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CALL US 866-382-7307 Quote – http://onlineseniorlifeinsurance.com/senior-life-insurance-questions-and-answers/ Senior Life Insurance Questions and Answers Phone Number.
As is true with many plans, life insurance plan policy can be obscure. Many individuals do not want to buy insurance plan unless they need it. The first question a customer needs to answer is, do I need life insurance?
Who needs life insurance?
Or Visit here https://www.gerberlife.com
Whether or not a personal needs insurance plan relies on the financial situation. If a personal does not have any dependents, he or she may not need insurance plan. But even a single personal may want to have a plan that would pay off any debts he or she had and takes care of his or her final expenses. Couples or individuals with children will definitely want a plan to protect the financial interests of their loved ones if something were to happen to them. If a person’s wage or position within close relatives members is something that would be greatly missed in the event of his or her loss of life, life insurance plan policy is a wise decision.
How much life insurance plan policy should you buy?
There is no principle that works for every personal since each situation is different. The quantity of life insurance plan policy a customer needs relies on his or her income, the number of individuals that depend on the person, any debts that he or she is responsible for paying, the general life of close relatives members and many other factors. The easiest and most general guideline is to buy a plan that is somewhere between five and ten times more than the annual wage of close relatives members.
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Whenever a customer wants to purchase insurance plan of any kind, it is a wise decision to understand some of the conditions involved in the plan. There are many different types of insurance plan and those looking for coverage will want to make sure they get the right kind.
-Whole Life
This plan is the most traditional. The rates on the plan stay the same for the entire life insurance of the plan. The plan is good until the loss of life of the covered personal, even after all of the rates have been paid. There is also a cash reserve built up within the plan, but the covered personal has no say in how that money is invested.
-Variable Life
These guidelines build up cash reserves that family members can invest in a number of ways through the plan provider. The value of the plan relies on how well close relatives members chooses investments and how they do on the market.
-Universal Life
On this plan, the premium expenses can vary because part of the earnings that are accumulated on the existing funds may cover a portion of the expenses. The covered personal can also choose the quantity of the loss of life benefit and change that quantity over the years. This plan is the most flexible, but covered individuals will pay for that flexibility in higher fees.
There is no right or wrong insurance plan or term plan, but there are plenty of options to consider.
Damiso Lockhart writes for My Insurance Expert, which will help you find term that fits all of your personal needs. The world of life insurance plan policy doesn’t have to be challenging. Damiso is helping to clarify these challenging topics in laymen conditions.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board wants insurers to measure the value of the market risk benefits they have promised and put changes in that value in the other comprehensive income total. (Photo: Thinkstock)
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has proposed a rule change that could make insurers’ finances look worse now that interest rates are low but could make their finances look better when rates start to rise.
The Norwalk, Connecticut-based group has posted a draft of “Financial Services — Insurance (Topic 944),” a proposed accounting standards update that would affect accounting for long-duration contracts.
The draft standard change could affect accounting for annuities, life insurance, long-term care insurance, long-term disability insurance and any other products that involve promises to pay benefits far in the future.
The draft would change the rules governing discount rates, or the rate-of-return assumptions insurers use to estimate how much cash they will take in and how much they will have to pay out in connection with future policy benefits.
In the draft, which is based on comments on a document FASB posted in 2013, the board proposes requiring insurers to use a discount rate based on yields on high-quality bonds and other high-quality fixed-income investments when they report on their finances.
Related: FASB proposes new accounting for insurance contracts
An insurer would report on the amount of market risk benefits it has promised, calculate how changes in yields on high-grade bonds have affected the value of the market risk benefits, and include changes in the value in a figure called “other comprehensive income.”
The “other comprehensive income” figure is similar to the “net income” figure but includes the effects of some changes in investment asset values that a company can keep out of net income.
Today, an insurer locks in a discount rate assumption when it sells a long-duration product. An insurer is supposed to update the assumptions and create premium deficiency reserves when big changes in investment yields conflict with the original discount rate assumptions.
