Happy Anniversary
New Generation is celebrating our 30th anniversary this year. Thank you to all of our customers who made it a great ride so far. Looking forward to the next 30!
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More Life Insurance sales for the Non-Professional
Did you know we sell Life Insurance?
I have been helping a number of property and casualty agents develop more life sales. This idea can work for any agent or agency not specializing in life insurance. Many agents wait for the customer to bring up life insurance and then react.
This simple question: “did you know we sell life insurance? ” has opened many cases. I have one P&C agency that sends out a 250,000 term life quote with every auto and homeowners quote. It gets the conversation started and has resulted in a steady stream of cases. Some with substantial premiums.
They use our online drop ticket application process. It is quick and easy and frees up time. New Generation and the insurance company take it from there. What a great way to increase revenue! All you have to do is ask.
Give it a try.
Jeff Skolnik
Marketing Manager
Hot New Annuity for Short Term Cash
We have a new product for people looking for a short term decent interest rate. Lots of people are looking for safe returns.
Great American’s NEW SecureGain 3 fixed annuity will be available for sale Monday, September 23. This product offers:
- 2.5% for three years, no matter how the market performs
- Option to surrender without penalty at the end of the first three-year term or begin a new three-year term*
- Flexibility with 10% penalty-free withdrawals
Reach out to Jeff Skolnik (ext. 1219) or your New Generation marketing manger for more annuity information.
Is Cheapest always Best?
Is Cheapest always best?
Should we always sell the cheapest product, or should we look for reasons to sell a product and solution that may better fit a client’s long term need as well as one that has a good chance of not blowing up on the consumer?
Insurance needs often run longer than consumers originally think they might. Here are some things, besides price, that should be considered when working on potential sales.
What are some characteristics of a carrier/product we should be looking at?
Offers good conversion options…Good products and conversion available for a reasonable period
Has good guarantees in their permanent protection-based products
Offers unique/interesting riders or features to their customers
Premium sensitivity should be taken into account
Permanent accumulation products have reasonable guarantees and good cash out options.
What are some characteristics of carriers/products we should be concerned with?
Carriers that limit conversions to products that are not consumer friendly
Short term conversion options
Carriers that have significantly raised rates on their existing conversion products or created new conversion products that did not exist when term insurance was purchased
Carriers that have raised mortality rates on in force business and are still selling “trust me” products
Carriers with mediocre financials
Products that can’t be supported by the current interest rate environment for the long term
Contact your New Generation Marketing Manager for help picking the “right” product for your customer!
Is it Fire Sale Time?
In 2020, new reserve requirements take effect. Most products will be replaced by their respective carriers. It is expected that these new products will be more expensive than their current counterparts.
If you are working with a client who is price sensitive or one that wants to maximize cash value, it would be a good idea to get those applications in ASAP.
Insurance Made Easy
Have you ever thought it was too expensive or time consuming to write smaller term cases? We have as well. Try using a simple online drop ticket platform. We use Express Complete.
Regardless of the carrier you choose (among those on the platform), you will complete the same few simple pages for your client. It takes no more than 5 minutes and BOOM…The application is on it’s way.
Check with your New Generation Marketing Manager for more information…
818-920-1777
Email Security in the Life Insurance Brokerage Arena
Email is secure, right? Well, maybe, sometimes, and maybe not.
Is a lot of unsecure email finding its way into the wrong hands? Umm no, probably not, but it could.
What’s the big deal? Well, if you send an email and it ends up in the wrong hands, plenty! Fines, lawsuits and other penalties are possible if sensitive information you send (and maybe receive) gets into the wrong hands.
How do I protect myself? Ahah, that’s the issue at hand.
Regular email, sent from many of the major email providers, have no guarantee of security. The providers that do offer security are usually in the form of TLS. Keeping it simple, TLS works great if you have it and so does the recipient on the other end. The problem is most TLS is set up as opportunistic. That means that it will go through secure if TLS exists on both sides, but if not, it will still go through as an unsecure email. There are websites, such as checktls.com, where you could go and see if your recipient has TLS, but few senders check before they send sensitive email. TLS can be configured to only go through if the recipient has it, but that can be problematic if you need to get something to someone with an unsecure account. Many believe that just sending a TLS encrypted email covers your liability, but that is not clear. At the very least, you should be using a provider that encrypts with TLS, even if you use additional security.
By Tony Cravitz, CLU
The Life Settlement Market Is Alive and Well!
For a while, after the financial crisis, the life settlement market had become non-existent as investors were licking their wounds and life expectancy was discovered to be longer than anticipated in many cases. We have recently completed several cases and are about to wrap up another using a top life settlement brokerage firm that has access to all the registered buyers in a given state. Using an auction process they are able to maximize the offers that your clients receive. Cases that would not have received offers a few years ago are now getting a substantial payout. Recently life expectancy rates have changed, but we are still seeing competitive offers made.
Both recent cases were older males, 89, with UL policies where the cash values were already stripped from their policies and the policies would lapse if a substantial premium was not paid. The insureds involved did not wish to make the premium payment and thus both were perfect opportunities for a life settlement where they could walk away with a substantial amount on policies that would have been allowed to lapse.
In another case we got a substantial settlement for a male in his seventies whose policy had been affected by changing mortality rates imposed by the carrier.
All three cases led to substantial payouts to the insureds and nice commissions for the agents. If you have an elderly client having trouble making premium payments or who no longer has a need for their insurance, and has some health issues that may limit their life expectancy, consider looking into life settlements.
By Allen Bader and Tony Cravitz, CLU