Diversified Insurance Brokers Editorial Standards

Last Updated: June 2026  |  Maintained by: Jason Stolz, CLTC, CRPC, DIA, CAA — Chief Underwriter, Diversified Insurance Brokers  |  NPN: 20471358

Every page on DiversifiedQuotes.com is built to answer a genuine question from a real consumer — someone who is trying to understand annuity interest rates, evaluate a life insurance carrier, navigate cancer survivor underwriting, or make a Medicare supplement decision that will affect their financial security for the next decade or longer. These are not abstract questions with low stakes. They are decisions that determine whether a family is financially protected when someone dies, whether a retiree has guaranteed income in their 80s and 90s, and whether a cancer survivor can access coverage that other brokers told them wasn’t available. The stakes attached to insurance and retirement income decisions are exactly why our editorial standards exist — and why they are not a formality but a core operating commitment that shapes how every piece of content on this site is researched, written, reviewed, and maintained.

Diversified Insurance Brokers has operated as a family-owned independent insurance brokerage since 1980, working with more than 100 top-rated carriers and more than 1,000 products across life insurance, annuities, disability income, long-term care, Medicare, and specialty impaired-risk coverage. Our Chief Underwriter, Jason Stolz, CLTC, CRPC, DIA, CAA, holds four professional designations and brings more than 25 years of real-world experience placing complex cases and writing educational content for the consumers and professionals who rely on it. Every content decision on DiversifiedQuotes.com is made by working insurance professionals who handle actual underwriting submissions, carry licenses in all 50 states, and are accountable for the accuracy of what they publish under their professional names and license numbers. This is not a content factory staffed by general writers who look up insurance facts online and produce articles at scale. It is a practitioner-authored resource built by the same professionals who place the coverage and live with the consequences of what they advise.

This Editorial Standards page documents the specific commitments and processes that govern how content on DiversifiedQuotes.com is created, reviewed, maintained, and corrected. It is intended to be transparent, specific, and honest — including the transparency about how Diversified Insurance Brokers is compensated and how that compensation structure is managed so it does not compromise the objectivity and accuracy of the content we produce. If you find an error on any page of this site, or if you have a question about our editorial process, you are encouraged to contact us directly using the information at the bottom of this page. We take accuracy corrections seriously and respond promptly.

Who We Are — Author Credentials and Practitioner Background

Insurance and retirement income content carries meaningful financial consequences for the people who consume it. A consumer who reads inaccurate information about cancer survivor underwriting and avoids applying for life insurance may go uninsured for years unnecessarily. A retiree who reads misleading information about annuity carrier financial strength may choose a product that creates more risk than they understood. A family who receives incorrect information about long-term care planning may face a crisis in their 80s that proper early planning would have prevented. This is why the author credentials behind DiversifiedQuotes.com content are not decorative — they represent the depth of practitioner knowledge that allows us to write accurately about underwriting standards, carrier financial strength, product mechanics, and tax treatment in insurance contexts where general writers routinely get important details wrong.

Content on DiversifiedQuotes.com is primarily authored and maintained by Jason Stolz, CLTC, CRPC, DIA, CAA, who serves as Chief Underwriter at Diversified Insurance Brokers. The Chartered Life Underwriter in Training (CLTC) designation reflects training in long-term care planning. The Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC) designation reflects training in retirement income and distribution planning. The Disability Income Associate (DIA) designation reflects training in disability income underwriting and policy design. The Certified Annuity Advisor (CAA) designation reflects training in annuity product evaluation and retirement income structuring. Together, these designations represent a breadth of specialist knowledge across the product categories covered on this site that is uncommon in the insurance brokerage industry. NPN 20471358 is publicly verifiable through NIPR (National Insurance Producer Registry). Diversified Insurance Brokers is licensed in all 50 states and Washington D.C. Subject matter covered outside Jason’s specific areas of primary expertise is reviewed by appropriately credentialed professionals before publication.

