Telemarketing calling hours by state (2026): windows, call caps and insurance carve-outs for final expense floors

Telemarketing calling hours by state start from the federal rule: no telephone solicitation before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the called person's local time. Nineteen jurisdictions narrow that window or bar whole days, and four states cap calls at three per 24 hours. Florida and Maryland hold licensed insurance agents to both limits; Oklahoma exempts them.

The first table gives every state's calling window, barred days, 24-hour cap and what still binds a licensed agent; the second covers do-not-call lists, remedies, recording consent and registration. Each row links the statute or rule it rests on and was checked on October 14, 2026. This is not legal advice: have counsel confirm the rows for the states you call.

What are the telemarketing calling hours in each state, and where is the window narrower than the federal 8 a.m.–9 p.m.?

Federal law sets what time telemarketers can call: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the called person's location. For live sales calls, that federal window is the tightest limit except in the nineteen jurisdictions that narrow it, and where a state is narrower, the stricter rule is the one you dial to. With Pennsylvania's new hours and Sunday ban counted (in force since October 18 or 19, 2026), eight jurisdictions start later than 8 a.m., thirteen close before 9 p.m., seven bar Sundays and five bar legal holidays.

The federal window and the calls it covers

The TCPA calling-hours rule is 47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1): no person or entity may initiate a telephone solicitation to “Any residential telephone subscriber before the hour of 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. (local time at the called party's location)” (eCFR, as of October 19, 2026). Three details decide what it reaches:

• Which calls count. A “telephone solicitation” is a sales call or message, but not one to a person who gave “prior express invitation or permission”, to someone with an established business relationship, or by or for a tax-exempt nonprofit (64.1200(f)(15)).
• Cell phones and texts. The calling-hours and do-not-call paragraphs “are applicable to any person or entity making telephone solicitations or telemarketing calls or text messages to wireless telephone numbers to the extent described in” the FCC's 2003 TCPA order (64.1200(e)).
• The FTC's rule. The Telemarketing Sales Rule sets the same hours for calls to a residence, “Without the prior consent of a person” (16 CFR 310.4(c)).

Texts follow their own state definitions; this post covers calls, not which state laws reach texts.

Calling hours by state: the table

Each row is the state's calling window by clock and calendar, what some searches call “do not call hours by state”: the hours in the called person's local time, the days with no sales calls, the 24-hour cap, and which limits still bind a licensed insurance agent. A cell that could not be re-read on October 14, 2026 says so.

Mississippi's statute says 8 a.m.–8 p.m. “Central Standard Time” without saying how daylight time applies. Alabama's window and day bans come from a Public Service Commission telephone rule, so how far they bind callers that are not phone companies, and which days are “holidays”, are counsel questions. Kentucky's 10 a.m. start, like the Texas, South Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia windows, is written for calls to a “residence” or a residential number; whether it reaches cell phones is open. Oregon's 8 p.m. close and cap come from 2025 Oregon Laws chapter 580, whose effective date was not verified.

If one schedule has to fit every state

Taking the latest start and the earliest close for each kind of day across all 51 rows gives one schedule that fits every live-call window in the table, for a caller no exemption reaches:

• Weekdays: 10 a.m.–6 p.m., with Kentucky setting the start and Rhode Island the close.
• Saturdays: 10 a.m.–5 p.m., set by Kentucky and Rhode Island.
• Sundays: no calls, because seven states bar them.
• Legal holidays: no calls, because five states bar them.
• Attempts: no more than three sales calls to a person in 24 hours, counted across every number you call from.

That is arithmetic on the table, not a ruling. Rhode Island's hours bind only listed kinds of “telephonic sellers”, so whether they reach a final expense caller at all is a counsel question; without that row, the schedule runs 10 a.m.–7 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays alike. Kentucky's start is written for calls to a residence; if counsel reads it as not reaching cell phones, the schedule's weekday start for cell numbers is 9 a.m. instead. On the full table, the dialing day shrinks from thirteen federal hours on a weekday to eight.

Fewer hours leave room for fewer attempts per lead each day. If the hours left cannot cover the leads you hold, the shortfall is callers, not leads: a setter desk is where you hire callers who follow up the leads you already have, and the setter page shows how attempts are spaced under a three-call cap.

Which states cap calls per 24 hours, and does dialing from a new number reset the count?

Four states cap sales calls to one person per 24 hours: Florida, Oklahoma and Maryland at three on the same subject, and Oregon at three unless there is an established business relationship. A new number does not reset the count in the first three, whose caps apply regardless of the number used; Oregon's text does not mention numbers.

