Life Insurance

Group Life vs. Individual Coverage

Presented by Brian Leising I had a recent conversation with a producer who has an opportunity to help several employees at a business obtain individual life insurance.  Why individual coverage in a business?  The business recently changed ownership and the new owner decided not to offer group life insurance to the employees.  I used to warn employees of this very situation while selling life insurance as a voluntary workplace benefit.  I explained that although the group plan their employer offered was a great benefit, they were not in control.  The employer could drop the benefit at any time.  If they left that employer for another, they had no guarantee the next employer would offer the same benefit.  If you find yourself in a similar situation, ask your prospects:  “Do you really want to hand over control of your family’s financial future if you died unexpectedly to your employer?  You have the ability – and the duty – to take control of the situation and take care of your family yourself.  Your employer will never care for your family as much as you do.”  I understand some people cannot qualify for individual life insurance due to poor health.  Most can.  Make sure your clients and prospects are aware of this potential problem and make sure they have personally owned life insurance in place before their employer forces their hand.  They may not qualify in the future.
Sales & Marketing

Silver, Gold or Platinum – where will you be?

Presented by David Corwin   When it comes to perks, you want a program that gives you that little extra that you deserve and rewards you for your efforts and gives you money to put back into your business.  Financial Brokerage has pulled out all the stops as we’ve just announced the Elite Producer Group (EPG).  Here’s the skinny . . .   SILVER – If you are able to attain a 50,000 Success Share level then you will receive $500 to be used for your business expenses and an all expense paid trip to the EPG meeting.  I will tell you that if you get to this level then you’re 5,000 shares away from the Costa Rica trip so you might as well shoot to get the trip too. GOLD – This level requires 75,000 Success Shares.  You will receive $1,000 from our pockets to yours for business expenses and you also get the trip to the EPG meeting on us.  The one additional reward that you’d receive is that you get an extra day on our Shared Success incentive trip. PLATINUM – This is the highest level with EPG and it requires 100,000 shares.  $1,500 is the amount you would receive to put back into your business.  With this level, you would also receive a free trip to the EPG meeting and two (2) extra days of fun in the sun at our Shared Success incentive trip.  Oh and by the way, you’d also receive a Men’s Tag Heuer or a Women’s Movado Stainless Steel TC Bracelet Watch and you’d be recognized at the award ceremony.
Life Insurance

Retirement Plan Review

Presented by Gary Peterson   Would you like to add an additional revenue stream with little effort?  Would you like backroom support that will assist you from presentation to closing the sale?  Do you know or work with small business owners? Let Financial Brokerage help you team up with American National and their pension team.  View the webinar presentation below and give me a call at 800-397-9999. Retirement Plan Review
Life Insurance

What’s behind door number 3? A life insurance conversion…

Presented by Brian Leising   Are you unhappy with the conversion options available to your clients? Not able to sell term and permanent coverage to every client every time?  Here’s another option to consider: Return of Premium (ROP) term.  How can ROP help?  At the end of the term the client receives cash, walks away and that’s the end of it, right?  Most carriers offering ROP actually give the clients three options.  The obvious option is to take the cash and run.  The client could also apply the cash to convert to whatever permanent plan the carrier makes available at the time, thereby reducing the required premiums to maintain the same face amount.  What people tend to forget is the third option.  The client can choose to use the ROP funds to purchase a reduced paid-up policy.  The policy is paid-up…guaranteed. Here’s an example from one company using a preferred non-smoking male age 35 for $500,000: The annual premium is $110.  After 30 years the person could choose a $64,322 paid-up policy.  He could alternatively purchase a traditional term for $530/year and 30-pay a $64,322 no-lapse UL for only $544/year.  Two separate policies actually represent a savings of $26 in this scenario.  But is your client going to do that?  If they will, that’s great, you just used the ROP concept to sell a permanent plan in addition to the term you were going to sell anyway.  Your client is closer to having the proper coverage for their needs and you made more money.  Cha-ching!  But how many of your clients are actually going to do that?  They may not see the need for permanent coverage.  When money gets tight, which policy is going to go?  What if they miss a premium payment on the no-cash no-lapse guarantee UL?  There are potential leaks in the two-policy plan.  People don’t always do what’s best for them, but what is perceived to be easiest.  The ROP option gives the client only one policy to deal with and an absolute guarantee their permanent plan will indeed be permanent.  They know from day one how much permanent coverage they will have and what the premium will be – zero.  Show your clients what’s behind door #3.  You can’t lose.
Annuities

Choices

Presented by David Corwin I once heard a story about an annuity agent that had been in the business more than 20 years.  Now this agent I’m sure cared a lot about his clients, but over the years started becoming tired of learning new things.  He became stagnant and complacent; unbeknownst to him, this is the worst position to be in.  I’m not sure if it was the industry constantly changing and not being able to keep up with times, or lack of support from the company he was writing through.  He was in the independent agent space which means that he had several choices of carriers to write through and could offer the most competitive products to his clientele.  (I personally feel that it was his responsibility to learn new things and not just try to sell his favorite annuity product.) Let’s get to the story . . . An older man and his son met with this agent about what he should do with his windfall gain from a relative that had passed away.  The agent didn’t do any fact finding on the older man due to the fact that he was a current client; he had written an annuity 10 years prior, but had little to no contact with him in those ten years.  The agent took out his favorite annuity product brochure and presented it to the client.  The older gentleman told the agent that he would like to take it home to review it with his son and would like to meet again and move forward.  The sale was made and the client took home a brand new shiny annuity contract with a surrender period longer than 10 years.  The agent didn’t at any point offer an alternative product (he didn’t know of one because of the complacency issue).  This product could have been a single premium life insurance contract because, had he been asked, he would have liked to create a legacy with this money for his family.  This product could have more than doubled the amount that would have passed on to his family when he died two years later.  Since the son was there for all three meetings and took good notes, this agent was taken to court and ultimately lost the battle due to not having any supporting documentation. I’m sure that all of you have heard similar stories or maybe you have some of your own.  It is paramount to our business that our clients have the right insurance product based on the information that is gathered through a fact finding session and not just selling your favorite product.  What’s more important is remembering why you chose this industry as your profession, recognizing the value you have to offer and never letting rejection get you down.  Answer objections with facts, convey information confidently and show your determination with persistence.