It’s not often you get one more day!

Every  four years, we get one more day to live!  February 29th only comes on leap year and it is a great time to consider what you would do if you had one more day.  If you have read any of my previous blogs, you know where this is going!

When your time comes and you have left this earth, what would you have done if you had one more day? Surely a flood of fun activities would run through your head along with spending more time with the ones you love.  Maybe you would take a trip to the beach, the mountains or jump out of a plane.  The possibilities are endless and can lead to some great discussions.  However, I am betting that life insurance would not be something you thought of (unless you are me).  Humor me for a minute.

If you had one more day, would you buy more life insurance to help the people you leave behind continue to live the life they have today? I would and I bet you would too! I would buy as much as the company would let me buy if I knew I was leaving this earth tomorrow.  Who wouldn’t? You would literally be using pennies to buy dollars and that is a good deal no matter how may days you have left!

The good news is that statistically speaking, we are probably not leaving the earth tomorrow.  The better news is that we can still use pennies to buy dollars and we can do it 365 days (366 this year) a year!  Unless you are terminally ill, you don’t have a clue how many years you will be on this earth and that is why it is a good idea to have life insurance. It allows you to preserve the past and protect the future like no other investment you have.

I hope you have a wonderful day on February 29th and I also hope you consider life insurance on that day! If you are an insurance advisor, make it a point to call a couple of clients and ask they what they would do with one more day.  If you are not an advisor, think about talking to your advisor about your life insurance portfolio.  Make sure you don’t need the extra day when it is too late!

Happy Leap Year!

What can we learn from Whitney Houston?

No doubt the news you hear today is filled with stories of the early death of pop star Whitney Houston.  It is another tragic end to a life cut too short.  I am not speculating on how she died or why.  I simply want to point out that life can end very suddenly for anyone at anytime!  That is the life insurance advisor in me.

While I have to admit I was not a big follower of Ms. Houston, I can see from the sheer number of reports, blogs and posts that there were a lot of people who were very fond of her. It is my hope that some good can come from this tragedy and that it will keep others from making the same mistakes.

As a life insurance fanatic, the first thing that came to my mind was I wonder how much life insurance this 48yr old woman had and if she had done any estate planning.  When people die this young, many times estate planning has not crossed their mind.  There are plenty of stories out there that highlight this statement. In fact, we have used this fact in one of our marketing pieces.  It is called Even More Lessons From Famously Bad Estate Planning and we give it out to financial advisors in hopes that they will use the facts to help them convince their clients to plan.  The piece does the selling for you! You give it to your clients and they take about 10 minutes to look it over and then you ask them to tell you about their estate planning.  Hopefully they can tell you their exact plans.  Chances are that they cannot.  If not, you know what to do next. 

Want a few copies?  Simply email my assistant Heather Toliver (htoliver@tba.com) and she will mail them to you.

Again, I don’t want to minimize the death of Whitney Houston but it does give us the chance to talk to clients about what we do and why we do it.  We are there in the lowest point in people’s lives and can give them support like no other profession.

K.I.S.S.

K.I.S.S. is an acronym that has been around for a long time.  Keep It Simple Stupid has been used in almost every industry and just about anyone you talk to will know what you are referring to when you say “KISS.” 

Just this week I was reminded that KISS really is true.  We did a local seminar for our advisors and the presenting company came in and gave a very simple message about life insurance and how many different ways it can help clients protect their lives.  It was not very “technical” and it did not show creative ways to use the tax laws, trusts or product features.  It was simply about helping advisors find sales.  During the presentation, I was secretly thinking it was going to bomb.  Guess what? Our advisors told me it was one of the best meetings we had done!  Shows what I know.

How about using KISS when you are working with your clients, prospects and suspects?  A majority of Americans simply need more insurance and most would buy if asked.  A recent article in InsuranceNewsNet magazine stated that 39% of Americans recall being asked to buy insurance in the past two years!  You can see the article here.  That is a buying signal for the sellers of insurance!  Read the article and you will see that people want to buy insurance but no one is asking.  Start asking but don’t go in with all of the advance sales concepts that you know.  Start by simply finding out what they have and what they need.  In fact, use a simple one page needs analysis from the LIFE Foundation to get stared.  You can download it for free by clicking here. 

KISS is alive and well in the insurance industry!  Take time to practice it and you will see your sales grow in 2012!

Sell the rating…a true story!

No one likes to go back to their client and tell them the life insurance coverage that they applied for has been approved at a higher rate than what they applied for on the application.  In the brokerage business, we call this a “rating” and many times it will end in a closed case with no coverage being placed on the client.  However, if you will take the extra step, you can make a big difference…read on.

