Life Insurance

College Funding with Life Insurance – Part One

Presented by Brian Leising If you work in the college planning market, you are well aware of strategies to move assets or overfund permanent life insurance policies for tax-free cash.  What’s better than rearranging existing dollars into better funding vehicles?  How about FREE MONEY! One of our life insurance carriers actually offers college scholarships to children and grandchildren of policyholders. Here is a link with more details on Foresters competitive scholarship program. They specialize in low face amount non-med term and final expense whole life.  This would be a great addition to existing college planning and a great fit for families without the resources for larger college funding plans.
Life Insurance

QUICK TWO-COLUMN LIFE INSURANCE NEEDS ANALYSIS SYSTEM – Part…

Presented by Brian Leising This is the short-form life insurance needs analysis system I use with life insurance prospects and clients.  The ten minute conversation achieves the same answers as an inch-thick comprehensive analysis, without the fancy full-color report.  Here’s how it works: Ask your client to take a piece of paper and draw a vertical line down the middle.  The heading on the left should be FIXED EXPENSES.  The heading on the right should be ONGOING INCOME NEEDS.  Start on the left.  Everybody needs funds to cover their final expenses (casket, burial, cremation).  Ask you client if they have any idea what that costs.  Maybe they had a loved one pass away recently and know current expenses in your area.  If not, I suggest $10,000-$20,000.  Next, ask them to list all debts they would like to pay off upon death. The largest will be their mortgage if they own their home.  Automobiles and credit cards should make up the remainder of the debts.  If the client has children, ask how they plan to fund college tuition.  If that is in their plans now, you can include an amount to cover that need in this column.  You could use other resources (outside the scope of this article) to determine what future tuition may cost.  You may want to revisit that portion at another time if time is a concern. Add up the numbers on the left column.  Ask your client if all those things were paid off, would they be able to maintain their standard of living on the remaining spouse’s income?  If they hesitate or are unsure, suggest that when one spouse passes away, the remaining spouse and children will need roughly 70% of the former combined income to maintain their standard of living.  Usually they will need some additional income. We will take a look at those ongoing income needs in the right column next week.
Life Insurance

Express Underwriting

Presented by Gary Peterson Are you looking for a strong life insurance platform for Term, Universal Life or Whole Life?  Do you want 72 hour turnarounds on approvals?  Then American National may have just the program for you with Underwriting Express.  Review the attached information and contact your life marketer at 800-397-9999 for more details on this revolutionary program! Underwriting Express Agent’s Guide Life Product Portfolio
Life Insurance

More Coverage without More Underwriting – A Three Part…

Presented by Brian Leising Part 3 Conversions (renounce your old life) Looking for ways to help your clients obtain more life insurance coverage without the hassle of additional underwriting?  Converting a term policy to a permanent plan avoids underwriting and typically pays you a new commission on the permanent plan.  Look through your client files for clients with older term life policies.  If they have no permanent coverage, discuss their conversion options.  For a traditional conversion, a client may convert all or part of their term plan to any permanent plan offered by the company at the time of conversion.  If they have a return of premium term policy, they may be able to obtain a reduced paid-up plan in lieu of receiving their premiums back.  If you don’t like the options the carrier presents, MetLife offers a cross-company conversion plan.  You can convert another carrier’s term to one of their permanent plans.  Also, don’t forget about child riders.  Companies usually allow children covered by riders to convert the rider to a permanent plan, all without additional underwriting.
Life Insurance

SELL MORE INDEX UNIVERSAL LIFE BY ASKING FOR LESS…

Presented by Brian Leising   When presenting Index Universal Life (IUL), we usually position the product as an either/or decision.  You either place your retirement dollars in an IUL or continue placing them in your 401(k).  When it works, this all or nothing approach is great.  What happens when this approach fails? Do you think some people are afraid to place all their eggs in one basket?  Consider this: don’t ask for all their eggs, just a few.  Here is the second way you can position IUL as a retirement plan supplement: Consider positioning IUL as a resource to tap during down markets.  During retirement, people need a steady income whether the stock market is up or down.  If a client withdraws money from a qualified plan invested in stocks when the market is down, they are selling at a loss.  This has a detrimental effect on their total funds over time.  What if they did not have to sell at a loss? What if they had an alternative fund to draw from in those down years?  Here is an example: The years 1973 through 1993 included five years with stock market losses.  Using this strategy, a client would only need their IUL to cover five years of loans or withdrawals, not all 20.  Since clients pay taxes on withdrawals from qualified plans, not on life insurance loans, the net amount needed from loans is actually lower than their qualified plan withdrawals.  You don’t need to ask for nearly as much money to fund five years of a reduced income need.  It should be much easier to redirect a portion of a client’s retirement contributions than all their contributions. How can these two ideas presenting IUL as a retirement supplement lead to more IUL sales?  1) Prospective clients tend to be more receptive to redirecting or moving some of their money rather than all of it.  This will help you close more sales.  2) Once they see the benefits of having an IUL, clients will ask to place even more money into the contract.  They will even think it was their idea.