Have you arrived?

Presented by David Corwin In my position with working with many agents it dawns on me that many if not all insurance professionals want to arrive. Arrive defined is “to reach a place at the end of a journey or a stage in a journey.” I define it as complacency or becoming comfortable. Too comfortable is the zone that you need to stay clear of in my opinion. 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? Yes, I know – 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 a fact finder then you just have an insurance license. • Are you furthering your education through industry leading programs like CLU, ChFC or CFP? Furthering your education allows you to become better informed to assist with the variety of unique problems that your clients may have with respect to their estate planning, wealth transfer, income replacement and risk management needs. It’s been reported that holders of these designations increase their sales by up to 51%. This isn’t meant to pass judgment of any sorts, but to help you realize that you never want to arrive. If you do that means that you’ll never challenge yourself to learn new things and that’s when true growth will happen.

Legacy Building

Presented by Gary Peterson Legacy building is a strategy that utilizes the leverage of permanent life insurance as an efficient way to pass along assets to beneficiaries. Often, existing funds are transferred to a life insurance policy, which immediately increases the amount of the legacy in the form of the death benefit. North American has some great resources to help you discuss legacy building with clients and prospects and generate more and bigger permanent life sales. Building a Legacy

What’s your disability IQ?

Presented by Donna Ries When it comes to the chances of becoming disabled, how knowledgeable are you? Take a quick quiz to test your disability IQ from the Council of Disability Awareness. Some of the answers may surprise you. Click here for quiz No matter what your disability IQ may be, it is often a good idea to review and raise your disability awareness. This simple test is one quick tool that provides brief facts to mention on your next appointment. Contact your disability marketer to discuss what disability insurance may best meet your client’s needs.

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%.

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.