Annuities

Are Income Riders Always the Best Approach?

Presented by David Corwin In my opinion, Income Riders are not always the best approach.  I will agree that they do give the client some satisfaction in knowing how much their income would be.  However, the power in the knowing I don’t think mitigates the fees, coupled with the outrageously long surrender periods that are sold most of the time.  What happens in most cases is that the agent presents only one product and doesn’t look at the different options that would lessen the surrender period, thus giving the client more choices at some point and not locking them up for 16 years or longer. It’s an absolute certainty that if you show more than one option you will make more sales and the client will be more satisfied with their decision.  Now, I will admit that it might be a slower sales process, but shoving a product down their throat doesn’t do them any favors either. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.  I ran a top carrier product with the highest bonus and rollup rate on a 50 year old male with $100,000 and let it cook for 10 years before I started income and came up with $9,845.59 in annual income.  A green to red apple comparison with the same income rollup without a bonus would only reduce the income in 10 years to $8,950.54.  That’s less than $900 and the kicker would be that the surrender period is reduced by 6 years. It is also widely known that an indexed annuity without a bonus performance should, and in most cases, does outperform bonus indexed annuities.  With that in mind, the client will undoubtedly have more money in the long run anyway.  All I’m really talking about is choices.  Give your client choices and they will make the right one the majority of the time, and you will have a more satisfied client.
Annuities

You Shred It

Presented by Deb Strong I have been in the financial services industry for 30 years.  One thing for sure is that agents and advisors are always looking for new, creative and fresh approaches to get in front of their clients and add value to them for client events. Identity theft is a huge problem for all clients.  I know people whom have had their identity stolen and it was a nightmare!  One idea I would like to share is an event that I helped an agent host – a “You Shred It” event for his clients.  This event took place at the agent’s office; we hired a shredding company that came to his office with a truck and an industrial-size shredding machine.  When the invites went out to clients, they were told they could bring boxes of documents with them that needed shredding. We also hired a local policeman that talked to the clients about ways to prevent their identity from being stolen.  The clients that attended this meeting loved it.  We served refreshments and had time to mingle with the clients that were there.  I had clients come up to me and say they loved this idea. For more details call Deb Strong at 800 397 9999, Ext. 6328.