Before you head-off for the long and well deserved Labor Day holiday, I would like to answer some of your questions and share a few thoughts.
Blog Comments & Questions
Your comments and questions are very important to me. I know that you are reading my Blog by the calls and emails that you’ve sent me or one of our marketers. You can comment directly on the Blog and ask your questions but if you would prefer that your thoughts not be in the public domain you can email me directly at barry@paradigmins.com. I do appreciate your remarks and questions as it provides me with grist for the mill which will be helpful to others.
For Instance
Several of you read my August 27th Blog entitled ‘A Cautionary Tale for Agents and Consumers‘ thinking that there is more than one company calculating its inflation protection on a net of claims basis. No, there is only one and it is mentioned towards the end of the post. I want to be very clear here. I’m not being critical of John Hancock. I’m a free market sort and if JH thinks that this is the best thing for them to do and the California Department of insurance was willing to approve the policy form than so be it. My only concern is for agents, who should be aware of this nuance and for consumers who are trying to make a reasoned choice between one LTCi plan or another. This is strictly a matter of disclosure to me and nothing more.
Two other questions came up in discussing this issue as well. One agent thought that the 5% compounded or simple increase only applies to the daily benefit chosen and was confused on how the benefit pool relates to this. In fact, the annual increase is applied to the daily (or monthly) benefit and is subsequently reflected in the pool of money. Therefore you can see how a benefit pool that isn’t being inflated on an equal basis with the daily benefit can cause the overall value of the policy to diminish more quickly. Finally, if you are selling lifetime benefits this issue doesn’t come into play.
Why Multiple Product Lines & Streams of Income‘
When I began my career with Metropolitan Life (not MetLife back then), I was one of their first multiple line agents. I sold auto and homeowners insurance along with life, disability and annuities. The idea 31 years ago was that an insurance agent should be a one-stop shop for the consumer’s primary insurance protection needs. As time passed we all seemed to create our own silos; life, health, disability, long-term care insurance annuities. In many regards we may have painted ourselves into a corner.
Don’t get me wrong; I doubt any of us made the wrong choice to specialize; I know I didn’t. However, all of the research that I’ve been reading of late tells me that today’s consumers don’t have time to work with five or six different insurance agents along with their investment advisor. So today’s specialized insurance agents and financial planners ought to consider broadening their horizons even if it is only to be able to recognize risks that their client’s face and opportunities for creating new income streams for themselves. In my mind, it seems prudent to have more than one foot on the ground to support our businesses and our families.
I know that it can be difficult to learn ‘new tricks’. Our staff has been working very hard this year to master new technologies and product lines that compliment our core competency, long-term insurance. And while traditional long-term care insurance will continue to be our primary focus we would like to be able to fill-in some of the gaps and offer various products that might just become an easy sale when we least expect it.
So as BJFIM/Paradigm moves into the end of 2007 and towards 2008, I see the ‘three legs’ of our proverbial stool being, traditional long-term care insurance, multi-life long-term care insurance and asset based life and annuity products that fulfill some portion of the long-term care need but in a non-traditional way. I believe that we have the capacity and the carriers to help you create multiple streams of income so that you too can have continued financial success.
REGISTER TODAY for our upcoming Multiple Streams of Income continuing education and sales meetings on September 25th and 26th. Discover how we can help you make create financial security of you and your clients.
Next week discover why multi-life long-term care insurance is better than true group.
Here’s wishing you a safe and relaxing holiday weekend.