Agent’s Sales Journal April 2009
Front Page Stories
A troubled economy and uncertain finances require individuals to make sacrifices, budget cuts, and d...
A new product in the life settlement market could provide another option for clients who want to cas...
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Short Takes
The LIFE Foundation has an entire catalog of educational and marketing materials available for members to use during Disability Insurance Awareness Month. Following are five sales supplements other advisors have used in the past, along with the...
New research by Spectrem Group, a consulting firm specializing in retirement markets, tested retirement plan participants' knowledge and perceptions of three ways to convert retirement assets into cash....
According to a recent report by the U.S. Institute of Medicine, more Americans will soon be losing their health insurance. ...
Fixed annuity sales increased 79 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, marking a record-setting $109.4 billion figure, keeping overall annuity sales growing, according to a report by LIMRA. Variable annuity (VA) sales, however, declined 30 percent...
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke recently told House members that creating an optional federal charter id ...
President Obama recently released his budget plans, which include significant cuts in payments to hospitals, insurance ...
In these difficult economic times, it may be more important than ever for financial professionals to help their clients focus on the importance of adequate income protection. Recently, I discussed some of the market issues we are facing with two...
Underwriting plays a critical role in properly insuring clients for their income protection needs. It can sometimes be frustrating, however, for both you and your clients, if there are delays in the process. If you’re new to getting...
When you ask your clients to name their most valuable asset, chances are their immediate answer would be their home or car. But dig deeper — what is it that allows them to claim their home or car as their most valuable asset? The answer is:...
As we all know, most advisors shy away from selling DI. “The underwriting is too time-consuming” is one common complaint. “Besides, the product’s too complex.” Push aside those grievances for a second, and consider...
With our country facing its most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression, consumers are deeply concerned about their financial futures and are seeking ways to achieve and maintain basic financial security. They are cutting expenses, as...
Florida officials and insurance professionals have been butting heads over the “Safeguard Our Seniors Act,” a bill that limits the surrender-charge period for certain annuities, and caps the surrender charges at 5 percent of the...
Sales Review
Whether you embrace email as a critical communication tool or view it as impersonal and intrusive, it would be short-sighted to claim that email is not a fundamental part of 21st century life. In fact, 234 trillion emails were sent in 2007,...
Perspectives
I use Facebook. I actually use it pretty frequently, and while I’m not sure how I feel about that, I’ve come to rely upon it to help me stay in touch with my friends and share interesting content I come across on the Internet (news...
This week, I had the scare of a lifetime: My mailman dropped off my monthly 401(k) statement. With the envelope in my trembling hand, what immediately flashed through my mind was not my depleted nest egg. Rather, I thought about all the clients I...
One of my financial advisor friends recently said to me, “My business is off ‘X’ percent, but that’s not bad considering that I’ve spoken to other advisors and their business is down more than mine.” Hear me...
Selling Guides
“The Times They are a-Changin’” was a signature song for Bob Dylan in the 1960s. It was true then as the baby boomers marched forward in time, and it is even truer now as the members of Generation Y continue to age and find their...
There’s a little-known product that can boost your income by $60,000 or $70,000 a year. It’s an easy-to-sell policy that helps you both make new clients and serve your existing ones even better than your competition. And it’s...
Ask many investors — or financial professionals, for that matter — what an annuity is, and you’ll typically receive a laundry list of the product’s limitations. This may be because annuities remain largely unknown despite...
It’s hard to find a silver lining in the clouds that descended over the financial markets in late 2008. One ray of light, however, is the heightened interest among shell-shocked investors in annuities, thanks to the guaranteed income and...
Read any industry publication and you’ll see that the buzz is about retirement income solutions. The choices include variable annuities (VAs) offering a range of different living benefits, target date mutual funds, and payout mutual funds, all...
You’ve probably been told before to make lemonade when life gives you lemons. But it’s hard to lift a sour mood when each client or prospect you talk with is unhappy. The bottom line is that unprecedented market challenges have...
Do you feel like you are in the midst of a firestorm of negativity regarding annuities — one that might affect your production and planning objectives? Ranging from the Suze Ormans of the world to the Dateline NBC exposé on equity...
It can be difficult to sort through all the annuity companies in the business and choose the one that best meets your needs. Are you interested more in the quality of their sales and marketing material or their leads and prospecting help? Do you...
The past 12 months have been big for the annuity market. As indexed annuities face more and more media and government scrutiny......
Marketing
Stephanie Cohen has no problem networking — in fact, she’s a real pro. As CEO of the health benefits firm Golden & Cohen, Cohen takes networking to an entirely new level. In October, she hosted the DC Health Summit, a meeting of...
Products
Recent state and federal training mandates for long term care insurance (LTCI) have created a perfect compliance storm for producers. Today, the industry is struggling to make sense of the LTCI training dilemma in order to continue making this...
The economic downturn has significantly reduced the values of both investment portfolios and real estate. Unfortunately for many seniors, retirement income and estate values have followed. As a result, this is an ideal time to review your senior...
Prospecting Corner
We know that your advertising options include the newspaper, church and association newsletters, Yellow Pages, and billboards. Oh, and, of course, there are always blimps and skywriters to reach those who look upward, and crop circles to reach those...
Objection of the Month
How would you respond to a prospect who says… I think another retirement vehicle would suit my needs better ...