Updated September 2026 · Reviewed by Adams, Cameron & Co.
The broker carries most of it. A registered broker must maintain a current written record of each team's members at least once monthly, and each team must file with the broker a designated licensee responsible for advertising compliance. A team is any name or logo used by one or more licensees who present themselves to the public as a team, all of whom must work under the same broker. Team names may not include words like Realty, Properties, Associates or Inc., and the team name may never appear in larger print than the registered brokerage name.
- A team is any name or logo used by one or more licensees presenting themselves to the public as a team. One person is enough.
- The broker must keep a current written record of team members, refreshed at least once monthly.
- Each team files a designated licensee with the broker who is responsible for advertising compliance.
- Team names may not use Agency, Associates, Brokerage, Company, Inc., LLC, Properties, Real Estate, Realty or similar words.
- The team name may never be printed larger than the registered brokerage name, in any advertising including social media.
Starting a team feels like a private arrangement between a few agents who work well together. Under Florida's rules it is nothing of the kind. The moment you put a name or a logo in front of the public, you have created something the Commission has written rules about, and most of the obligations land on your broker rather than on you.
What counts as a team in the first place
The definition is broader than most agents assume. Team or group advertising means a name or logo used by one or more real estate licensees who represent themselves to the public as a team or group.
One or more. A logo is enough. There is no minimum headcount, no formation document and no moment where you cross a threshold. If the public sees a name that is not simply your own, you are inside the rule.
The rule also fixes where a team can live: the team or group must perform licensed activities under the supervision of the same broker or brokerage. A team spread across two brokerages is not a team with a paperwork problem. It is not permitted.
The supervising broker's duties, which are the ones people get asked about
Two obligations sit squarely with the broker, and the second is the one that turns up most often as a question.
A designated licensee. Each team or group must file with the broker a designated licensee who is responsible for ensuring that the advertising complies with the licensing chapter and the Commission's rules. That is a named person, filed with the broker, not an understanding.
A current written record of members, at least once monthly. The registered broker must maintain a current written record of each team's or group's members, refreshed at least once monthly. Not at formation. Not when somebody leaves and remembers to mention it. Monthly.
That monthly membership record is the single clearest answer to the question of what a supervising broker is responsible for where teams are concerned, and it is the obligation most likely to be quietly not happening at a brokerage that lets teams run themselves.
The rule closes by saying so directly: nothing in it relieves the broker of their legal obligations under the licensing chapter and the Commission's rules. Delegating the advertising to a designated licensee does not move the liability.
What a team may not call itself
Team names may include the word team or group. They may not include words that make the team sound like a separate brokerage, and the rule lists them rather than leaving it to judgment.
| Not permitted in a team or group name | Why |
|---|---|
| Agency, Brokerage, Brokers, Company, Corporation, Corp. | Each suggests the team is its own firm |
| Inc., LLC, LP, LLP, Partnership | Entity suffixes imply a registered business, which the team is not |
| Real Estate, Realty, Properties, Property | Reads as a brokerage name to the public |
| Associates | Same reason, and it is on the list explicitly |
| Any similar word suggesting a separate brokerage or company | The list ends with a catch all, so a clever substitute is still caught |
Source: the Commission's rule on team or group advertising. Read at the date shown on this page.
The print size rule that catches good design
In advertisements containing the team or group name, the team or group name shall not be in larger print than the name of the registered brokerage. And all advertising must be done in a manner in which reasonable persons would know they are dealing with a team or group.
This is where teams get caught, and rarely on purpose. A designer builds a handsome sign or a listing graphic, the team name is the hero because that is what a designer does with a name, and the brokerage name sits underneath at half the size. The rule does not ask whether it looked better. It asks which name is bigger.
The wider advertising rule sits above this one and is easy to forget: all advertising must be in a manner in which reasonable persons would know they are dealing with a real estate licensee, and all real estate advertisements must include the licensed name of the brokerage firm. Not a nickname, not a market-facing brand. The licensed name.
Note also that the team rule states it applies to all advertising. There is no exception for social media, for a car wrap, for a closing gift, or for anything you would describe as personal branding rather than an advertisement.
What the rule does not give you
Every part of this is about how a team appears to the public. None of it changes the underlying structure, and reading it as though it does is where teams get into real trouble rather than advertising trouble.
A team is not an entity. The rule governs a name or a logo. It does not create a company, and the list of banned words exists precisely to stop the public inferring one.
A team does not hold licenses. Every member remains individually licensed and registered under the same broker. Members join and leave as individuals, which is exactly why the broker's monthly member record is refreshed monthly rather than kept once.
A team does not hold money. Escrow stays where the licensing rules put it, with the broker, and no team arrangement moves it.
A team does not dilute the broker's exposure. The rule ends by saying that nothing in it relieves the broker of their legal obligations, so a designated licensee is an allocation of work rather than a transfer of responsibility.
Put plainly, a Florida team is a marketing permission with conditions attached, and the conditions are mostly your broker's to satisfy.
What this means practically before you start one
Ask your broker whether they already keep the monthly member record. If the answer is a pause, you have learned something useful about how the brokerage is run, and you have learned it before your name is on a sign.
Choose the name against the banned list, not after. Renaming a team after signage, business cards and a domain is an expensive way to read a rule you could have read first.
Settle the designated licensee properly. Somebody is going to be named as responsible for advertising compliance. Decide whether that is you, and whether you want it to be.
Check the artwork, not the intention. Put the brokerage name and the team name side by side and measure them. Whether you need a broker license to run the team at all is covered separately in the broker license question for Florida teams.
A brokerage that already runs teams properly makes all of this invisible to you, which is the point. If you are weighing where to build one, the wider comparison is in choosing a brokerage as an experienced agent.
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