Our Editorial Process — From Research to Publication

Every substantive content page on DiversifiedQuotes.com follows a structured production process designed to ensure accuracy, practical relevance, and appropriate disclosure before any content reaches a reader. The process begins with original research: our team conducts web searches using current sources, reviews carrier guidelines and rating agency data, and confirms factual claims against primary sources including AM Best, the NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners), LIMRA, the Social Security Administration, IRS publications, and state insurance department resources. General-purpose content aggregation sites are not treated as primary sources — when we make a claim about underwriting guidelines, carrier ratings, or regulatory requirements, we trace that claim to a verifiable primary or authoritative secondary source before publishing it.

After research is complete, content is drafted by an author with subject matter expertise in the specific product or topic area being covered. Drafts are reviewed for factual accuracy, completeness, and clarity before publication. Specific claims about carrier financial strength ratings, NAIC complaint index scores, underwriting eligibility requirements, and tax treatment rules receive elevated review because errors in these areas have the highest potential to mislead readers in consequential ways. Every published page displays a “Last Updated” date so readers and search engines can evaluate recency. Pages that contain information subject to change — carrier ratings, annuity rates, Medicare supplement pricing, tax rules, and regulatory thresholds — are flagged for priority review on a recurring schedule and updated when circumstances change.

Primary Sources and Citations

DiversifiedQuotes.com content is grounded in verifiable primary and authoritative secondary sources. We do not treat aggregator websites, AI-generated content summaries, or informal industry commentary as primary sources for factual claims that consumers rely on to make insurance and retirement decisions. The sources we most frequently use — and the categories of claims they support — include the following.

AM Best (ambest.com) is the primary source for all carrier financial strength ratings and outlook information cited on this site. When we report a carrier’s AM Best Financial Strength Rating and outlook, we verify it directly against AM Best’s published rating data at the time of writing. We note the date of verification and encourage readers to verify current ratings directly at AM Best’s website because ratings change and our information may not reflect the most current status. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is the primary source for consumer complaint index data cited when we discuss carrier complaint experience relative to industry averages. NAIC complaint index data is publicly available in the NAIC Consumer Insurance Search tool. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its published guidance documents are the primary sources for all tax-related claims — exclusion ratios, qualified vs. non-qualified tax treatment, RMD rules, SECURE Act provisions, and related topics. Social Security Administration publications govern our Social Security planning content. State insurance department resources govern our state-specific coverage information, guaranty association limit data, and licensing verification. LIMRA, the Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association, provides industry statistical data that supplements our market context claims. Carrier-specific product and rate information is sourced directly from carrier materials, and rate information is clearly identified as subject to change.

Our Coverage Areas — Scope and Depth of Expertise

DiversifiedQuotes.com covers a defined set of product categories in which Diversified Insurance Brokers has active practitioner expertise and ongoing case-placement experience. These categories are life insurance (including impaired risk and high-risk underwriting, cancer survivor cases, weight-related underwriting, specialty avocations, and all term lengths), fixed and fixed indexed annuities (including MYGAs, income annuities, GLWBs, and 1035 exchange strategies), disability income insurance (individual own-occupation, business overhead expense, group disability, and specialty occupation coverage), long-term care insurance (traditional LTC, hybrid life/LTC, and LTC annuity products), Medicare supplement and Medicare Advantage planning, burial and final expense insurance (simplified issue and guaranteed issue), and specialty high-risk life insurance placement. Coverage on any of these topics reflects active practitioner knowledge, ongoing carrier relationships, and real-world underwriting experience — not research conducted specifically to produce web content without underlying professional practice in the area. We do not publish content on topics outside our practitioner competence without explicit disclosure of the sourcing and review basis for that content.