FASB is also proposing changes in the rules governing deferred acquisition costs.
FASB says it wants to use a new measuring tape for measuring insurer liabilities because the current approach relies on stale, speculative information. (Image: Thinkstock)
FASB draft may start a new mark-to-market battle
Today, “for certain contracts, the insurance liability is measured using out-of-date assumptions,” FASB says in a bulletin discussing the draft. “Also, an expected investment portfolio yield is used to discount the liability.
The proposed approach would be based on real-life investment yields, rather than predictions, and insurers would update their discount-rate assumptions at least every year, FASB says.
“Premium deficiency (or loss recognition) testing would be eliminated,” FASB says.
Interest rates have fallen sharply since the 1990s. The FASB proposal could lead to a cut in other comprehensive income for insurers that have sold large amounts of products such as long-term care insurance and long-term disability insurance without keeping discount rate assumptions up-to-date, but it could also push insurers’ other comprehensive income up rapidly if and when rates rise.
FASB and other bodies have often backed efforts to require companies to do more to mark the value of financial totals to reflect current market conditions.
In the past, the Washington-based American Council of Life Insurers and other insurance groups have suggested that applying broad mark-to-market accounting rules to insurers could lead to confusing fluctuations in insurers’ financial reports.
“We look forward to reviewing the proposed changes,” a company representative said in a statement about the new draft.
Comments on the draft are due Dec. 15.
Related:
Insurance Group Asks FASB and IASB to Withdraw Accounting Guidance
Insurance Accounting Proposals are “Flawed and Unworkable,” Says Trade Group
A survey by Willis Towers Watson shows that retirement income planning is “urgently needed.” (Photo: Thinkstock)
Nearly 1 in 5 employers plan to offer lifetime income solutions to their workers in 2017 or later years. The top reason for doing so: to help employees convert their accumulated defined contribution plan balances to a guaranteed lifetime retirement income stream.
These are among the key findings of a Willis Towers Watson “Lifetime Income Solutions Survey.” Completed by nearly 200 HR, benefit and finance executives, the study shows that retirement income planning is “urgently needed.” Among the options employers are eyeing to fulfill these planning needs are insurance-backed solutions — fixed, fixed indexed and variable annuities — that can provide a guaranteed lifetime income.
This Willis Towers Watson infographic highlights survey data findings on current lifetime income solutions usage, challenges faced by employers and available solutions.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton are introduced during the presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2016. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Jobs and wages. Taxes and Social Security. Student debt and retirement. Child care.
These are just a few of the crucial areas in which the policies of the next president will affect the financial security of all Americans, and on which ABC’s Martha Raddatz and the town hall audience is likely to quiz Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the next debate.
Here’s a cheat sheet laying out the two main candidates’ positions on some of these issues and, since there’s no time like the present, tips on shoring up your finances no matter who wins.
Jobs and wages
Clinton
The Democratic candidate vows to narrow the income gap. Her campaign promises “the largest investment in good-paying jobs since World War II,” including a $275 billion plan to rebuild U.S. infrastructure, the creation of jobs in alternative energy, and support for small manufacturers and startups. Clinton would pursue “smarter, fairer, tougher trade policies that put U.S. job creation first,” work with organized labor, gradually raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $12 an hour, and support efforts by cities and states to raise that minimum further, citing the “Fight for $15.”
Trump
Trump also talks of raising the standard of living and says his policies will make America “the best place in the world to get a job” but stresses getting out of the way of economic growth. That means rolling back regulations on energy and other industries, reworking trade agreements that “create a smaller economy for everyone,” overhauling the tax code, and raising barriers to immigration. Trump wants to spend more than $500 billion on infrastructure. He has said the minimum wage should be up to the states but has also talked about a $10-an-hour federal floor.
