words depend on who dials, which methods you use and where you call. Have counsel review your clause.

The annotated example

Ten checks before the form goes live

1. Write the seller’s legal and trade names exactly as your callers will say them.
2. Decide who dials: your licensed agents, a setter desk or a call center.
3. Name each method your dialer, scripts and CRM will use, and keep both federal method terms unless counsel agrees to drop one.
4. Show the entered phone number beside the consent text.
5. Place the consent text directly above the button, with an unchecked box, outside the terms.
6. Version-date the consent text and archive every version with the dates it ran.
7. Store the per-submission record above, with the certificate script loading before submit.
8. Check the state rows above and the calling-hours guide for every state you call, and read the statute of any state the table leaves out.
9. When FCC 26-67 is published, decide how stop requests will be taken.
10. Have counsel review the clause before launch and after every wording change, and ask: is a carrier also a seller on your calls; does a linked or long list of names clearly authorize each business; may the form submit with the box empty; do your callbacks fit a state’s request carve-out; and does Oklahoma’s exemption reach unlicensed staff?