Accuracy Standards — What We Commit To and What We Do Not

We commit to the following accuracy standards on every page of DiversifiedQuotes.com. Carrier financial strength ratings are verified against current AM Best data at the time of writing and carry a date stamp and instruction to verify current status. Carrier-specific complaint data is sourced from NAIC public records and disclosed as the specific data type it is (complaint index, not a generalized quality rating). Tax rules and thresholds are sourced from IRS guidance and clearly noted as subject to change when legislative or regulatory changes may affect them. Underwriting guidelines are described as market patterns rather than specific carrier guarantees, because carrier guidelines are proprietary, change frequently, and vary across carriers — and any representation of a specific carrier’s specific guideline could become inaccurate shortly after publication as that carrier updates its standards. Rate information — annuity rates, life insurance pricing benchmarks, Medicare supplement rates — is identified as representative of market conditions at the time of writing rather than as real-time quotes, and readers are directed to live quoters or brokers for current pricing. We do not invent statistics, citations, sources, quotes, or regulatory authority. If a claim cannot be traced to a verifiable source, it is removed from the content rather than published with invented attribution.

We do not commit to the following, and readers should understand these limitations. Our underwriting guidance reflects general market patterns across the broad carrier market rather than specific, current underwriting guidelines of any individual carrier — because carrier guidelines are not publicly standardized, change frequently, and vary in ways that require individual case review rather than general web content to accurately capture. Our content does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice — it is educational information about insurance and retirement income products, and all decisions should be made in consultation with a licensed professional appropriate to the specific situation. Life insurance and annuity products are complex financial instruments — while we work to present them accurately and completely, our educational content cannot substitute for a personalized needs analysis, formal illustration review, and professional guidance specific to the reader’s situation.

Updating, Correcting, and Removing Content

Insurance and retirement planning information does not remain static. Carrier financial strength ratings change when AM Best revises its assessments. Annuity and life insurance rates change as interest rate environments shift. Medicare rules, Social Security provisions, RMD rules under SECURE Act, and IRS tax thresholds change as legislation and regulatory guidance evolve. Carrier products are introduced, discontinued, and modified. Underwriting guidelines shift as carriers update their risk appetite, medical guidance, and actuarial assumptions. DiversifiedQuotes.com maintains a content review schedule that prioritizes pages containing rate-sensitive, rating-sensitive, and legislation-sensitive information for more frequent review. When a material change occurs — such as AM Best revising a carrier’s outlook, Congress passing legislation that changes annuity tax rules, or a major carrier exiting a product category — affected pages are identified and updated as promptly as practical, typically within the same business cycle as our awareness of the change.

Corrections are published promptly when errors are identified. If a page contained inaccurate information that has been corrected, the correction is reflected in the page update without concealment. We do not append correction notices for minor editorial adjustments or routine updates to reflect changed market conditions — only for factual errors that misstated information at the time of original publication. If you identify what you believe to be a factual error on any page of DiversifiedQuotes.com, we ask that you contact us at the email or phone number provided on our contact page with the specific page, the specific claim you believe is incorrect, and the basis for your concern. We review all such contacts and respond with either a correction or an explanation of the basis for the original claim.

Content is removed when it is materially outdated with no reasonable path to updating it accurately, when it references products that have been discontinued by the carrier, or when it is determined to be redundant with more comprehensive content that fully covers the same subject matter. Removal is not used to suppress negative or unflattering information about carriers, products, or industry practices — honesty about limitations and risks is a core commitment of this site, and content critical of specific carrier practices (such as our disclosure of AM Best negative outlooks, elevated NAIC complaint indexes, and Globe Life step-rate term structure concerns) is maintained rather than removed because it serves consumer interests.

How Diversified Insurance Brokers Is Compensated — Full Transparency

Diversified Insurance Brokers is an independent insurance brokerage that is compensated by insurance carriers through commissions when we help a consumer place an insurance policy with one of our carrier partners. This is the standard compensation model for independent insurance brokers in the United States, and it is the mechanism by which consumers can access independent broker services at no additional cost — the carrier pays the broker from the same premium the consumer would pay whether they purchased directly or through a broker. State insurance departments in all 50 states regulate that insurance premiums are filed rates — meaning the price you pay for a life insurance policy, annuity, or Medicare supplement plan does not change based on whether you purchase it through an independent broker, a captive agent, or directly from the carrier. The broker’s commission is built into the carrier’s pricing structure, not added on top of what you pay. Working with Diversified Insurance Brokers costs you nothing additional compared to going directly to a carrier.