Recently we received two applications for two business partners.  It was the typical buy/sell coverage where the insurance was going to be used to buy-out the surviving partners spouse.  After the underwriting process, one of the two partners was declined for coverage.  At the agents request, we “shopped” the case with our other carriers and were fortunate enough to get a Table D rating or 200% of standard mortality. However, the client thought the premium was too high and wanted to “wait for his calcium scores to go down” and reapply in the Spring.  After closing the case, I decided to call the advisor and ask him to consider putting a smaller portion on the client just to cover the need until “we could get a better offer in the Spring.”  After thinking about it for a couple of days, he called back and asked that we issue the full amount and they would pay for it semi-annually.  We had the policy issued and placed in August.  Great work Mr. BGA …right? 

The client died of a massive heart attack in September of that same year.  After some normal investigation, the insurance company paid $1,500,000 of death benefit to fund the buy/sell!  This is why you sell the rated case because unfortunately Spring never came for this client but his wishes were carried out through the life insurance.

So how do you sell are rated case?  It is not easy and sometimes a few tips can help you ease the pressure.  We have a publication called The Secrets to Selling Rated Risks and it is yours for the asking!  Why would we give it away for free?  Because I know first-hand how important life insurance is to families and businesses and I want to help you protect them.  Simply email me at jfelton@tba.com and I will send you a copy!

In the meantime, please try to sell the rated case and then you can try to get them a better offer later.

Life Insurance for the living?

You have heard the radio ads and probably heard me say “life insurance is for the people who are left behind.”  While that is true, there are other ways that life insurance can be used to benefit the actual insured…and they don’t have to die to get it!

This morning I was talking to a friend of mine who happens to be a life insurance agent (he was a friend before he was an agent but that is a whole different story).  He was talking to me about Key Person insurance and wanted to sell some to a client who ran a very successful company.  He had already gotten a 20yr level term quote so I asked him about selling the client Return of Premium (ROP) coverage.  He said he had looked at it too but it was “twice as expensive” and he thought he would simply show him the 20yr level plan.  Then it hit him!  “Wait, the business can get the entire premium back?”  It was the “aha moment” I was looking for.  He realized that he had the perfect sale…a successful business who wants to cover a key employee and can afford to pay the extra premium with the assurance that they would get 100% of it back.  They could then use that premium to fund a retirement benefit for the client.  That…my friends…is the perfect ROP sale!

Before you start giving me reasons why he should not do this, I know there are other options out there that may work but this is a pretty clean transaction.  There are no losers in this sale and you have a company that has covered a need and all they will lose is the interest they could have gained on that additional premium dollar if it were invested.  In this economy, that is not very much!

There you have it!  Life insurance for the living and it is not a very complicated idea.  If you are talking to a business or you are a business that needs Key Person coverage and you can afford the premiums, ROP is a great option! 

I just wish we sold more of it!!  Maybe 2012 is our year?

Let Resolutions Ring!

It is the time of year where we all decide we are going to make some changes.  New Years Resolutions are things that are easy to make but rarely succeed as a year-long commitment mainly because they are not realistic or take us outside of our comfort zone.  Why not make a resolution that you can keep and you will feel better about actually accomplishing it!  It is simple and anyone can do it.  Ready?

Life Insurance! What did you expect? I am a life insurance fanatic because I have read too many stories where it was not a priority and the families or businesses were left to fend for themselves in one of the darkest points of their lives.  Don’t do that to the ones you love!  Rather than make resolutions to get your life in order, this year I want you to commit to getting your life insurance in order.  Whether you are an advisor that works with TBA, a career agent or an individual who is not in the life insurance business, make it a point to get your life insurance in order.  It may only take a phone call or a couple of meetings and you will feel better about yourself (and you don’t have to sweat to do it!).

Here is a quick way to jump-start your resolution! Click on this link http://www.lifehappens.org/life-insurance-needs-calculator/ and you can quickly tell if you have enough coverage.  The calculator was created by The LIFE Foundation and you can find a ton of good information about life insurance on their site!  Again, it does not matter if you make a living selling life insurance or simply need life insurance, this site has some great tools.

There you have it! A quick resolution that anyone can do without having to worry about failing.  Of course if you don’t do it and the unexpected happens, someone else may have to worry about how they are going to pay the bills.  Don’t let that happen.  Get your life insurance in order!  As the great Will Rogers said “Anyone who dies without life insurance should have to come back and see the mess they created.”

Now pass me the doughnuts because I only have a couple of more days to eat them!!

Happy New Year!

The Gift of Life Insurance?

I am going to go out on a limb here and bet that you don’t know anyone who has ever given or received a life insurance policy for Christmas or Hanukkah!  I certainly never have given or received it during the holidays!  I am sure my children would not be very happy to unwrap that gift!

