This We Believe: NEB’s Mission and Values

April 2007—The mission and values of the National Ethics Bureau give us direction and purpose. They are fundamental to what we do today—and crucial to our planning for the future. Given the central role they play, we’d like to share them with you in this Member Update.

The Mission of the National Ethics Bureau

Since our founding in 2001, the National Ethics Bureau (NEB) has been committed to promoting ethics and compliance in the financial services industry. Our mission has several facets:

• First, we encourage insurance and financial advisors to submit themselves to the industry’s most comprehensive background check. Those who meet our standards are admitted into membership and allowed to use our seal of approval and related tools to build trust with the public.
• Second, we encourage consumers to order an NEB background check on non-NEB members. We also provide information that helps consumers contact regulators on their own, if that’s their preference, and educational materials that help them make informed and safe financial decisions.
• Third, we advocate for ethics and integrity to the world of insurance and financial advisors—and their marketing organizations—through articles and columns published in four trade magazines; through Ethics Edge, our own electronic member newsletter; and on our web site (www.ethicscheck.com).

In short, we are a membership organization that allows advisors with verified records to stand above their peers and to receive the recognition they deserve. If that recognition helps them to serve more clients and to achieve more financial success, more power to them.

The Values of the National Ethics Bureau

• NEB wants our members to succeed because of their commitment to ethics and integrity. For this reason, we provide marketing tools that help members leverage their membership for business growth. Inappropriate use of our brand or tools in order to deceive clients is a violation of our membership agreement and grounds for membership revocation.
• We are committed to offering the most comprehensive financial services background check available today: the Ethics Check System™. We put all members through eight separate background checks, both at the time of application and upon each annual renewal. And the results of each check are fully documented in the member’s file.
• We view the regulatory community as integral business partners, relying heavily on them to make membership decisions.  But those decisions are only as good as the information regulators give us. That means we depend on regulators to communicate openly with us about problematic conduct by NEB members.
• We believe in protecting the public against unethical or criminal insurance and financial advisors. Therefore, when we receive warnings about a member, we immediately suspend the advisor pending an investigation. If the outcome is negative, we expel the member.
• We believe in holding prospective and current NEB members to high and uncompromising standards. There are advisors allowed to do business today whom we would never admit as NEB members.

Bottom line:  The National Ethics Bureau is committed to remaining the public’s first line of defense against insurance and investment scams and the criminals who perpetrate them. Through our Ethics Check System™, and our published ethics content, we will continue to do our part to enhance the industry’s ethical climate—one advisor at a time.

If you have any questions or comments about our mission and values, please contact either Steven R. McCarty or Jeffrey S. Kopitz at (800) 282-1831.