• Age and/or stage in life
• Income/Assets/Premium paying ability
• Dominant risk management need
• Health conditions
• Pertinent insurance or risk management programs currently in place

Helping consumers plan for risks they face requires that you ask some basic “information” questions.  “Fact-finding” need not be an onerous or lengthy process.  It’s most central element is having a conversation with a consumer to determine their world view on what’s important to them. Their opinions will inform your recommendations.  That being said I can offer some general “rules-of-thumb” which you may find useful.

1. Anytime you present term or universal life insurance to a client they should consider a program with an accelerated benefit rider for chronic illness. American General Life & Accident Insurance Company Quality of Life ….^SM Insurance products include this at no additional cost.  Accelerated benefits can also be elected in the event of critical and terminal illness.  This opens a world of planning options for you and provides the policyholder with more choices if an untimely event occurs.
   • By the way, today is your last chance to register for our first AGLA training web broadcast on April 26^th.  CLICK HERE — or paste this URL https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/594050065 into your browser for details and registration page.
2. Traditional long-term care insurance policies are exceedingly appropriate for consumers from their late 40′s through mid-60′s.  Business owners can take advantage of tax deductible premiums, tax-free benefits and simplified issue with as few as 7 employees.  Clients with the premium paying ability to solve multiple risk management issues with various products are well served by LTCi’s high benefit-to-cost relationship.
   • At the risk of belaboring a point, I’d like to reiterate that we are in fire sale mode with a number of our key long-term care insurance carriers.  We expect significant new business premium increases, particularly as it relates to 5% compound inflation protection, in the foreseeable future.
3. Single premium linked life product sales have been seen a marked increase over the past few years.  Typical of this sort of product are Genworth’s Total Living Coverage and Lincoln Financial’s MoneyGuard.  Consumers that consider these long-term care planning vehicles are generally older (60+), have considered traditional long-term care insurance and decided against it, and have invest-able assets close to $1,000,000.  Often they have set aside “safe money” in a CD as a hedge against a chronic or serious illness. This allows you to leverage those dollars in another safe vehicle that provides life and long-term care benefits.
4. A number of annual pay universal life insurance products now offer chronic illness ABR’s for relatively low cost. Our favorite is from Nationwide Insurance.  If a client is looking for a low cost UL with secondary guarantees why not provide them with the ability accelerate some or all of their death benefit in the event of a long-term care need?

There are other insurance products that include long-term care planning solutions; here’s a “sneak preview” of what you can expect in the coming months:

• Principal Financial’s non-can disability product, geared for the professional and white collar market, can include coverage for catastrophic disability, which is defined as the inability to perform two of six of the activities of daily living or suffering from a severe cognitive impairment.  This low-cost rider allows the insured to indemnify nearly 100% of their income should they suffer a catastrophic event.
• State Life offers a long-term care planning solution that allows clients to utilize money “locked-in” qualified accounts.  We have experts on staff that can guide you through this planning process. Contact me today for more details.

The world of long-term care planning solutions is expanding everyday. Consumers have choices and you have the opportunity do well by doing good things for them.  Contact us today at Barry J. Fisher/Paradigm Insurance Marketing.

barry@paradigmins.com

Let me start by providing you with a bit of background on American General Life and Accident Insurance Company.  ‘A’ Rated by A.M. Best Co, AGLA has been in business since 1900 and has more than 7 million in-force policyholders.  It’s origins date back to National Life of Tennessee (NLT) which was the original owner of the Grand Ole’ Opry.  In 1925 WSM (We Shield Millions) Radio of Nashville, also owned by the Opry, was among the first to advertise the need for life insurance over the airwaves.  Over the years NLT and a number of other insurance companies were merged into American General Corporation in 1968.  AGLA has more than 800 employees in Nashville and surrounding areas and services a wide range of insurance products.

AGLA’s Quality of Life ….^SM insurance products, while not a replacement for traditional LTCi, can provide policyholders of all ages added choices if they suffer a chronic, critical or terminal illness.  One does not have to die to qualify for these benefits and come at no additional cost to the insured. They are built-in benefits that allow the policyholder to accelerate some or all of the face amount and they can spend the money anyway they choose.