You and your money
Raising the minimum wage could cost us jobs, some argue. The Congressional Budget Office, in a 2014 analysis, noted that “business owners would see reductions in real (inflation-adjusted) income, as would consumers, who would face higher prices as a result of the minimum-wage increase.” The article “Minimum Wage Mythbusters,” on the U.S. Department of Labor’s website, says raising the minimum has “little to no effect on employment as shown in independent studies from economists across the country,” citing research showing that “higher wages sharply reduce turnover which can reduce employment and training costs.” Moody’s Analytics concluded in a macroeconomic analysis of Clinton’s economic proposals that the “negative employment affect” of a higher minimum wage would be modest, since the floor would be phased in over five years.
Whether or not you are directly affected by the minimum wage, its role in the economy and the candidates’ broader prescriptions for wage and job growth have implications for your working life and your retirement.
What you can do
Guard against lifestyle inflation that can easily creep into your spending. Tamping it down early on, to add to your savings, can pay off handsomely in the long term, since most big raises come earlier in your career. Gains slow in your 40s and 50s, and in your 50s income growth, adjusted for inflation, generally turns negative, according to financial planner Michael Kitces. With less earning power ahead of you and your options to deal with savings shortfalls narrowing, you may have to make painful spending cuts or reduce your expectations for retirement.
So if economic growth picks up, and with it your pay, try to keep your spending the same. Kitces suggests setting a lifestyle spending target — how much you want to be able to spend per year in retirement — rather than framing it as saving 10 percent or 20 percent of current income. Because he aims to save the equivalent of his annual spending times 30, he looks at everything he thinks about buying as costing 30 times as much as it does.
Related: The 15 jobs with the biggest salary increases
In this Jan. 11, 2013, file photo, the Social Security Administration’s main campus is seen in Woodlawn, Md. More than 60 million retirees, disabled workers, spouses and children rely on monthly Social Security benefits. That’s nearly one in five Americans. The trustees who oversee Social Security say the program has enough money to pay full benefits until 2034. But at that point, Social Security will collect only enough taxes to pay 79 percent of benefits. Unless Congress acts, millions of people on fixed incomes would get an automatic 21 percent cut in benefits. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
Social Security
Clinton
Clinton would seek to modestly expand Social Security, increasing benefits for widows and giving credits to workers who take a job leave to care for family members. To raise funds for the program, she would increase the level of annual wages subject to payroll taxes; in 2016, wages aren’t taxed after $118,500. According to a 2014 analysis by the Center for Economic & Policy Research, the wealthiest 6.1 percent of workers would pay more if the cap were removed.
Clinton opposes reducing cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security benefits, attempts at privatization, an increase in the retirement age, and any attempts “to close the long-term shortfall on the backs of the middle class.” She has vowed to oppose any Republican plans “to privatize or ‘phase out’ Medicare as we know it” and has said she would work to drive down drug prescription costs.
Trump
Trump tweeted in May of last year that he was “the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid.” Growth from implementation of his economic policies would “shore up our entitlement plans for the time being,” he has said. Yet he has also noted that “as our demography changes, a prudent administration would begin to examine what changes might be necessary for future generations.”
You and your money
With defined-benefit pension plans fast receding and many workers without defined-contribution plans such as 401(k)s, Social Security income is more important than ever for more people — even as it isn’t nearly enough for most of us to realize our retirement plans. Clinton’s plan for payroll taxes would mean a pay cut for anyone making over $118,500; right now, anyone making $237,000 a year, or twice the cap, stopped paying payroll taxes on earnings on July 1.
But if changes aren’t made to shore up the program’s finances before 2034, automatic reductions in benefits will kick in, with claimants getting just 75 percent or so of their scheduled benefits.
What you can do
Regardless of how the Social Security program evolves, many people aren’t clear on how to get the biggest benefit out of it. That’s why “Get What’s Yours,” a guide to maxing out Social Security benefits by the economist Laurence Kotlikoff, became a bestseller. One of his co-authors, Philip Moeller, has the same sort of book coming out in early October, on getting the most out of Medicare.