Florida, Oklahoma and Maryland: three calls, any number

Florida's statute bars “More than three commercial telephone solicitation phone calls from any number to a person over a 24-hour period on the same subject matter or issue, regardless of the phone number used to make the call” (§501.616(6)(b)), and Oklahoma's §775C.4(A)(2) uses the same words, spelling out “twenty-four-hour”. Maryland's §14-4502(c)(2) sets the same limit, “regardless of the telephone numbers used to make the call”. Florida's limits cover calls “made through automated dialing or recorded messages” as well as live ones.

Two questions stay open for counsel: whether calling back a lead who requested contact counts as a “commercial telephone solicitation” under each act, and whether texts count toward the caps. Caps cost most on records that need many attempts, so size an aged order to the attempts you can make: the aged page lists the calling limits to check before you order a segment, and the aged-lead guide sets out an age-band dial plan under these caps.

Oregon: three, unless there is a business relationship

Oregon makes it an unlawful practice when a person “initiates a telephone solicitation outside the hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. or initiates a solicitation more than three separate times to a party within a 24-hour period, unless the person has an established business relationship with the party” (ORS 646.563(1)(b)). The relationship means a transaction in the preceding 18 months, and the text is silent on calls from different numbers. Whether the relationship clause qualifies the hours as well as the cap is for counsel.

Automated-call and volume limits, and “repeatedly or continuously” rules

• Tennessee caps volume, not attempts per person: from July 1, 2026, no person or entity may make more than 10,000 autodialed artificial or prerecorded-voice solicitations a month to Tennessee residential subscribers (§65-4-411(b)).
• Eight states set a separate window for automated or prerecorded calls, shown in their rows above: California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Nebraska, Nevada and South Carolina. Maine permits them only on weekdays, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., and only one per number in each 8-hour period.
• Kentucky, Missouri and Montana set no number but bar engaging a person “repeatedly or continuously”. The District of Columbia limits a solicitation call to 15 rings and Hawaii to 10.

Which state limits still apply to a licensed insurance agent who is exempt from the rest of the law?

In most states with a calling window, the window still binds a licensed agent: insurance exemptions usually reach registration, bonding or a do-not-call chapter, not the hours. Of the 33 jurisdictions with a live-call window of their own:

• Exempt from the hours rule too (four): Hawaii, Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia.
• Unclear, for counsel (four): Missouri, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
• Exempt elsewhere, but the hours still bind (twelve): Alabama, District of Columbia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.
• No insurance exemption found (thirteen): Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming.

For the other eighteen we found no live-call window of their own (Arizona and New Hampshire adopt the federal rules by reference), so the federal hours govern there whatever the state exempts.

Exempt from the hours rule too

Oklahoma's Telephone Solicitation Act of 2022 exempts licensed insurance agents soliciting within their license from the whole act, window, cap, automated-call consent rule and private action included (§775C.5(8)). Hawaii's chapter 481P does not apply to insurance-commissioner licensees selling insurance (§481P-5(4)), and West Virginia's article 6F does not apply to agents acting within a license from any state (§46A-6F-210). Utah's is narrower: its hours and state do-not-call sections do not apply to a person who “holds and acts within the scope of” a Title 31A insurance license (§13-25a-111), but company do-not-call requests and the private action still do. The federal window applies in all four. Delaware and Ohio exempt licensees from whole telemarketing acts that set no hours.

Exempt from other parts of the law: the hours still bind

Florida shows the pattern most clearly: licensed insurance brokers, agents, customer representatives and solicitors acting within their license are exempt from the Telemarketing Act, but the exemption section opens “The provisions of this part, except ss. 501.608 and 501.616(6) and (7), do not apply to:”, so licensed insurance agents stay subject to both limits and to the caller-ID rules (§501.604). Texas, Pennsylvania, Washington, Oregon, North Carolina, Montana and New York lift registration, or its fee and bond, and leave the window in place. Mississippi's agents still make “authorized telephone solicitations” bound by the 8–8 window and the Sunday ban; Alabama's statutory exemption does not reach the PSC's hours rule; Louisiana's covers AG registration while the LPSC order sets the hours. The compliance page shows how this site summarizes Florida's limits.

Appointment-setting and face-to-face carve-outs

Several states treat a call that only books a meeting, or that holds the sale for a later in-person presentation, differently, which matters to setters. Among them:

