Annuities

Be “that guy” at the party

Presented by David Corwin I should say “that financial professional” to cover the women who work in this wonderful profession too. What do I mean by being that guy or professional is to know your stuff, or at least enough to impress; not gloat or brag, but just know a few things to catch their attention. What will happen is that you’ll be able to secure an appointment with them and that will of course lead to a sale. Let’s start with a few key items that I would know: IRA’s – Know that contribution limit of $5,500 and over 50 years old they can put in $6,500. Also, know that they are generally speaking deductible against your taxes; albeit they aren’t really that popular though, but they don’t necessarily need to know that at this present moment. They just need to know that you know your stuff. Roth IRA’s – Same as above, but the main difference is “tax free” at retirement. I would repeat that a few times to drive the point home. SEP IRA’s – Getting a little more advanced here. That would be a card that I’d throw out when you’re among business owners and professionals. Know that the contribution limit is 25% of one’s income or $53,000, whichever is less. Still deductible and pretty popular amongst your smaller employers out there. A lot of dentists, real estate agents, chiropractors and the like have these. 401k – Even though you may lack the ability of writing these (I will tell you that you most certainly can); you want to know about them. Know that they have a contribution limit of $18,000 and that they are deductible to the employee. In summary, I will tell you that this wasn’t intended to be a really detailed blog, but rather just give you some talking points to be engaging enough to make someone want to see what you can do for them.
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.