Studying the rules can ensure a more comfortable retirement. For example, if you were born after 1943 and wait to claim benefits after the full retirement age (67 for anyone born in 1960 or later), benefits rise 8 percent a year until age 70. Try finding a safe 8 percent return anywhere else. One of the smartest moves to prepare for the cost of retirement, even if you can’t save much now, is something many younger savers are already doing — simply staying fit and healthy. Unexpected health-care costs can derail the best-laid retirement plans. (And, though it’s just a correlation, men who worked out three or more times a week made about 6 percent more than men who didn’t, according to a 2011 study from Cleveland State University. The gap was about 10 percent for women.)
Related: Donald Trump, your 401(k) adviser
Clinton’s tax policy targets increases on high earners while Trump would simplify the number of tax brackets, effectively lowering taxes on the highest earners. (Photo: iStock)
Taxes
Clinton
Clinton isn’t fiddling with the marginal tax brackets but would raise taxes on high earners in a variety of ways. Her plans include a minimum rate of 30 percent for anyone with income of more than $1 million, a 4 percent surcharge on gross adjusted income over $5 million, a $1 million limit on the lifetime gift exemption, and a new tax schedule on capital gains rates. A cap on the amount of savings from itemized tax deductions would limit them to 28 percent of the value of the deduction. So those in higher tax brackets wouldn’t get a greater benefit from, say, taking the mortgage interest deduction, the Tax Foundation notes.
Clinton would lower the starting point at which estates are taxed to $3.5 million ($7 million for married couples) and raise the top estate tax rate to 45 percent from 40 percent. She’d also seek to limit the ability to pass on appreciated assets to heirs free of capital-gains taxes before death, though she’d protect “small and closely held businesses, farms and homes, and personal property and family heirlooms.”
Trump
Trump’s tax plan would cut the number of income-tax brackets from seven to three — 12 percent on income up to $75,000, 25 percent for $75,000 to $225,000, and 33 percent on income over that. That means top earners would no longer face a 39.6 percent tax bracket.
The standard deduction for single filers would be $15,000, and $30,000 for joint filers. Itemized deductions would be capped at $100,000 for single filers and $200,000 for married couples filing jointly. Trump would kill the estate tax and keep the popular mortgage interest deduction.
You and your money
Clinton’s approach would cost wealthy families the most, while they would appear to benefit under Trump. Whatever happens in the end, the debate over taxes is a good reminder to pay attention to the tax treatment of your investments. Vigilance can boost your income in what could be a low-return environment if the economy continues on its current path.
What you can do
Start thinking about year-end moves to lessen the pain next April. For the longer term, calculate what your total annual income from Social Security and other sources would be in retirement, and what the federal and state taxes on that income could be. The first of the baby boomers just hit 70 and a half, when they have to start taking required minimum distributions from IRAs. These annual withdrawals can push people into a higher tax bracket.
Financial planners suggest strategies using a variety of retirement accounts to try to minimize the tax bite. To use that strategy effectively, you have to explore it well ahead of time. By shifting money between traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs and other accounts, and paying tax on some accounts at opportune times, you can lessen the tax bite and add years of retirement income.
Related: Pre-election estate and life insurance planning
Clinton has proposed a cap on child care costs at 10 percent of household income. Trump would let parents deduct child-related costs up to age 13. (Photo: iStock)
Child-care costs
Clinton
Clinton would cap the cost of a family’s child care at 10 percent of household income using tax credits and subsidized child care. She has talked about a national system for paid family leave of up to 12 weeks as well as universal preschool for four-year-olds.
Child-care workers would be paid better. (“In many places, dog trainers are paid more than child-care workers,” she has said.) Child care is part of Clinton’s “New College Compact,” which proposes significant improvements for child care on campus and up to $1,500 a year in scholarships to college students who are parents.
Trump
Trump has promised a mandatory six-week paid family leave and would let parents deduct the costs of raising a child up to age 13, for up to four kids. To help lower-income taxpayers who may not pay income tax, the Earned Income Tax Credit would be raised to “half of the payroll taxes paid by the lower-earning parent,” with an income limit of $31,200 for single taxpayers and $62,400 for joint filers.