• South Dakota: a call only to set an in-person appointment with a Title 58 (insurance) licensee “at a mutually agreeable physical location” is outside the hours and Sunday rule (SDCL 37-30A-1(5)(e)), though not the do-not-call register.
• Missouri: the telemarketing-practices law, hours rule included, does not apply when the sale and payment wait for “a face-to-face sales presentation by the telemarketer or seller” (§407.1085.1(1)), and the No-Call law excludes a Missouri licensee setting an appointment for the licensed occupation in the state or contiguous counties (§407.1095(3)(e)).
• Montana: the no-call law excludes a Montana licensee setting an appointment for the licensed occupation (MCA 30-14-1601(4)(f)); whether that reaches producers is for counsel.
• Massachusetts: a call is not an “unsolicited telephonic sales call” when the sale and any payment wait for a later in-person presentation or meeting (c. 159C §1).
• Michigan: a call that only asks for a face-to-face meeting, without urging a decision on the call, is not a telephone solicitation (MCL 445.111(m)).
• Texas: the no-call chapter does not reach a state licensee's call if it is not autodialed, the sale closes and payment falls due only after the seller presents in person, and the consumer has not asked not to be called (§304.004(5)); the hours still apply.
• Louisiana: the do-not-call act excludes a call that leaves the sale for a later face-to-face meeting, but only where the person called was referred to the caller or is personally known to them (R.S. 45:844.12(6)(h)); the LPSC hours still apply.

None of these covers a sale closed on the phone, and none moves the federal window.

Does the exemption follow the agent to a setter or call center?

The wording differs by state. Delaware's act does not reach telemarketing by a seller, telemarketer or telemarketing business “by or on behalf of a licensed insurance broker, agent, customer representative or solicitor” acting within the license (6 Del. C. §2505A(6)), and Alabama's do-not-call chapter excludes communications “by or on behalf of” an exempt licensee (§8-19A-3(17)), though its PSC hours rule has no such exemption. Texas's registration exemptions apply “only to a seller”, “Except as provided by Section 302.060” (§302.052). Elsewhere, whether an unlicensed setter or call center dialing for a licensed agent shares an exemption is a counsel question in each state; until it is answered, the cautious reading is that those callers follow the full rule. The same question applies to leads a call center dials and hands on, where a call center dials consumers, gauges interest and passes the contact on as a lead, not as a live call.

What does Pennsylvania's Act 47 of 2026 change for calling hours, Sundays and holidays, and what can a call to someone 60 or older cost?

Pennsylvania's Act 47 of 2026 (SB 992), approved July 20, 2026, narrows the state's window to 9 a.m.–7 p.m., adds a Sunday ban and rewords the legal-holiday ban the state already had. The act “shall take effect in 90 days”: counted from July 20, the 90th day is Sunday, October 18, 2026, and whether a Sunday last day moves the start to Monday, October 19 is a question for counsel. Before it took effect, the 8 a.m.–9 p.m. window and the holiday ban applied.

The amended text, “Initiating or causing to be initiated a telephone solicitation on a Sunday or after 7 p.m. or before 9 a.m.” (TRA §5(a)(1)), applies to licensed agents: licensed persons are exempt from registration only (§3(a), (b.1)(5)), and the hours, the day bans and the state do-not-call list (§5.2) carry no licensee carve-out. Act 47 also counts a voicemail, a ringless voicemail and a text message as a telephone solicitation (§2).

Act 47 added no new penalty amounts to the Telemarketer Registration Act. A violation of that act is also a violation of the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, whose section 8(b) sets a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per willful violation, or up to $3,000 per violation where the victim is 60 or older. A consumer who bought or leased primarily for personal, family or household purposes and suffered an ascertainable loss of money or property can also sue for actual damages or $100, whichever is greater, and a court may award up to three times actual damages (§9.2(a)).

What do the mini-TCPA states (Florida, Oklahoma, Maryland) add beyond hours and caps?

Each of the three mini-TCPA laws adds a written-consent rule for automated or recorded calls and a private right of action with statutory damages. How each treats licensed agents is set out in the carve-out section above.

Florida: the Telemarketing Act and the FTSA are two laws

Florida has two telemarketing statutes in chapter 501, and they treat licensed agents differently:

One agency page disagrees with the statute on hours. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' consumer FAQ says a commercial telephone solicitation call may not be made “before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. local time at the called person's location”; this table follows the statute, whose §501.616(6)(a) says “before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m.” instead.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma's Telephone Solicitation Act of 2022 (HB 3168, in force November 1, 2022) pairs the 8 a.m.–8 p.m. window and the three-call cap with a consent rule for automated calls, and a called party may “Recover actual damages or Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), whichever is greater”, up to three times that if willful or knowing (§775C.6). The older Telemarketer Restriction Act bars unsolicited telemarketing sales calls to a consumer more than 30 days after the number first appears on the Attorney General's registry (§775B.6); the Attorney General's 2006 copy of that act has no insurance carve-out, and later amendments were not verified.

Maryland

Maryland's Stop the Spam Calls Act (Chapter 413 of 2023, in force January 1, 2024) gives licensed agents no exemption from its window or cap. Chapter 214 of 2024, in force April 25, 2024, added a private action for “up to $500 or actual damages, whichever is greater”, up to three times that if willful or knowing (§14-4503(a)(2)). The act's requirements and remedies cannot be waived by agreement, except as §14-4502(a)(3) allows or in a settlement (§14-4503(d)).

