Insurance Agent Phone Systems: STIR/SHAKEN Compliance Guide

You make an insurance call. The prospect's phone displays "Spam Likely" or doesn't even ring through. Your message never gets heard. Your follow-up never happens. And you'll never know why the lead went cold.

This is happening to hundreds of insurance agents right now, and most of them have no idea that STIR/SHAKEN compliance is the culprit. A related compliance area is A2P 10DLC registration for SMS, which governs text messages.

The Telephone Regulatory Authority, supported by the FCC and major carriers, implemented STIR/SHAKEN to fight robocalls. But like most broad regulations, it has collateral damage: legitimate business calls — including insurance agent calls — get caught in the spam filter and never reach prospects.

The difference between an insurance agent whose calls ring through and one whose calls get blocked is STIR/SHAKEN compliance. A well-configured power dialer built for insurance automatically handles these requirements. Understanding what this is, how it works, and how to ensure your phone system is compliant will protect your dialing effectiveness in 2026 and beyond.

What Is STIR/SHAKEN?

STIR/SHAKEN is a caller authentication framework. Think of it as a digital signature for phone calls.

STIR stands for Secure Telephone Identity Revisited. It's the technical standard that digitally signs the phone number you're calling from, proving that you actually own or control that number.

SHAKEN stands for Signature Handling of Asserted information using tokens. It's how receiving carriers verify that signature when the call arrives on the other end.

Together, they answer one question: Is this call really coming from the number it claims to be? Or is someone spoofing a phone number?

Historically, robocallers circumvented this by spoofing — sending calls that claimed to be from legitimate businesses or local numbers when they weren't actually. STIR/SHAKEN makes spoofing much harder by requiring proof that you own the number you're calling from.

Why Insurance Calls Get Flagged as Spam

Even with legitimate phone numbers, insurance calls get blocked because of how STIR/SHAKEN attestation levels work. Try SalesPulse free — our softphone is fully STIR/SHAKEN compliant with full attestation support.

When you make a call, your phone number includes an attestation level that tells the receiving carrier how confident they should be that this call is legitimate. There are three levels:

Attestation Level A (Full Attestation)

This is the gold standard. Your phone provider has verified that you own the phone number and has a direct relationship with you. Your calling number is bound to a specific customer and verified by the carrier. Calls with A-level attestation are nearly never marked as spam.

Most enterprise phone systems use A-level attestation. But for insurance agents, getting A-level is typically only possible if you're calling from a dedicated, registered business line with your carrier.

Attestation Level B (Partial Attestation)

Your phone provider confirms that you control the number, but there may be intermediaries involved. For example, if you use a third-party dialer platform (Twilio, Aircall, etc.), you might get B-level attestation. The receiving carrier knows there's a relationship in the chain, but it's not direct.

Calls with B-level attestation are safer than unattested calls, but they're more likely to be flagged as spam than A-level calls. Some carriers treat B-level with suspicion, especially if you're making high volumes of outbound calls.

Attestation Level C (Gateway Attestation)

The call came through a gateway with minimal verification. This is what older phone systems and non-compliant VoIP providers often produce. C-level attestation carries no carrier verification and is treated aggressively by spam filters.

Here's the problem for insurance agents: If your phone system produces C-level (or no) attestation, your calls are indistinguishable from robocalls to the receiving carrier. Even if your number is legitimate, it gets flagged and blocked.

Why Insurance Calls Are High-Risk to Carriers

Beyond attestation levels, insurance calls face additional scrutiny because of call patterns that resemble robocalls.

Insurance agents typically:

• Call high volumes of numbers (50-200+ per day)
• Call multiple numbers from the same location
• Call outside their local area
• Make rapid sequential calls
• Have high call abandonment rates (because not every number connects)

These exact patterns are what robocallers use. Carriers have built sophisticated systems to detect patterns like these and assume they're spam. Even compliant phone numbers get flagged when calling patterns match robocaller behavior.

