Do You Control Your Social Media Contacts?

I am an independent life insurance broker who owns his own business. Like many of my peers, I was once a captive agent with an insurance company. When I left to form my own brokerage, I  had to build my prospect base from scratch. Social media had not taken hold at that point, and I had no ready-made contact list.

Now, of course, professionals in financial services, as well as many other industries, have multitudes of connections through LinkedIn, Facebook, and others. If employees have made these contacts representing a certain company, can they take that list away when going off on their own?

That is the issue raised in the lawsuit of Valley National Bank vs. Kleiber.  Will the results of this lawsuit make it easier or harder for new entrepreneurs to deliver vital services to consumers? Read this news report and tell me what you think.