choices

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.

Long Term Care and Disability Insurance

Pie Choices

Presented by Donna Ries When talking long term care to your clients, are you offering Apple or Chocolate Silk Pie? When talking about funding your clients’ potential extended care needs, they may be faced with a variety of options. Think of it like offering your clients a variety of pies. They may have choices such as apple, cherry or French silk. One pie is not necessarily better than the other, they are just different. Of course, they have different prices. Just like the pie choices, long term care options for your clients can be offered with different features. Fitting the product and features to your clients’ needs is what’s really important. There are hybrid or linked products with a life insurance base and a long term or chronic illness rider. Maybe it’s an annuity with a long term care component. Some clients may choose to fund their long term care expenses with an accelerated death benefit. Again, not necessarily better, but certainly different. There is also the traditional stand-alone long term care policy. Think of this as the basic apple pie. Depending on the clients’ needs, enhanced benefits can be added to the plan to satisfy the “appetite” of your client. Just like the apple pie can have a slice of cheese, ice cream or whipped cream (tailoring to the individual’s taste) purchasing pure insurance coverage without a large infusion of premium on the front end, is again, just choices. The important issue here is not “pitting” a life insurance plan against an annuity or traditional long term care insurance – it’s getting your client to purchase something. Which pie is best for your client in determining their long term care needs? Find out what features or ingredients are most important to your client, what is affordable and what will be sustainable. Contact your Financial Brokerage sales manager today at 800-397-9999 to help you with your next long term care sales solution for your client.

Annuities

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.