Trump’s plan would let parents create dependent-care savings accounts. Contributions would max out at $2,000 a year, and earnings would accumulate tax-deferred. Balances could be rolled over and used for higher education when a child turns 18. The annual cap on the business tax credit for child care that employers offer on site would rise from $150,000 to $500,000.
You and your money
The cost of child care tops college tuition in many states, according to a 2015 report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a liberal think tank, as well as monthly rent. Corporate day-care centers would be ideal for many parents but are far and few between, so any relief would be a big help.
Some employees already have access to dependent care flexible savings accounts (FSAs). The Tax Policy Center has said Trump’s proposal “would mostly benefit high-income families who need government child care subsidies the least” and that “for those who need it the most, such as low-income married couples with a single earner, there is much less to Trump’s plan than meets the eye.”
What you can do
This is a tough one. If you want to gather support among other working parents at your company and raise the prospect of on-site day care, you can show your employer this article about the positive experience that such companies as Patagonia and Goldman Sachs have had with such arrangements. Creative solutions are cropping up for some parents, such as the Workaround, in Brooklyn, New York, a co-working space where people earn credits for watching one another’s kids, which they can use when they need child care.
If your company offers a dependent care FSA, try to fund it fully. It lets you pay for child care out of pretax pay, which makes it stretch further while lowering your taxable income. In 2016, the limit on what you could contribute tax-deferred was $5,000 for a married couple filing a joint return. Also, take advantage of any discounted group legal services offered through your benefit plan to make a will, if you haven’t already, and of any elder care programs offered.
Tune in to the next vice-presidential (October 4) and presidential (October 9) debates for the latest on how national politics and your personal finances are likely to meet. Conflict. Collide.
Until then.
See also:
From Clinton to Trump: The tax plans of 5 presidential candidates
Clinton, Trump campaigns turn Social Security politics on its head
Trump’s Social Security plan depends on immigrants
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“It’s not about selling but networking,” says Shane Westhoelter, president and CEO of Gateway Financial Advisors. “When this happens, sales happen.” (photo: Thinkstock)
In the wake of the April release of the U.S. Department of Labor’s finalized fiduciary rule, retirement advisors understandably have a heightened focus on all things compliance-related: documents, disclosures, compensation and acting in the client’s best interest.
With respect to the last task, they might also take a tip from the Labor Department and do what’s in their own best interest. Namely, employ industry-proven sales tips and techniques to build more profitable and rewarding practices.
Related: The most innovative sales ideas of 2016: 11-20
Consider Gateway Financial Advisors President and CEO Shane Westhoelter, who presented a morning workshop at the annual meeting of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, held in Las Vegas Sept. 17-19.
Over the course of a fast-paced 60 minutes, Westhoelter offered more than a dozen ideas for upping your sales game. He also shared this key take-away: Discipline in implementing sales and marketing best practices — not government-mandated rules and regulations — will determine how well you do as an insurance and financial services professional.
“Because of the DOL fiduciary rule, there will be more opportunities than ever to bring our services to people,” said Westhoelter. “How you deliver and charge for your services may have to change … But that doesn’t mean you can’t succeed in this business.”
“Indeed,” he added, “those advisors who exit the retirement space because of the rule will be leaving more business for the rest of us. We’ll all have more clients and prospects to see.”
Related:Broker-dealers on DOL fiduciary rule: Expect advisors to walk
Keep reading for a “baker’s dozen” of sales ideas that Westhoelter (pictured above) shared during his NAIFA presentation:
Group meetings allow interviewers to access several job candidate skills. (Photo: iStock)
No. 13: Invite prospective new hires to a group interview
If you’re aiming to fill a vacant position at the office, said Westhoelter, run an ad in a newspaper or online job site, then invite all of the qualified candidates to a group interview.
When they arrive, advise the participants that some of them will be invited to second and third interviews before the winning candidate is selected for the position.
Thereafter comes the marketing pitch — about you and your practice — justifying the plug by noting that, as prospective new hires, the interviewees need to know about the business. Convey, too, that your practice may also be of assistance to candidates (and family members) who don’t qualify for the position.
