Category Archive for : ‘Experts Corner’

Large amounts of life insurance are purchased every year after one realizes how their death would impact their families standard of living. Few people have given the same consideration in protecting their families in the event of a disability. The average worker faces a much higher risk of an extended disability than premature death. Yet disability insurance protection is one of the most overlooked and misunderstood forms of insurance.

When attending a disability awareness conference I was fortunate to hear a Financial Advisor address the audience. He stated that the first

The Individual Disability Income landscape has changed in two significant ways over the past few years. These two changes present an opportunity to Insurance Brokers who are interested in to taking advantage of them.

It’s also an opportunity to help your high income clients and prospects, in a consultative manner, protect their financial security.

Let’s first examine these two basic but significant changes, and then outline the opportunity these changes present.

Change Number 1:

There are fewer Insurance Agents, Brokers and other Financial Advisors discussing disability planning and disability insurance (abbreviated to DI for

If you do disability planning for your clients, then Critical Illness (CI) Insurance, needs to be considered an integral part of any complete Disability Insurance (DI) Plan.

If you do disability planning for your clients, then Critical Illness (CI) Insurance, needs to be considered an integral part of any complete Disability Insurance (DI) Plan. Both policies provide financial protection for an unforeseen injury or illness and they complement each other very well. In fact, in most cases, if you are selling DI without CI you are only covering half the problem!

An all-too-common occurrence in our industry is the fear of making telephone calls. It is a telling paradox in that the telephone is the primary tool of our profession. When I started as a stockbroker in 1980, I experienced major call reluctance. Night after night I sat on my couch with a knot in my stomach anticipating another agonizing day of wrestling with my fear of making phone calls. Over the next couple of years I learned to look at the telephone as a tool. As a result my fear

Producers who work closely with business owners most likely have discussed plans to continue their clients’ businesses in the event of death. A natural extension of this planning is to make business clients aware of two equally important needs that are often overlooked.

While many business owners plan for the survival of their businesses in the event of death, many don’t consider the effects of disability on the firm’s future. Or, like many of us, they just don’t believe they will ever become disabled.

Two types of coverage can help. Disability buy-out

When underwriting disability insurance, it is important to consider not only an applicant’s earned income (i.e., salary or business profits) but also his/her unearned income. Underwriters must take into consideration unearned income such as interest, dividends, alimony and rental or pension income that would continue to be received even if the insured stopped working. Consequently applicants with significant unearned income have a diminished need for disability coverage because the unearned income serves much like a disability policy benefit.

Most carriers feel that a small amount of unearned income is not a

Have you been part of sales calls consisting of the salesperson talking about themselves, their company and their product with very few questions directed towards the prospect? Usually this happens when the salesperson is not prepared for the sales call. He/she gets a trick question from the prospect like, “tell me about your company,” or “how do you stack up against XYZ?” The salesperson goes from being in control of the appointment to being controlled by the prospect.

Sales Superstars are like commercial airline pilots. They have a checklist that they

An often overlooked opportunity for those practitioners marketing group coverage as the foundation of their practices are the exposures that exist in the group products that the clients have purchased.

Indeed, in the case of disability income coverage, it is worthy of consideration by the group professional as there may very well be significant gaps that need filled, and holes that need to be addressed in the implemented group disability coverage. Very often those that are most exposed are the very decision makers that the professional may be working with on

Speed to issue is a closely watched statistic at many of the individual disability insurance carriers. The days of underwriting at a snails pace are over. Simplified applications, imaging, increased levels of coverage without medical testing requirements and changes to the financial documentation are just some of the reasons that IDI underwriting response is better than ever.

While the carriers are doing a great job positively impacting the process, an application, and therefore the underwriting process, begins with the financial professional.

Let’s examine the FAST protocol.

Field Underwriting
It’s a fact, the definition of

Stop and think. Let’s do a client profile. Think of your clients who are self-employed or part owners of a small company. Now think of these business owner clients who have 15 or fewer employees and are the primary generators of their business revenue. Okay, write down their names.

If you don’t have any yet, let me give you some examples: attorneys, architects, dentists, manufacturer’s reps, small retail shop owners, hairstylists, physicians, chiropractors, podiatrists, salesmen, financial planners, accountants and many more.

In reviewing your client’s insurance needs, have you touched on the