If a claim for accelerated benefits is filed, AGLA obtains medical records and other pertinent information in order to determine benefit qualification and the insureds likely life expectation.  This information is used to provide an offer of accelerated benefits based on the original request which can be as high as 95% (terminal illness).  The insured can then choose to take the offer or not. If they do, the death benefit and premium is reduced by the percentage of the death benefit accelerated.  In the case of universal life, cash value is also reduced proportionally.

Competitive rates make the AGLA products very attractive in their own right but this is not a spreadsheet sale.  You will want to spend time explaining the additional benefits of Quality of Life ….^SM Term and Universal life insurance products and work with clients to determine their needs.  The Consumer Choice Term (CCT) portfolio provides guaranteed rates and convertibility privileges. AGLA Choice Universal Life products have various features to meet client’s budgets and needs.  All include the ABR’s for chronic, critical and terminal illness.

And what’s in it for you the agent? Competitive compensation with a built in 20% commission bonus when you have exceeded $30,000 of paid annualized premium during a calendar year.  AGLA also has incentive programs and trips with qualification well in reach of most producers.  Paradigm offices will be offering broker, personal producing general agency and agency contracts.  Check with us to find out the requirements.

American General Life and Accident is a complete package for agents of all types.  Our first training web broadcast is on April 26 at 11:00am PDT. Register by CLICKING HERE, or paste this URL into your browser — https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/594050065.  The focus of this training will be the basics, accelerated benefit riders and term life products.  We will have a follow-up web training session on universal life in May.

American General Life and Accident Quality of Life ….^SM Term and Universal life insurance is great opportunity for agents at all levels of expertise.  We look forward to you being part of this new opportunity.

barry@paradigmins.com

In many regards this is why I decided to accept Mike Flynn’s offer to head-up the agency’s long-term care insurance department in 1991.  I realized that if I was going to transition from personal production to marketing I needed to differentiate amongst my peers.  It seems to have been a good decision and despite the bumps and bruises along the way, next to marrying my wonderful wife Susan, it was the best danger/opportunity that I’ve taken in my 35 year career.

If you’ve been reading this BLOG over the past few months you know that I’ve been ruminating on the consolidation and changes in long-term care insurance and the pricing issues.  As I’ve stated time and time again, traditional LTCi, from top line carriers, has been and continues to be one of the best risk management decisions that an agent can propose and that a consumer can make.  That being said, we know that many agents are reticent to talk about the need for long-term care planning and insurance and fewer consumers find traditional products affordable.

Late last year I decided to accept a personal challenge. Find new ways that consumers can plan for the risks associated with chronic (LTC) illness.  The writing was on the wall.  The Pension Protection Act opened the door for new solutions but because many of them continued to be targeted at reasonably healthy and wealthy seniors with investable assets, it was clear that I needed to find something more for middle class Americans and the tools for you to make it happen.

As I mentioned in my email announcement to the field this morning, Paradigm Insurance Marketing (which includes Paul Kaplan and Jeff Tackett) is please to represent American General Life & Accident Insurance Company. AGLA has designed Quality of Life ….^SM Term and Universal life insurance products that help consumers cope with the risks associatied with long-term care, critical and terminal illness.  Now, you can make your client’s premium dollars multi-task and one insurance policy can provide meaningful living benefits and options; an opportunity so to speak!

There are many more aspects of AGLA that I want to share with you in the coming days but it is important that you register for our April 26th web broadcast (CLICK HERE). During this webinar you will get the complete picture of how you can fit into this exciting new marketing and sales opportunity.  I hope that you can join us.

barry@paradigmins.com

• Eric Jacoby, CFP, is a financial planner who has made long-term care planning a must for his clients. For the past ten years Eric has consistently been one of our most productive brokers.  Eric has built his practice on networking with attorneys, CPAs and other financial planning professinals who value his expertise. No one gets away from Eric without hearing his sermon on the need for long-term care liquidity and how an unplanned for long-term care event can devestate even the most well conceived financial plan.
• Timothy Milaney,  CPCU, CLU, CIC, RHU, ChFC, CORS, PWCA, was our top producer in 2008.  His success is a result of one simple maxim; ask each and every client that if they have taken care of their long-term care planning.  If not, insist that they sit down and discuss it. Tim’s “One Responsible Source” business philosophy drives his desire to help his clients properly manage the financial risks they face.
• Mary Lou Reid, CFP & John Celantano are a financial planning tag-team who have been integrating long-term care insurance into their clients’ portfolios for more than twenty years.  John and Mary Lou have been industry leaders utilizing linked product solutions and have placed more than $25 million in asset based life and annuity long-term care combos.  Their insights will help you build the confidence you need to succeed in this fast growing segment of the long-term care insurance marketplace.
• Janet Madrigal, has come out of nowhere to become our fast-start wiz in 2010.  An insurance professional with varied and broad experience, Janet has made a serious committment to include long-term care insurance in each of her clients’ portfolios. We fully expect Janet to be in our top five for 2010.