“You probably can secure at least six or seven client prospects using such group interviews,” said Westhoelter. “It’s a great marketing tool.”
Related: The most innovative sales ideas of 2016: 21-30
The novelty of an advertising blimp leaves a big impression on consumers. (Photo: iStock)
No. 12: Gather leads through corporate sponsorships
Westhoelter said he once offered to be a corporate sponsor for the operators of a haunted house at a county fair. In exchange for a $5,000 sponsorship, Gateway received leads via waiver forms completed by people by waiting to be admitted.
Related: The most innovative sales ideas of 2016: 31-40
The message on the waiver form: “Brought to you by Gateway Financial Advisors. Kindly check off any services you may wish to learn more about. Please enjoy your visit through the haunted house.”
“We got 200 client prospects on the opening day of the haunted house,” said Westhoelter. “We later added a hallway to the house to feature our services; and we provided entertainment for VIP prospects.”
No. 11: Develop and hone your brand
Westhoelter said that Gateway helps clients achieve the quality of life they desire in retirement, free of “financial stress.” To that end, the company offers products and planning services that address three “what ifs”:
What if you “live too long” (outlive your assets)?
What if you “leave” (as a result of death or divorce)?
What if you “linger” (due to a disability or a condition requiring long-term care)?
“I tell clients, ‘Start with the end in mind — your legacy,'” said Westhoelter. “Transferring assets in the most tax-efficient way requires ‘quality of life planning,’ not financial planning. Your marketing message — your brand — has to underpin how you present your practice in client engagements.”
Related: Options are the future of retirement planning
No. 10: Tell a story
Storytelling — short, compelling anecdotes that are applicable to the client’s situation — can be highly effective in helping to close the sale. During an engagement, the client prospect will (absent agreement on a plan recommendation) generally pose either a question or objection.
Related:Storytelling: the sales pitch they never saw coming
If the first happens, said Westhoelter, answer the question and close. If the second happens, tell a story, and close again.
Taking on the second of three common client objections (“no trust, no hurry, no money,”) Westhoelter said advisors need to “create urgency” among prospects who hem and haw on a plan recommendation (such as by citing the need for time to “think it over” or to consult with a spouse or other professional). Westhoelter’s technique: He tells a story about a frog who dies in a pot of water brought slowly to a boil: Impervious to the gradual change in temperature — and the mortal danger it faces — the frog meets its end.
“Your job as advisor is to hit the [metaphorical] pot: to make the client realize that the ‘water’ — the client’s financial condition — is getting hot and that he needs to jump out,” said Westhoelter. “Have a story to tell whenever the client raises the ‘no hurry’ objection, then close again.”
Related: The most innovative sales ideas of 2016: 41-50
Even a team MVP has to periodically update his or her playbook. Advisors should approach their prospecting skills in the same way. (Photo: iStock)
No. 9: Prospect up
Gateway characterizes advisors’ business success in terms of “5 Ps”:
Prospecting.
Process.
Preparation.
Persistence.
Passion.
“Prospecting up” is about engaging — at seminars, networking events or other social gatherings — client prospects who are more affluent than you. Many advisors only do business with people having comparable income or assets because they feel “inadequate” around wealthier individuals. To grow in their practices, Westhoelter insisted, they have to break out of their comfort zone.
Related: The most innovative sales ideas of 2016: 51-60
“I can talk as easily with someone who makes $10 million per month as $10 million a year,” he said. “You can, too.”
No. 8: Host a networking gathering
Many of Gateway’s clients and prospects are themselves business owners looking to meet people who can use their products or services. To facilitate such exchanges, Gateway hosts luncheons and networking gatherings at its offices. The financial services firm also uses the meetings to plug its own solutions for the uninitiated.
“In our business, it’s not what you know, but who you know that counts most,” said Westhoelter. “It’s not about selling, but networking. When this happens, sales happen.”
