Agent’s Sales Journal June 2009

Medicare Advantage supporters in Congress are preparing to fight for an increase in the newly proposed 2010 reimbursement rates. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently said that the 2010 rates will be 0.8 percent greater than...

The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) has decided to expand its advocacy to include health and employee benefits. As a result, one of its conferences — the Association of Health Insurance Advisors (AHIA) —...

A new federal subsidy, part of the economic stimulus package that went into effect earlier this year, pays 65 percent of COBRA premiums for people who lost or will lose their jobs between Sept. 1, 2008 and the end of 2009. Before the subsidy,...

The Treasury Department has decided to give bailout money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to life insurance companies. In order to qualify for the funds, an insurer must own a federally chartered bank. Although several companies,...

At some point or another, we’ve all crossed paths with a “Top Dog” — that phenomenally successful insurance agent who never loses a sale. The celebrated financial advisor who has earned untold amounts of money for her firm....

This month, we spoke with several insurance agents who have maintained success in past recessions. These agents are successful even now, finding new ways to market, prospect, and sell. And all of the agents mentioned one key work habit that’s...

To paraphrase the marketing philosophy of a popular tool company, “Never sell a drill; always sell the advantages of having a hole whenever you want one.” Agents presenting an HSA to a client or prospect would do well to remember this...

For many, it was the quintessential rite of passage: Graduate from college, travel for the summer, and, when the fall rolls around, start a professional career rife with all the perks. Through the mid-1990s and into the early years of the new...

It’s been a tumultuous year for the insurance industry, and the health market has been no exception. Health care reform was a hot-button issue in the presidential campaign, as well as a major item in President Obama’s budget. The...

Even before the economy started its late-2008 nosedive, venture capitalist company Sequoia Capital made news when it distributed a 56-page PowerPoint presentation to all its business clients and prospects. This now-famous slide presentation,...

Some of the most successful agents I know are always expanding and leveraging their natural market. They know that their natural market should always be a source of new clients and other opportunities. So whether you go to networking events on a...

How would you respond to a prospect who says… "I don’t like the idea of putting money into an HSA that I might never need to use." “Once you understand what you can use the HSA money for, I think you will see the value...