What do all of these successful LTCi producers have in common?  They walk the walk and talk the talk!  They’ve included long-term care insurance into their day to day discussion of risk and financial planning and candidly, they don’t take “no” for an answer.  I’m also pleased to report that most use a number of the simplified sales tools that we’ve develped throughout the years to help make long-term care insurance simple to explain and understand.

And there’s an added bonus when you join us on March 11^th; during our Producer Panel, you’ll be able to partake in some great wines and enjoy gourmet chocolate from Tifa Chocolate in Agoura Hills.  Learning how to sell long-term care insurance doesn’t get much better than this!

CLICK HERE to read more about our Producer Panel and the rest of our top-flight presenters for our March 11^th meeting.

REGISTER TODAY and take advantage of our early bird pricing.  Space is filling quickly. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to get the competitive edge in all things long-term care insurance related.

barry@paradigmins.com

Underwriting Traditional & Combo LTCi — The Changing Game in Long-Term Care Risk Evaluation (course #238088) will provide you with insights into similarities and differences between traditional long-term care underwriting and the new combo products.  We know how difficult traditional long-term care insurance underwriting can be. The advent of life combo products adds the wrinkle of mortality to the morbidity piece that we’ve grown accustomed to.  Additionally, annuity combo products may provide us with a safe harbor of sorts for some of our most difficult underwriting challenges.  Understanding where each of the three products types works best can help you satisfy the client’s need for long-term care planning.  And there is no one better than Amy Chambers, Genworth Underwriting Manager, to be your coach in this arena.  This course is a must for any insurance and financial planning professional because it will make your life (as well as your clients’) a whole lot easier. 

Regardless of which product type you sell, the long-term care claims process is likely to come into play.  Long-Term Care Insurance Claims Practices — Where The Rubber Meets the Road in LTCi  (course #238087) is our second hour of continuing education on March 11th.  It is designed to give you clarity on claims adjudication so that you can confidently explain to prospects and clients what to expect.  The question of claims payment is one of the most often asked by agents and consumers alike and Renee Roberti-Klemenok, Genworth Claims Adjudicator will provide you with the tools and understanding necessary to sound like pro.

In addition to the two hours of classroom continuing education, attendees on March 11th will receive coupons for a big discount on two very important online continuing education classes from Lyte Speed Learning  (Provider #65579);  2004 California Long-Term Care 8-hour certification (course #146378) and Annuity Compliance 4-hrs (course #179938).  The discounted price of these online courses are $19.50 and $9.99 respectively.  This is a great value on courses that we all need to take every two years.  

Product, marketing, sales training, continuing education, networking, great food, wine and chocolate.  What more could you ask for in an agent’s insurance seminar?  REGISTER TODAY for this great event.  Space is limited and reservations are streaming in.  We look forward to seeing you on March 11th.

Where does this leave the typical consumer?  Ill served at best.  In the dark with an uncovered insurance risk at worst.  The smart planner will search out the information and broker that can help them but the simple truth remains that most don’t.  They either don’t understand or don’t know the problems that are headed their way. 

There is a confluence between my assertions above.  Many agents and most consumers are unaware of the expanding world of long-term care planning and insurance solutions that now exist.  Traditional long-term care insurance is no longer the only choice.  Brokers that focus on life insurance or annuities can now offer products with the advantage of long-term care coverage.  And traditional long-term care insurance agents may begin losing sales to their more nimble competition if they don’t move their game to a higher level.  The full implementation of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 means that financial and insurance professionals of all stripes are now playing in each other’s sandbox.  Either they will become fluent in how all of the various planning tools fit consumer’s needs or they will begin to lose sales, get sued by disgruntled clients and heirs or both.  Which category do you want to find yourself in?