Compensation from carriers does not determine which carriers or products we recommend. Because we are independent — not captive to any single carrier — we have carrier relationships across more than 100 active companies and no contractual obligation to prioritize any specific carrier. We recommend the carrier and product that best matches the consumer’s specific need, coverage objective, health profile, and financial situation based on our professional analysis of the available market. When we include links to rate comparison pages, quote request forms, or specific carrier resources on this site, readers should understand that if a policy is eventually placed through one of our carrier partners, we receive compensation. We do not receive compensation from carriers simply for including information about them in educational content — we receive compensation only when coverage is actually placed. Links to general educational resources, regulatory databases, and third-party research sources are not compensated.

In our carrier review pages specifically, we apply additional transparency commitments. We disclose both positive and negative information about carriers we have carrier relationships with. Our honest disclosure of Heartland National’s negative AM Best outlook and elevated NAIC complaint index, our honest disclosure of Globe Life’s step-rate term structure concerns, and our honest disclosure of the limitations of B++-rated carriers for long-term annuity commitments are examples of this commitment in practice. We do not adjust the editorial content of carrier reviews based on the strength of our commercial relationship with any carrier — a carrier whose product we place frequently receives the same level of honest, accurate evaluation as a carrier we rarely place.

Disclosures and Conflict of Interest Management

The primary conflict of interest inherent in an insurance brokerage publishing educational content is the possibility that content might be shaped to favor carriers or products that generate higher commissions rather than those that are most appropriate for consumers. We manage this conflict through several specific practices. First, educational content and commercial recommendations are treated as separate functions — educational content describes how products work, what factors underwriters evaluate, and what questions consumers should ask, without directing readers exclusively toward specific carriers in ways that could substitute for their own evaluation. Second, carrier review pages are written with the same critical analysis framework regardless of carrier relationship strength — financial strength ratings, complaint data, and product structure limitations are disclosed for all carriers reviewed. Third, rate information and carrier comparisons are presented across the market rather than only featuring carriers we work with, because consumers benefit from seeing the competitive context rather than only the carriers we can access. Fourth, Jason Stolz’s professional designations create an independent accountability standard — his CLTC, CRPC, DIA, and CAA designations each carry ethics and professional conduct standards maintained by their issuing organizations that function independently of Diversified Insurance Brokers’ commercial interests.

Our Commitment to Consumer Protection

Consumer protection is not a compliance box to check — it is the reason this site exists. The consumers who search for “life insurance for cancer survivors” or “is Heartland National a good insurance company” or “what happens to an annuity when the owner dies” are often making important financial decisions under time pressure, sometimes during difficult personal circumstances. They deserve honest information that reflects the actual complexity of their situation rather than simplified promotional content that serves the interests of the broker more than the consumer. Diversified Insurance Brokers’ editorial commitment is to provide the honest, specific, technically accurate information that these consumers deserve — including the information that is unflattering about specific carriers, products, or industry practices, the information that is complex and requires careful explanation rather than simplification, and the information that a consumer needs to protect themselves from a poor decision even when that information does not lead them toward any specific product we offer.

Contact Us — Corrections, Questions, and Concerns

If you have identified a factual error on any page of DiversifiedQuotes.com, have a question about the sourcing or basis for a specific claim, or have a concern about the accuracy or completeness of our editorial content, we want to hear from you. Please contact us through any of the following channels and provide the specific page URL, the specific claim you are concerned about, and the basis for your concern. We review all such contacts and respond with a specific substantive response rather than a form acknowledgment. Corrections confirmed as accurate are applied to the relevant page promptly and reflected in the updated Last Updated date on that page.