Life Insurance

Your Clients ARE Interested in Life Insurance

Presented by Jim Linn   Don’t think life insurance is something your clients are thinking about?  Think again.  Based on statistics from lifehappens.org, more than 1/3 of all people are interested in life Insurance but have not taken action due to the lack of knowledge about products or they’re not sure about the amount of coverage they would need.  When you’re visiting with your current clients or prospects, remember to ask them if life Insurance is important to them.  
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 are two ways you can position IUL as a retirement plan supplement. One way to position IUL as a retirement plan supplement requires knowledge of social security and tax planning.  The IUL becomes one of three components in a comprehensive retirement plan.  To make this work you need to understand two features of the social security program: 1) if a client receiving social security benefits also receives taxable income, their social security income may be taxable; 2) social security benefits increase if a person waits until age 70 to receive benefits.  If your client has sufficient resources, they can maximize their social security income and minimize taxes simultaneously.  Here are the steps to make this happen:
  • When the client retires, they should withdraw money from their qualified plan first. Reduce the fund as much as possible.
  • At age 70 the client begins social security payments.
  • If they still have money in their qualified plan after age 70, they will need to take required minimum distributions. For most people, RMD’s will be low enough to not affect the taxation of their social security benefits.   Of course, social security and RMD’s together may not provide enough funds for your client’s living expenses.
  • Now their IUL can help. The client can take tax-free loans from their policy with no effect on the taxation of their social security benefits.  If their qualified retirement plan was liquidated, they would pay no Federal income taxes for the rest of their life.
You do not have to fund the IUL as their sole retirement vehicle.  Use the IUL as a planning component along with their 401(k) and social security income.  By waiting, their IUL has more time to grow, their social security benefit has more time to grow, and your client enjoys greater net income due to lack of taxation. Look for part two next week.
Life Insurance

Three ways for a Property and Casualty Agency to…

Presented by Brian Leising   Are you concerned about losing clients to your competition?  Looking for new ways to boost your retention rates and grow revenue?  The average client retention rate is 10% higher when agencies cross-sell products.  Many agencies fail to effectively cross-sell life insurance because they do just a few basic things the wrong way.  You need a plan.  Here is the third item that all successful agencies use to sell life insurance to their auto and homeowners clients: Use online applications.  You probably use these for your other lines of business already.  Nobody likes more paperwork.  You can be physically in front of your client, or speak with them over the phone.  Either way, the online process speeds up the underwriting system and eliminates paperwork errors.  Not familiar with this process?  Check out a how-to video and then listen to what a once-reluctant online app adopter has to say about the process.
Life Insurance

Three ways for a Property and Casualty Agency to…

Presented by Brian Leising   Are you concerned about losing clients to your competition?  Looking for new ways to boost your retention rates and grow revenue?  The average client retention rate is 10% higher when agencies cross-sell products.  Many agencies fail to effectively cross-sell life insurance because they do just a few basic things the wrong way.  You need a plan.  Here is the second of three items that all successful agencies use to sell life insurance to their auto and homeowners clients:  
  1. Understand life insurance must be sold pro-actively. Selling auto and homeowners insurance involves sales skills, but selling life insurance requires a different skill set, a different approach.  People are not required to purchase life insurance.  The lowest price is not going to make the sale.  You have to make them realize they need the coverage.  You cannot throw out numbers of different coverage amounts and expect them to pick one.  You need a system in place to determine the amount and type of coverage needed for your client’s situation.  It really doesn’t matter if you use a computer program or a quick analysis on a napkin, have a system to use and use it, every time.  In the end, the computerized systems and the shorthand napkin systems arrive at nearly the same coverage amounts.  People only buy life insurance for two reasons, they love someone or they owe someone.  All systems take these reasons into account.  We tend to look at them as debts to pay off (owe someone) and income to provide (love someone).  Looking for a system to use?
    1. Financial Brokerage quoting engine needs analysis
    2. Calculate Your Needs from lifehappens.org
    3. My two-column shorthand system (article coming soon!)
    4. The four zeroes (0000) approach (article coming soon!)
Start using one of these systems this week, then check back next week for part three.