It is because of this growth of new product types that we at BJFIM/Paradigm are changing our focus from long-term care “insurance” to long-term care “planning”.  Yes, we still make our living by helping you market and sell insurance products that indemnify against the long-term care risk.  But now the solution may include a life or annuity combo, traditional long-term care insurance or all three.  Sales will be won by those agents who can appropriately discuss the long-term care risk, help clients understand that planning for it makes sense and recommending the proper insurance solutions.

So does this mean that you’ll have to learn about new products and techniques that will help you assist your prospects and clients?  Afraid so. I’ve been at it for more than a year and our staff has as well.  And now that the provisions of the Pension Protection Act are fully in play insurance carriers are bringing new products online every month.  1035 Exchange opportunities will abound. Consumers will soon learn that they can use latent cash values in existing life or annuity products to provide themselves with life, retirement and long-term care security.  These folks will represent the low-hanging fruit for the agile agent. The question is, will you be the on the receiving or short end of the exchange process? 

As always our plan is to make it easy for you to succeed in all things involved in long-term care planning.  That’s why on March 11, 2010 we will be hosting a seminar that will help you become a master of this new world.  Join us for Links To Long-Term Care Planning Success, a day complete with product, marketing and sales ideas, continuing education credits and a whole lot more.  You won’t want to miss this opportunity to meet with our entire staff and our friends from Genworth Financial an industry leader in traditional and linked long-term care insurance products and planning.  

Take advantage of our early bird tuition and don’t forget, space is limited. Our meeting in October sold out so you want to reserve your seat today.  Click Here to get a complete program guide and register today!  We look forward to seeing you on March 11.

barry@paradigmins.com

The long-term care sales success “game” will be won by agents who are fluent in long-term care planning as well as those who can juggle multiple types of products. Traditional long-term care insurance agents will want to understand when and where linked products are appropriate.  Brokers who focus on life insurance will need to learn how an ABR for chronic illness can help their clients solve part or all of their long-term care need. Annuity specialists will want to consider how consumers with traditional annuity products may be able to take advantage of the new linked benefit offerings.  The opportunities in long-term care planning have just expanded exponentially; are you ready to multiply your sales? 

Join the Paradigm Insurance Marketing team and Genworth Financial on March 11, 2010 to discover the new universe of long-term care planning techniques and products. No insurance carrier and brokerage general agency are better positioned to help you capitalize on these new opportunities.  Here’s the short list of what you’ll learn:

       Life and long-term care insurance industry insights from Robert Eckhardt, Genworth Financial Senior V.P.                  

       Comprehensive product reviews for traditional and linked long-term care insurance as well as life and annuity products.

       One-hour continuing education session on traditional and linked long-term care insurance underwriting.

       One-hour continuing education session on the long-term care claims process.

       Top producer panel with a focus on opening new cases, presenting and positioning linked and traditional products and closing sales.

       Discounted online continuing education package from Lyte-Speed Learning

       Networking lunch + afternoon wine, cheese and gourmet chocolate tasting

       Discounts for 12-hours of online continuing education training from Lyte-Speed Learning

       Raffle prizes and much more

FOR A COMPLETE PROGRAM & REGISTRATION click on the link.  Take advantage of our early registration tuition.  Also, please note that space is absolutely limited at the Woodland Hills Country Club. I mention this because we had to turn some folks away for our October 2009 seminar and registrations for this event are coming in daily.

Susan, Paul and I thank you for your business and look forward to seeing you on March 11, 2010.

barry@paradigmins.com

I’d like to invite you to join us on October 8, 2009 for our fall broker meeting. We have an all-star line-up of insurance company presenters, product, sales and marketing information and six hours of continuing education, designed to help you discover and master the new world of long-term care planning.

CLICK HERE to download a complete event program and register today.  Space is limited and “early bird” registrants get the advantage of discounted pricing.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

barry@paradigmins.com

As an introductory offer we have arranged a 20% discount on LyteSpeed’s online 8-hour LTC-2004 continuing education course. This is the underlying 8-hour course that you must take in order to sell long-term care insurance in California.  After the discount your cost for the online 8-hour course will only be $19.49!

You will need a promotional code and instructions to receive the discount. Please contact your BJFIM/Paradigm marketer today for the details and make sure you ask them about which of our products are in FIRE SALE mode and why now is the best time to be talking to your clients about long-term care insurance.

barry@paradigmins.com