Annuities

Are you “in the business” or do you just…

Presented by David Corwin Here are some indicators to tell you where you are. • Do you have a business plan? Crafting a meaningful business plan takes a lot of thought and time. Set out a strategy for your business and in particular, your marketing strategy. Set targets and objectives, including sales and financial goals so that you can monitor business performance. • Are you actively looking for new prospects (referrals and warm market) or just replacing the business you wrote in the past? It really should be a 60/40 split. Sixty percent of your marketing efforts should be spent on referrals and warm marketing. Forty percent should be reviewing clients that you’ve written before, both fostering the relationship built, as well as, looking for new business. • Are you running enough appointments throughout every week to get the result you want? The old numbers game. It only makes sense that if you have enough lines in the water the more fish you will catch. The more successful agents run between 10-15 appointments per week. If you’re running less than that…run more. It’s as simple as that. • On your appointments do you implement a fact finder to obtain material facts that allow for cross-selling opportunities? If you don’t, well then, you’re probably an order taker and if you don’t have what they want you’ll go back to your office without the business. Last I checked, an insurance license allows you to sell Life, Annuities, Health, Long Term Care and Disability insurance. If you don’t use one, then you just have an insurance license. • Are you furthering your education through industry leading programs like CLU, ChFC or CFP? Furthering your education, you become better informed to assist with the variety of unique requirements that individuals, professionals and business owners may have with respect to their estate planning, wealth transfer, income replacement and risk management needs. Holders of these designations increase their sales by up to 51%.
Life Insurance

Six Questions for Six Life Insurance Sales to Seniors…

Presented by Brian Leising Do you have senior clients? Did they purchase only one product from you? Was it a Medicare supplement, annuity, long term care or final expense policy? If you were able to uncover the need for one insurance product, could you uncover another? What if you had six simple questions to ask your clients that would uncover additional sales? The fourth question comes in two parts. “Where do you keep your safe money? What is the purpose of these funds?” Aside from emergency money, many seniors have funds they do not plan to spend in their lifetime. The money is earmarked for their children or grandchildren and usually not sitting in a tax-favored vehicle. Many seniors are not aware of the tax implications of their current arrangement. CD’s, savings accounts and mutual funds lose value every year due to taxes. Annuities and qualified plans can defer taxes, but that just means the value to be taxed will be greater when received by the next generation. Why not move those dollars into a vehicle that offers immediate leverage (no need to wait for the funds to grow) and also avoids taxation? A single premium life insurance policy works perfectly in these cases. The death benefit will always be greater than the single premium paid by the client and will pass tax-free to their heirs. In part five I will look at some other ways to keep Uncle Sam out of the transfer of wealth.
Life Insurance

Periodic Policy Reviews

Presented by Gary Peterson Life insurance left untouched may no longer be meeting your clients’ needs. By implementing a periodic policy review as part of your client retention process, you will keep a client’s protection program up-to-date and provide a valuable after-the-sale service. The net result will be happier clients, the identification of additional sales and more and better referral introductions. Here are some great resources to help you build policy reviews into your sales and service processes and make the most of every client relationship. Policy Review Quick Tips Annual Review Checklist
Life Insurance

Why we do what we do

Presented David Corwin Anyone who has been in the life insurance business for any length of time will tell you that if there is a single reason why they would look for a new profession, it would most likely be the rejection they receive in an effort to sell life insurance. When we let our client sell us on the reasons why they don’t need coverage, we give in. That is the primary reason I feel that insurance agents fail, they give up way too easily. We must persist, we must be stronger! I am constantly reminded of how crucial it is to have the proper amount of insurance to protect one’s family. It March of 1998 I was still considered a rookie. I was in an appointment that was a little difficult. I had dealings with this family in the past as they were current clients; with only an auto insurance policy. Really nice family; Rick, Debbie and there 14 year old son Rick Jr., they always liked to hear what I had to say. They were the kind of family that after your appointment is made you realize why we do this day after day. Throughout the interview and presentation of the information that I gathered, it became glaringly obvious that I needed to make a strong case as to why they both needed life insurance. Rick would always try to get me off the subject, but Debbie seemed to be genuinely interested. There were many objections I had to overcome to gain their confidence and trust. They couldn’t afford much, so I ended up writing a term insurance policy on both of them. Rick also had a small group policy which I included in the analysis that I ran so they only took out enough insurance to cover the mortgage. I wrote the policy on March 18th, 1998, and I remember thinking on the way home, I just touched another family in a way I hope they never realize. Unfortunately, that realization came all too soon. Rick worked nights at a bakery and would get off of work around 4 a.m. On March 27th, just a week and a half after writing the policy, Rick was driving home from work around 4:30 a.m. and fell asleep at the wheel. He was killed when his pickup went off the road and collided with a light pole. Around 7:00 a.m., I received a frantic phone call from Debbie who didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t believe that less than 2 weeks earlier I had written a life insurance policy to prepare for just this kind of an event. I told her that I would call in the claim and we would talk later. After the insurance company did their investigating and found no wrong doing, I was able to deliver a check to her. Rick also had the group policy, which Debbie had no idea how to submit a claim on. After making a simple phone call to his human resource department, I found that he had an accidental death policy through work that enabled Debbie to receive a portion of his income. I then assisted her with putting away part of the money and using a portion of it to pay down the mortgage to a payment amount she could handle on her income alone. She had never dealt with this kind of money before, so she was really counting on me to help. As with most people, she went a little overboard with some of the money. I can’t say that I could blame her for that, and if it helps with the grieving process, that’s all the better. With some of the money, Ricky Jr. was able to get a car on his 16th birthday. I must say that was a rough year for her family, not only with dealing with the death of her husband, but then Ricky had an accident that summer. He was driving on a country road, lost control of his new car and drove off the road. She called me at my office and I was shocked. Fortunately, he just suffered a bump on the head and a sprained ankle. I visited him in the hospital to help comfort the family and felt great to do so. I will never forget the look in her eye or the way she thanked me a million times. But what really made all the rejections bearable was to be able to see the positive effect that I had made on her family by countering the objections with sound advice. It was priceless and will never be forgotten. I am sure that all of you have heard stories similar or maybe you have some of your own. It is paramount to our business that we strive to make our clients realize the importance of not just having life insurance but having the proper amount of insurance. But what’s more important is remembering why you chose this industry as your profession, recognizing the value you have to offer, and never let rejection get you down. Answer objections with facts, convey information confidently, and show your determination with persistence.