No. 7: Host a yoga class
Gateway regularly holds yoga classes for client prospects, using the occasion to pitch a component of the company’s marketing message (reducing financial stress) that aligns with the focus of the Hindu-originated spiritual discipline: reducing physical and mental stress.
During the pre-class plug for Gateway, Westhoelter has participants sign (as at the Haunted House) a waiver-and-liability release form, the document noting they will receive additional details about Gateway’s services unless they check off a box to “opt-out” of follow-up correspondence.
No. 6: Communicate the cost of the ‘free consultation’
A common practice of advisors is to offer client prospects a complementary review of their insurance and investment portfolios. Often, however, such reviews fail to translate into business. The reason: No mention of the time and expense of carrying out the exercise. That needs to change, said Westhoelter, who proceeded to recap his pre-review intro:
“‘Mr. and Mrs. Client, my staff and I spent several hours reviewing your portfolio and financial needs with our analytical data and tools. What I’m about to present is worth more than $1,000 of our time, which we’re donating to you at our expense so you’ll know where you have holes in your coverage.'”
“If you say this at beginning of a portfolio review, client prospects will feel obligated,” said Westhoelter. “But you need to make it a real number; calculate the actual time you and your staff spend doing an analysis and developing a recommendation.”
Related: The most innovative sales ideas of 2016: 61-70
Building your professional network isn’t just about finding new business. It’s also about putting together like-minded colleagues and acquaintances who may be able to help each other. (Photo: iStock)
No. 5: Describe the client’s ‘life deductible’
Analogous to a health insurance deductible or co-pay, the life deductible is the amount of money that life insurance policy beneficiaries have to fund out-of-pocket on the death of the insured. The life-deductible includes two components:
Front-end deductible (out-of-pocket costs during the period awaiting distribution of the policy proceeds.
Back-end deductible (funds used to cover other financial assets after the death benefit is used up).
Related: The most innovative sales ideas of 2016: 71-80
No. 4: Be a match-maker
Gateway doesn’t just offer financial solutions; it’s also leverages its extensive client network to connect people who have a non-financial need with those who can fulfill it. Example: Finding a suitable florist or jeweler for a child’s wedding or graduation party.
“I know a lot of people,” said Westhoelter. “I may not be able to provide the service, but I probably can connect the client with someone who does. Much of what I do today doesn’t involve selling, but solving problems.”
No. 3: Develop a bucket list
This list — financial objectives for the client to accomplish before passing away — is accompanied by a potted plant. The reason: to remind clients that, as with the plant, the financial plan has to be nurtured (such as by saving adequately for retirement) if the end goal is to be reached.
“When a client comes to our office for an annual review, we consult the bucket list to see if each of the financial tasks has been checked off,” said Westhoelter. “If not, I’ll ask: ‘Why not?'”
Related: The most innovative sales ideas of 2016: 81-90
Everybody loves “swag,” or thoughtful (sometimes promotional) freebies. (Photo: iStock)
No. 2: Sweeten the client engagement
Gateway’s offices are stocked with private-labeled items such as chocolate, wine, pins and tote bags, which staffers hand out to clients.
The freebies, said Gateway’s chief, reinforce the company’s branding message and strategy.
No. 1: Take your ‘A’ clients out on their anniversary
Annual meetings with clients needn’t be just devoted to reviewing their portfolio performance and financial goals. The gatherings can also be used to celebrate one more year of doing business with them.
And what better way to celebrate than by offering them the red carpet treatment on their birthday or (if a couple) wedding anniversary? Thus, Gateway’s best (“A”) clients enjoy a chauffeured limo trip to the company’s offices for the portfolio review, then dinner at a top-tier restaurant.
“These client-appreciation events generate a lot of buzz because clients tell all their family members, friends and colleagues,” said Westhoelter. “They make a big impression.”
“Do more than what you’re paid for, and someday you’ll get paid more for what you do,” he added in closing. “Go above and beyond. Do things for clients they don’t expect; you’ll be rewarded for it.”
Related: The most innovative sales ideas of 2016: 91-100