A legitimate insurance agent making 150 calls a day from a Dallas area code gets caught in the same filters as a robocaller making 1,000 spam calls. Your legitimacy matters less than your call pattern.

This is where SHAKEN helps. When your calls carry A-level or B-level SHAKEN attestation, carriers know that at least someone has verified your legitimacy. They're more willing to let your calls through despite the call volume and pattern.

The Impact on Your Insurance Business

This isn't theoretical. The blocking is real and measurable.

A 2025 survey of insurance agents found that 34% of outbound calls go unanswered or undelivered — and nearly half of those are due to spam filters, not the prospect simply not picking up. If you're calling 100 prospects, roughly 15-20 of those calls never reach their destination because of STIR/SHAKEN issues.

For a Medicare agent with a typical 15% connect rate and 40% close rate on connects, losing 15-20 calls per hundred is the difference between closing 6 policies and closing 5. Over a year, that's the difference between 72 and 60 policies. If those are $2,000 commissions on average, you've lost $24,000 in annual income because of phone system compliance.

For an annuity or group benefits agent where each policy is higher value, the impact is even more severe.

How to Ensure STIR/SHAKEN Compliance

There are three components to STIR/SHAKEN compliance:

1. Carrier Registration and Number Verification

Your phone numbers need to be registered and verified with your carrier as legitimate business phone numbers. This isn't something that happens automatically.

If you're using traditional phone service (Verizon, AT&T, or a local carrier), your numbers should already be registered. But you need to verify this. Contact your carrier and confirm:

• Your business information is on file and accurate
• Your phone numbers are registered to your business, not a generic VoIP account
• You have a direct relationship with the carrier (not through a third-party reseller)

If you're using a VoIP provider like Twilio, Aircall, or another dialer platform, they should handle carrier registration for you. But you need to verify this in your onboarding. Look for:

• Explicit STIR/SHAKEN registration
• Confirmation that your numbers will carry B-level (or ideally A-level) attestation
• Documentation of your carrier partnerships

Many cheap VoIP platforms don't do this. They use third-party gateways that produce C-level attestation. This is a major red flag.

2. A2P Registration (for SMS and Business Texting)

If you're sending SMS messages (which most insurance agents do), you need A2P. See our A2P 10DLC registration guide for the full SMS compliance framework. (Application-to-Person) registration in addition to STIR/SHAKEN. A2P is a separate compliance program required by carriers to prevent spam texting.

Without proper A2P registration, your SMS messages get filtered and blocked as harshly as spam texts. Many agents don't even realize this exists.

A2P registration involves:

• Registering your business with the carrier (usually through your SMS provider)
• Verifying your business information (legal name, address, website)
• Providing a clear use case (insurance sales, customer service, etc.)
• Setting expected SMS volume

Once registered, your SMS messages get higher delivery rates and don't get filtered into spam folders as aggressively.

3. Phone System Infrastructure

Your actual softphone needs to support STIR/SHAKEN call signing. This is where many agents get tripped up.

If you're using:

• A traditional business phone line (Verizon, AT&T): You're probably fine. These carriers support STIR/SHAKEN natively.
• A modern VoIP platform (Twilio, Bandwidth, Aircall): Check that their documentation explicitly mentions STIR/SHAKEN support. They should be signing your outbound calls automatically.
• A custom dialer built on old infrastructure: This is where problems happen. Old dialer platforms or self-built solutions may not support STIR/SHAKEN at all. Your calls will carry C-level attestation or no attestation.
• A softphone integrated with your CRM: This is ideal if built properly. A modern softphone that integrates with your CRM should be STIR/SHAKEN compliant and handle call logging automatically.

Building Call Trust Without STIR/SHAKEN

Even if your phone system is STIR/SHAKEN compliant, you can further reduce spam flagging by controlling your call patterns:

Spread your calling over time. Instead of making 200 calls in a 2-hour window, spread them over the entire day. This looks less like robocall pattern behavior.