However, life insurance has been a great gift to me and my family! Specifically I am talking about the life insurance industry.  I have been very fortunate to be part of something that I truly believe in and I throughly enjoy helping others through this great industry.  Whether it is helping an advisor’s client get the coverage they did not think they could afford or simply finding coverage they did not think they could qualify for, I truly believe life insurance is a great way to earn a living.  Where else can you truly affect someones life in such a positive way?

Therefore, I am truly thankful for the gift I have been given from the life insurance industry and I look forward to helping other people discover the great things that can come from being involved in this industry.  In my world, life insurance is truly the gift that keeps on giving! 

May you have a wonderful holiday season…but get ready because 2012 will be here soon and we all have to start making sales again!!

Have you paid your dues?

This is the time of year when I receive most of the renewal applications from the various insurance industry associations that either myself or our company holds memberships.  Like most people, I look at these and think to myself, “what am I really getting out of these?”  Sometimes the answer is easy and other times I question whether we are wasting our money.

Truth is, all of them are valuable in some way because they are people who are carrying the water for our industry!  These associations are the first ones to respond when Congress is considering changing something for the insurance industry. Whether it is taxation of internal cash value build-up, taxation of life insurance death benefits or something else that will negatively affect our liveliehood in the insurance business, these associations are on Capitol Hill talking to the people who make the laws.  Without insurance associations, who knows what type of industry we would have today.

Are you a member of an insurance association?  I don’t care which one you choose but choose one (or more).  If you are not, you need to join one.  How do you expect to have your voice heard when the next piece of legislation comes down the road (and it will)?  We all need to do our part to protect this great industry and also protect the current advantages our customers have because of life insurance.  No other vehicle can do what life insurance can do in the time of need and that is worth protecting.  Don’t expect “someone else” to take care of this.  Help yourself and our industry by joining an association.  Again, I don’t care which one…just join!

I am currently a member of AALU, FSP, NAIFA, NAILBA and I can assure you I am not active in all of them but I pay my dues so that they can do their job to protect our industry.  All of these associations are looking for members and you could be the one they are looking for.  If you would like more information on any of them, simply contact me and I can find someone to help you.

It is time to pay your dues!  If you already are, thank you!!

What am I missing here?

As a Brokerage General Agent, we are focused on helping the advisors we work with try to create sales.  Whether it is through a seminar, webinar or simply sharing a sales idea, we want to help them succeed.  It has worked pretty good  since 1959 but what am I missing?  I think I am missing the fact that we are so focused on helping them create sales that we are not focusing on making sure our advisors are taking care of themselves.

In my past posts, I have talked about the fact that 82% of americans are under-insured.  Guess what, many advisors are part of that group!  Therefore, I want to offer a simple idea…buy more insurance on yourself before you ask others to buy.  I am giving you a link to a simple one page Needs Analysis from the LIFE Foundation and I challenge you to fill it out on yourself.  If you have a need, buy some insurance and protect those who rely on your sales.  You will feel better and you may just be inspired to sell more insurance to others.

Take my challenge by clicking this link: www.tba.com/pdf/needsanalysis.pdf.  You have nothing to lose!

Split Second Decisions – Have a plan!

Today I was awoken at 3:34 a.m. to my home alarm blaring and my wife jumping out of bed. At that moment, I had multiple thoughts going through my groggy head and I was wondering how I was going to protect my family.  As I got into our den, I saw the door to the porch was open and again I was reminded that I had to people counting on me to keep them safe.  About that same time, I felt a big gust of wind and realized that it was the wind that had blown open our unlocked and unlatched door.  False alarm!

After locking the door and settling back in for a couple of hours sleep, my wife looked at me and said “we need to have a plan”.  She was talking about a plan to protect our children should this not be a false alarm.  Of course she was correct (she usually is) and having a plan is important.  We are going to talk about this sometime other than 3:34 a.m.

As a life insurance fanatic, I immediately thought about life insurance and what would happen if someone did not have a plan.  What would happen if they did not have time to make split second decision?  Would their family be prepared to face the future without them?  Emotionally I can tell you it would be hard but financially it would be much harder.  The statistics we read today tell us that people are not ready for those split second decisions.  Consider this:  If 33% of Americans have $0 life insurance and 82% don’t have enough, how are the ones they leave behind going to make it? 

As the great Will Rogers once said, “Anyone who dies without life insurance should have to come back and see the mess they have created.”

Please take the time to make sure your family, your clients and your friends have a plan.  No one knows when the wind is going to blow and their time on this earth is up.  Remember, life insurance is not for the ones who die it is for the ones who live!