In regulated fields, a website often counts as advertising that head office or compliance must approve. Ask for their rules and timing before writing, build two review rounds into the schedule, and keep the approved wording on file.

Returned weeks after the launch date

An insurance agent, a mortgage broker or a financial adviser spends the fall on a new website. The pages are written, the design is signed off, and a launch date is set.

A week before it, someone sends the link to head office or the compliance department, as the contract requires. It comes back three weeks later with a list of changes.

Some are small: a missing licence detail, a firm name written the wrong way. Others mean rewriting whole pages, which then go back for a second review.

The launch date passes. Nothing was wrong with the site except that the approval step was planned last instead of first.

Why someone else approves the copy

In regulated fields, the firm an adviser works under is often responsible for what that adviser publishes. Insurers, dealers and brokerages set rules for marketing, and many must approve it before use.

A website is marketing in that sense. Every page describing a product, a rate or a service can be held to the same standard as a printed brochure.

Rules differ by field, by province and by firm, so this is a general description rather than regulatory advice; your own compliance contact is the reliable guide.

What reviewers usually change

The changes that come back tend to fall into a few groups:

Knowing these in advance does not replace the review, but the first draft arrives much closer to what will be approved.

Ask for the rules before writing

Before a word is written, ask the firm three things: who reviews websites, what they need to see, and how long a review usually takes.

Ask for written guidelines, approved wording for disclosures, and the exact form of your name, title and licence. Many firms keep standard paragraphs that can be used as they are.

Ask too whether the firm limits the domain, the platform or the forms that collect client details. Those answers can change the design, not just the words.

Build the review into the schedule

Treat the review as a stage of the project, with its own weeks on the calendar, and plan for two rounds: the first review, and a second after the changes.

Set the launch date from the expected approval, not from the end of the design. If the date matters, work backwards from it with the review weeks included.

Do not book advertising, print the address on new cards or announce the site until approval arrives. Each can be undone, but not cheaply.

Submit the words, not just a link

Reviewers work best from the exact text. Send one document with every page, labelled by page name, in the order a visitor would read them.

Mark anything taken from the firm's approved wording, so it is not reviewed twice. For the second round, show only what changed.

Screenshots help reviewers see where names and disclosures sit, which matters when a rule says a notice must appear beside a figure. A link to a test version can follow once the text is settled.

A worked example

A life insurance agent in a Kootenay town works with one assistant. She sells life insurance through contracts with several insurers, and investment funds through a mutual fund dealer.

Her new site was written in September and designed in October, to launch in early November, well ahead of the RRSP season in January and February, when clients are most likely to look her up.

The dealer's compliance department returned it after three weeks. A fund was called safe, past returns lacked their notes, insurers' logos had no permission behind them, and the dealer's name was missing.

The second round took two more weeks, and approval arrived this week. With the holidays ahead, the site will launch in January, once the season has begun.

She now has a named contact, the dealer's guidelines and its standard disclosures. The approval email and the approved text are saved together, with the date.

Pages written from those rules now reach the dealer in the form it expects, so later reviews have less to send back.

Keep the approved wording on file

Save each approval with the exact text it covered, the date, and any reference number the firm gives. One dated document per round is enough.

The live site must then match the file. A small edit made later, even a better word, is an unapproved change until it has been reviewed.

The file also speeds up later work. New pages can reuse approved paragraphs, and a question from the firm can be answered in minutes.

Changes after launch

Blog posts, new service pages, updated rates and sometimes social media posts go through the same review. Batching them into a monthly submission keeps the timing predictable.

Whoever maintains the site needs to know which changes need approval. Fixing a typo is one thing; rewording a product description is another.

A page left live without approval for months is a bigger problem than a launch delayed by two weeks.

The counter-case

Not every regulated professional has a reviewer. An independent firm without a dealer or head office may have rules to follow but nobody to approve pages in advance.

Some firms review only pages that mention products or rates, leaving biographies, office hours and contact details alone, though they may still ask to see the whole site once.

Either way the rules still apply and the record still helps. Writing to them from the start, and keeping the file, protects the person whose name is on the site.

Planning the next site around approval

  1. Ask who approves websites and how long it takes.
  2. Collect the guidelines and any approved wording.
  3. Write from the rules, not towards them.
  4. Submit one document with every page labelled.
  5. Schedule two review rounds before the launch date.
  6. Save each approval with its text and date.
  7. Route later changes through the same review.

Step one decides the schedule. A project that knows from the start who reviews it, and how long that takes, can set a launch date it will meet.

Working within what head office allows, for a franchisee rather than an adviser, is covered in a franchisee's page on the head office website.

Frequently asked questions

Why does head office need to approve my website?

In many regulated fields, the firm you work under is responsible for your marketing. It treats a website like any other advertisement and reviews it before publication.

How long does a compliance review take?

It varies by firm, so ask before writing. Plan for at least two rounds, the first review and a second after changes, each taking days or weeks.

What do reviewers most often change?

Superlatives and promises, past returns without required notes, the form of names and licences, insurers' logos used without permission, and testimonials that some firms do not allow.

Should I send a link or a document?

Send a document with the exact text of every page, labelled by page name. Add screenshots showing where names and disclosures sit, and a test link later.

What should I keep after approval?

The approval email, the exact text it covered, the date and any reference number. The live site should match that file until a change is approved.

Do blog posts need approval too?

Often, yes, so ask your firm. Many review every new page, rate change and article, and a regular monthly batch keeps the timing predictable.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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