Louisiana Real Estate Email Signature Requirements — Five Elements, Set Out in the Rule

Louisiana has the most demanding email requirement in this series, and it is rule text rather than inference. A separate Internet Advertising rule lists what must appear “on the first or last page of all communications” — which is a signature block in everything but name.

Step by step

The rule that is a signature-block mandate in all but name

Colorado and Tennessee say “email signatures” outright. Louisiana does not use the phrase — but it goes further in substance. LAC 46:LXVII.2515(D):

“On the first or last page of all communications” is a signature block. And because § 2501(F) applies to all advertising, the broker’s telephone number stacks on top of those four, giving Louisiana five required elements — more than any other state in this series.

One thing to watch: the Commission’s own checklist lists only the four § 2515 items for emails and omits the broker’s telephone number, even though the same checklist defines “advertisement” to include correspondence. The conservative course is to include it.

The Commission's checklist contains a requirement that does not exist

Three further glosses in the same document are reasonable readings rather than rule text, and are worth knowing as such:

• The broker’s phone must reach the broker directly. The checklist says the number must let the public contact the broker “without having to go through the affiliated licensees.” § 2501(F) says only “the telephone number of the sponsoring broker.” (Pennsylvania has litigated exactly this point — so it is a sound reading, just not Louisiana’s text.)
• A comparative prominence test. The checklist warns that the smaller the broker’s name relative to the licensee’s, the likelier a finding of non-compliance, and flags “ghosted” low-contrast text. There is no comparative or contrast standard in the rule — and LREC itself concedes “there is no definitive guideline.”
• Social media. The checklist applies § 2515 to social posts. The rule names “e-mail, email discussion groups, and bulletin boards” — social media is not named, though “including but not limited to” makes the extension defensible.

Requirements you will not find elsewhere

Three Louisiana provisions have no counterpart in the other twenty-two states:

• § 2507 — printed advertising of residential property must show the month and year of printing.
• § 2509 — a franchise affiliate must disclose that the firm is independently owned and operated. (Note Tennessee repealed its equivalent in 2021; Louisiana’s stands.)
• § 2511 — advertising your own property requires stating that you are a licensed real estate agent.

And a useful carve-out: § 2501(A) expressly excludes IDX and VOW data-sharing from “advertising”.

A dead link at the top of the search results

If you go looking for the rules yourself: the PDF of Part LXVII that dominates search results is no longer served — it returns a 404. The live official file is a Word document on the Division of Administration’s site, last amended August 2026. Louisiana’s own rule reports show no advertising rulemaking since 2019 and nothing pending; § 2501 was last amended in November 2014 and § 2515 in April 2012. The August 2026 amendments touched only the Appraisers Board chapters.

Penalties reach your broker too

LREC publishes an escalating schedule — $250, then $500, then $1,500, then an appearance before the Commission — and states that penalties are levied against both the agent and the sponsoring broker. For a team violation, every member plus the broker. That is consistent with § 1801(B)(2), which requires brokers to maintain written policies ensuring each sponsored licensee complies with the advertising and team rules, and with § 2501(B), under which all advertising must be approved by the broker.

State law vs. the NAR Code

Louisiana is the one state in this series where the boundary genuinely blurs in your favour: the “regulatory jurisdiction(s)” element of § 2515(D)(4) matches what NAR’s Standard of Practice 12-9 asks of members — but here it is enforceable state law rather than a membership obligation. Everything else NAR-related (the REALTOR® marks, Article 12) remains contractual. Note also § 2505, which bars using the name or trade name of any franchiser or organisation the licensee does not belong to — the state hook on misused marks.

Sources: LAC 46:LXVII.1801, 1901–1911 (Real Estate Teams and Groups, promulgated Nov. 2014), 2501 (Disclosures and Representations, last amended Nov. 2014), 2503, 2505, 2507, 2509, 2511, 2515 (Internet Advertising, last amended Apr. 2012); La. R.S. 37:1430 et seq., § 1455(A)(35); LREC Advertising Guidelines Checklist; NAR 2026 Code of Ethics. Verified against the Louisiana Division of Administration's official Administrative Code file (last amended August 2026) and the Legislature's published statutes, September 2026.