Free Disclaimer Checker for Regulated Industries

What a required disclaimer is, and what your regulator expects it to say.

Most disclaimer tools write a site-wide legal page for bloggers. A regulated firm has a narrower problem: specific statements a rule or a well-settled practice expects on each piece of marketing, and a habit of losing one of them every time somebody tightens a paragraph.

A disclaimer and a required disclosure are different jobs

A disclaimer limits how a reader may rely on what they read: this is general information, it is not advice about your situation, reading it does not make you a client. A disclosure gives the reader something a rule says they are owed: that a testimonial was paid for, that past results do not predict future ones, that an offering is open only to accredited investors. A generic legal disclaimer does the first job and none of the second.

Most firms' blocks do both jobs in one paragraph, and that is fine. The packs behind this checker encode the whole paragraph a firm in that industry would normally carry, so the phrases it looks for mix the two: some are there because a rule asks for the statement, some because leaving them out invites a reader to treat a post as advice. The check does not tell them apart. Your counsel can.

Do you legally need one?

For an ordinary blog, usually not: no general law requires a page called "Disclaimer", which is why the generator sites answer the question with "it depends". For a regulated firm the question is different, because the rules attach to the advertising itself. An investment adviser's testimonials and endorsements must come with prescribed disclosures under the SEC Marketing Rule, Rule 206(4)-1. Anyone paying for an endorsement must disclose the connection under the FTC's Endorsement Guides. Some state bars require specific labels on lawyer advertising. Other sentences in a typical block, such as a medical practice's "not a substitute for professional medical advice", are not printed in any statute; they are there because of who ends up reading the page.

Common types, and which ones this checker reads for

• General information, not advice. The "informational" sentence. Every pack's block carries it except the fair housing one.
• No client relationship. Reading does not create an attorney-client, physician-patient or advisory relationship. In the legal, medical and CPA blocks.
• Risk and past performance. Possible loss of principal, past performance is no guarantee, projections are forward-looking. In the investment blocks.
• Not an offer. Nothing here is an offer to sell a security. In the Reg D block.
• Policy terms govern. The policy, not the article, sets the coverage. In the insurance blocks.
• Affiliate and endorsement disclosures. Required by the FTC wherever there is a material connection. Not in any block this checker reads for, because they belong next to the endorsement, not in a footer.

Investment, medical and legal disclaimers, industry by industry

The table is every industry pack in the picker, the block it checks and the exact phrases that block needs, read from the packs at the version shown. An entry like "not … advice" means both words, in that order, with anything between them. Entries joined by "or", or listed after "any of", mean one of them will do.

Investment disclaimer for Reg D sponsors and syndicators

The Reg D block has six phrases: informational, offer to sell, accredited investor, private placement memorandum, past performance and forward-looking. We ran our own real estate syndication site through it. The disclaimer at the foot of a Willowdale Equity article, as published, carries three of the six. The "Important Disclosures" at the bottom of the home page carry five, and miss only "informational", because they never say the page is information in the first place. The pack also ships a second block, an offering notice for a 506(c) general solicitation; this checker reads only the default block, so an offering page needs its notice checked by eye. The full block, and what each phrase is for, is on the syndication disclaimer page.

Financial advisor disclaimer

The RIA block's six phrases cover information not advice, no recommendation or solicitation, loss of principal, past performance, no advisory relationship without a written agreement, and a line saying registration "does not imply" any level of skill or training. That last one is the reason a firm may say it is registered but never that the SEC endorses it. Testimonials and endorsements carry their own disclosures under the Marketing Rule, which is a claims question for the SEC Marketing Rule Checker. The block itself is taken apart on the financial advisor disclaimer page.

Medical disclaimer

Five phrases: informational, not a substitute for professional medical advice, no physician-patient relationship, seek the advice of your physician or consult, and what to do in an emergency. The HIPAA marketing rules govern how a practice may use patient information, which is a separate matter from this block; no statute prints the block's wording. See the medical disclaimer page.

Attorney advertising disclaimer

The law firm block checks five phrases: informational, legal advice, attorney-client relationship, licensed, and a written or engagement agreement. The words "attorney advertising" sit in a second block, the prior-results notice for case results, which this checker does not select. Some states, New York among them, require that label on lawyer advertising, and the ABA's Model Rule 7.2(d) asks for the name and contact details of a responsible lawyer, which is your byline rather than your disclaimer. See the law firm disclaimer page and the state bar rules.

Insurance disclaimer, CPA and tax, and fair housing

Every insurance block looks for informational, does not constitute insurance and consult a licensed. The parent insurance block and the property and casualty, health and Canadian life blocks add "governed", for the line saying the policy governs; property and casualty adds exclusions, health adds not affiliated with, and US life swaps governed for guaranteed beyond the policy and tax. The Canadian life block adds "not guaranteed" (details). The CPA block looks for "subject to change" and an accountant-client or professional relationship (details). The apartments block needs "equal housing opportunity" and at least one protected class named. Packs marked draft in the picker still have coverage being built, and the result card says so.

Where a disclaimer has to appear

The rules speak about prominence more than position. The Marketing Rule asks for testimonial disclosures that are clear and prominent. The FTC's guidance on digital advertising, .com Disclosures, says a disclosure should be clear and conspicuous, as close as possible to the claim it qualifies, and not tucked behind a link or into terms nobody reads. Verand's generator puts the block at the end of the article, above its sources, one block per article.

This checker does not look at placement at all. It confirms the words are in what you pasted. A block in eight-point grey at the very bottom of a long page passes here exactly as a block beside the claim does, which is why the card says "flagged for review" and never that the page passes.

Email, social posts and the footer that doesn't travel

A disclaimer in your site footer lives on your site. When a post is excerpted into a newsletter, summarised on LinkedIn, or quoted in part by an AI assistant, the footer stays behind. The FTC's position on endorsements is that the disclosure goes in the post itself, not on a profile page or behind a "more" link. Treat each channel as its own piece of copy: paste the email as sent and the caption as posted, and check each one.

Common mistakes

• A synonym for a checked word. "Educational" for "informational", "loss of capital" for "loss of principal". Each reads naturally and each is a miss here. Adopt the pack's word or confirm with counsel that yours does the same work.
• Footer only. Present on the page, absent from every excerpt, email and share.
• One generic line. "This is not financial advice" carries none of the Reg D or RIA phrases on its own.
• A disclaimer set in an image. Invisible to this check, to screen readers and to anyone who copies the text.
• Another firm's block. Borrowed wording names the wrong entity and the wrong jurisdictions, and usually drops the phrase that mattered to them less.
• The trimmed rewrite. The shortest phrase goes first when somebody tightens a paragraph. Re-check after every edit, not only at launch.

Not legal advice. The packs are researched from the regulators' own text and tested by Verand, and a pack marked draft has coverage still being built. Not reviewed by a licensed attorney. A found phrase does not mean your copy meets any rule, and a missing one is a flag for review. Your counsel confirms what applies to you.