A lightning bolt sparks across the sky and lands on a metal rod. Rather than consuming its prey into flames, the rod contains the heat and protects blooming fields.
Thomas J. O’Neil, Brown & Brown Dealer Services’ national director for compliance, is equipping dealers with metaphorical lighting rods to contain compliance lightning strikes. O’Neil compared dealers’ compliance-related questions to small lightning strikes on a dealership.
He said, “My goals are to lead dealers to ask more educated questions that impact their own operation and then guide them to real-life, actionable solutions.”
Brown & Brown’s 2025 compliance training will cover the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Combatting Auto Retail Scams (CARS) rule and cybersecurity prevention steps. O’Neil shared details on both subjects at Brown & Brown’s F&I School, which concluded Monday.
Online training will be available to dealers in 30-minute webinar sessions.
CARS Rule
During the webinars, O’Neil will dive into the CARS definition of add-ons. The FTC defines this as “any product(s) or service(s) not provided to the consumer or installed on the vehicle by the vehicle manufacturer and for which the dealer, directly or indirectly, charges a consumer in connection with a vehicle sale, lease or financing transaction.”
One webinar will discuss the difference between voluntary and mandatory add-ons. The FTC is requiring dealers to disclose that adon products such as vehicle service contracts, roadside assistance programs and wheel/tire protection are not required, and that the vehicle can be bought or leased without add-ons.
Brown & Brown educators will cover “payment packing,” when sales teams market add-on products as mandatory and expose dealerships to lawsuits. The training will include an analysis of related lawsuits the FTC is pursuing.
Cybersecurity Attacks
The training will also dive into the CDK Global cybersecurity attack, which struck in June. Brown & Brown is analyzing the actions affected dealers are taking. The training will provide real-life risks and solutions.
O’Neil said the session will explore, “What are the real risks and what are the actionable improvements?”
Brown & Brown gauges the training success by its dealers’ compliance dashboard, which measures the percentage of how much dealers are complying with federal requirements. O’Neil said dealers often begin compliance training with a dashboard around 50%. After training, the success climbs between 80% and 100%.
According to O’Neil, Brown & Brown’s compliance training is enabling dealers to keep their hard-earned profit by abiding by compliance regulations.