Whose clock and whose state law apply when the floor and the prospect are in different time zones or states?

The called person's clock decides. The federal rule counts “local time at the called party's location”, and the Telemarketing Sales Rule “local time at the called person's location”; Florida's and Oklahoma's windows run in “the called person's time zone” and Maryland's in “the called party's time zone”. A call placed at 8:30 p.m. in the called person's Florida time zone is outside Florida's window wherever the floor sits.

State law follows the called person too, and some states write that into an area-code presumption. Florida's reads: “There is a rebuttable presumption that a telephonic sales call made to any area code in this state is made to a Florida resident or to a person in this state at the time of the call” (§501.059(8)(d)). Maryland presumes “that a telephone solicitation made to any area code in the State is made to a resident or a person who is reasonably presumed to reside or have a place of business in the State at the time the call is made” (§14-4503(b)). Oklahoma's act presumes “that a commercial telephonic sales call made to any area code in this state is made to an Oklahoma resident or to a person in this state at the time of the call” (15 O.S. §775C.3(D)). Oregon lets a caller rely on a mobile number's area code to decide whether the party is in Oregon (ORS 646.563(2)). South Carolina's definition reaches calls to wireless phones with a South Carolina area code (§37-21-20(6)), and Virginia's reaches calls to Virginia area codes and to phones registered to Virginia residents (§59.1-510); both cover texts too.

The floor's own location matters in two places: Texas issues a registration certificate for each calling location (§302.101), and Kentucky's act excludes calls a Kentucky merchant or telemarketer makes to a location outside Kentucky (KRS 367.46951(2)). Keep both the address state and the area-code state on every lead, work out a window for each, and dial only while both are open; a first-contact plan in the lead's local time builds its attempts on the same rule.

Which states keep their own do-not-call list, require telemarketer registration, or require every party's consent to record a call?

Twenty states provide by statute for a do-not-call list of their own; twenty more make a call to a nationally registered number a state-law violation without a separate list, and eight states and the District of Columbia have neither (Illinois and Oregon are not verified). Eleven states have an all-party recording rule of some kind. California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington require every party's consent (Pennsylvania's statute was read from a 2021 capture). Connecticut's rule is civil only and also accepts a recorded notice or a tone warning; Montana's requires every party's knowledge (“If one person provides the warning, either party may record”); and Michigan's statute requires every party's consent, though a reported court exception for a participant's own recording is unverified. Delaware's statutes conflict, and Nevada's and Vermont's rules were not verified.

The registration column states each law and makes no claim about who is registered. Penalty cells give the statutory amounts only.

The table above shows which states keep a list of their own; scrubbing against state do-not-call lists is a separate step from checking calling hours. The chart at the top of this post ranks the ten states with the highest Do Not Call complaint rates per 100,000 residents in the FTC's fiscal 2025 Data Book. The figures are unverified consumer complaints: they show where people report unwanted calls and say nothing about any state's law or whether a given call was lawful.

How was this table built, and what changed since the last check?

Method

1. The federal row is the eCFR text of 47 CFR 64.1200 and 16 CFR 310.4 as of October 19, 2026.
2. Each state row rests on that state's telephone-solicitation, do-not-call, registration, remedy and recording statutes, read from the official site or, where it refused the connection, from the dated capture or mirror named in the source cell.
3. Every cell was re-read on October 14, 2026 against the source linked in its row or listed under its jurisdiction; a cell that could not be matched reads “not verified (2026-10-14)”.
4. Where a statute's reach is unclear, as with Rhode Island's “telephonic sellers”, South Carolina's “institutions” and Wisconsin's “sellers”, the cell says so; the rows describe statutes, not how they apply to a given call.

Changelog

This is the first edition; its rows were checked on October 14, 2026. These are the main dated changes to the call rules behind the rows, newest first:

• October 18 or 19, 2026: Pennsylvania's Act 47 hours and Sunday rules took effect, and its holiday rule was reworded.
• July 1, 2026: Tennessee Public Chapter 1029's robocall volume cap and monthly call logs.
• May 6, 2026: Utah's 2026 changes to its Telephone Fraud Prevention Act (SB 38, per the state's Division of Consumer Protection).
• 2025, effective date not verified: Oregon Laws 2025 chapter 580 (the 8 a.m.–8 p.m. window and the three-call cap).
• September 1, 2025: Texas SB 140 (new consumer-protection remedies under the no-call and telephone-solicitation chapters).
• April 25, 2024: Maryland Chapter 214 (the private action).
• January 1, 2024: Maryland Chapter 413 takes effect.
• Not enacted as of October 22, 2026: Michigan SB 351, a new telephone solicitation act, which passed the Senate on January 29, 2026.