Annuities

Working Smart in a Tough Market

Authored by Jim Guynan Although the latest reports indicate that our economy is turning around, business is still hard to get in and then get issued. Insurance companies are under pressure to make sure all annuity sales are compliant and suitable; agents are taking more CE courses and product training before an application can be taken to satisfy this. Agents have to work smarter and more efficiently. Here are some ideas that can help. Qualify your prospects and referrals as much as possible as not to waste time on people that don’t need your services or don’t need them now.
  • Use the phone more! It is very important to see people, yes, but again qualify the quality of the prospect; qualify the appointment and qualify the sale. Cell phones have made our life easier; let’s use them to make our business easier.
  • Ask for referrals any time you help someone with a product or service.
  • Remember there is a lot of competition. Make sure you are the product expert for those lines you sell and know who to refer business to if it is not a line you currently offer.
  • Service to your client today is more important than ever; communicate with them regularly and effectively.
Annuities

Income Rider Advantages

Authored by Jim Guynan Recently I heard that almost 60% of index annuities sold today have an income rider attached to them. Also, that the average time before the income is activated from the rider is only 1.8 years. What does this tell us about fixed index purchases and income riders? Simply, that more than half of the owners of fixed annuities are thinking about the future use of these assets as possible income sources and they are utilizing it in a new way. Before income riders became available there were really only two ways to access an annuity; a 10% penalty free withdrawal per contract year or to annuitize the annuity contract. Now there is a third option which is activating an income rider payout that will provide an income for the rest of the owner’s life. The advantage of this is that the owner does not give up control of the underlying fixed annuity in order to do so. What is interesting to me is that the average time to activate is so short. Many of the illustrations I run for agents show longer deferral times before income is needed. One explanation could be that only those people who need income now are buying the annuities. As time moves on, I believe that more younger people will become educated on the advantages of the riders and take advantage of the longer deferral.