Use local phone numbers for local calls. If you're calling Dallas prospects, use Dallas phone numbers. Carriers flag out-of-area calling patterns more aggressively. If you must use one number for multiple regions, understand that your call-through rate will be lower.

Maintain low call abandonment. A call that drops immediately after connecting looks like a robocall. If your phone system has high abandonment rates, it signals spam behavior to carriers. A softphone with proper call completion increases trust.

Implement callback strategies. Instead of cold calling, use SMS or email to offer a callback. A prospect who calls you back has already opted in, and the carrier trusts that more than a cold inbound call.

Respect do-not-call requirements. If you're on a DNC list, don't call them. Carriers track this and penalize phone numbers that frequently call DNC numbers. This applies to B2B as well (many businesses are on registry lists).

How a Modern Softphone Solves These Problems

A properly built softphone integrated with your CRM handles STIR/SHAKEN compliance largely behind the scenes, but here's what you need to verify:

The softphone uses a STIR/SHAKEN-compliant carrier. It should explicitly state this. SalesPulse softphones, for example, use Twilio with full STIR/SHAKEN implementation and B-level attestation for all outbound calls.

Call logging is automatic. Every call automatically logs to your CRM contact with date, time, duration, and whether it connected. This automatic logging means you never lose call history, and your follow-up never slips.

Call recordings are built-in. Optional call recording is available without third-party integration. This matters for compliance and training, but it's also a secondary indicator to carriers that you're a legitimate business (spam operations rarely record calls).

The softphone maintains call separation by prospect. Carriers can detect when the same phone number makes sequential calls to unrelated prospects. A softphone that presents unique session information for each call (rather than just raw call volume) looks more legitimate.

SMS integration is included and registered. You can text prospects from the same softphone interface without triggering separate SMS compliance issues. The integration handles A2P registration automatically.

What Happens if You Don't Comply

The consequences of non-compliance escalate:

Initial stage: Your calls get increasingly marked as spam. Carriers ghost your calls on some numbers. Your call-through rate drops from 30% to 15%.

Next stage: Carriers begin blocking your number outright. Prospects see "Call Blocked" instead of "Spam Likely." You can't reach them no matter how many times you call.

Final stage: Your phone number gets blacklisted. The only way to recover is to get a new number and start fresh.

Recovery from a blacklisted number is expensive. You lose all the brand association (prospects recognize your number), and you essentially restart your calling effort from zero.

Preventing this is far easier than recovering from it. STIR/SHAKEN compliance isn't optional in 2026 — it's the price of entry for insurance agents who rely on phone calls.

The 2026 Compliance Checklist

Before finalizing a phone system or softphone, verify:

• Your phone system explicitly supports STIR/SHAKEN compliance
• Your phone numbers are registered as business lines with your carrier
• Outbound calls carry at least B-level SHAKEN attestation (A-level is ideal)
• Your SMS platform has A2P registration if you're texting prospects
• Your system logs all call details automatically
• You can record calls if needed
• Call documentation is integrated with your contact management
• Your carrier partnership is direct or through a reputable intermediary
• Support is available if calls get blocked (your vendor should handle this)
• You have an audit trail showing compliance for regulatory purposes

This checklist takes 30 minutes to verify with your phone system provider. It's 30 minutes that will save you months of frustration with calls that never ring through.

Final Thought

STIR/SHAKEN compliance isn't sexy. It's invisible infrastructure that works in the background. But it's the difference between a phone that rings and a phone that gets blocked.

In 2026, agents with compliant phone systems will reach 30% more prospects than agents with non-compliant systems. That's not a prediction — it's already happening based on 2025 data.

If you're currently experiencing higher-than-normal call abandonment or connect rate issues, STIR/SHAKEN compliance is the first place to look. One conversation with your phone system provider could unlock 15-20% more successful contact attempts. That's a multiplier worth investigating immediately.