Sales Opportunities to look for in 2021
Here are six sales ideas to help you kick off 2021 to a great start! Contact your marketing brokerage manager for more information on any that interest you.
1. Life Insurance Still Needed During COVID-19
The life insurance industry is alive and well despite the COVID pandemic. Though some prices have gone up due to low interest rates and some older-age clients will have difficulty getting coverage during COVID, overall the industry is doing well in terms of new applications and claims.
The good news is that improvements to the process with new online tools are here to stay, and will continue to make life easier on agents long after the pandemic is over.
Eliminate Exams with Accelerated Underwriting Programs*
Several of our carriers offer a “no-exam” process, especially for younger clients and smaller face amounts, although some carriers could go up to age 60 and $1,000,000 face amount, and during COVID many carriers have increased that to $2,000,000 and even $5,000,000. These programs are designed to cut costs and reduce the application cycle time for otherwise healthy clients who might not need an exam.
*Note – An exam may be requested at the underwriter’s discretion. Clients should be informed that exams are “optional.” It's best to do a little pre-underwriting on these cases to see if the client is likely to pass with flying colors.
Work Faster with Paperless eApps and Drop Ticket Applications
Most of our carriers now offer some form of streamlined application process that eliminates all paperwork by using an online solution. In some cases, the insurance carrier will conduct an interview with the client and complete the entire application over the phone. All the agent needs to do is request the phone interview to get the process started. Be sure to check out the "Submit Your Business Electronically" section on our GBSLife Agent Portal for our list of eApps and Drop Tickets.
Turbocharge your Cases with eDelivery
Spend more time selling and less time worrying about policy placement with ePolicy Delivery!
2. Why Guaranteed IUL may be replacing GUL
Due to the continued low interest rate environment and stricter reserve requirements for the insurance industry, Guaranteed Universal Life (GUL) products are becoming more difficult for carriers to offer. Prices continue to go up and many carriers are simply suspending sales of their GUL products entirely - we expect more to do so in the next few months. We encourage agents to look to the new generation of IUL products (“GIULs”) that include secondary guarantees to ages 90 or 100+ for similar long term guaranteed death benefit, plus some non-guaranteed cash value that may help carry the death benefit to maturity (attached is an example from AIG). Whereas the guaranteed to age 100 premium is $8,782 (Male 45 PNS - $1,000,000 using the Secure Lifetime GUL 3) with cash value projected never exceeding $158,000, that same premium into their Value+ Protector II provides a true guarantee age 96, but a projected cash value of over $1,786,000 at age 100, based on the current average interest rate of 5.01% and projected death benefit continuing to rise beyond age 100. For more details, please click here to see the attached illustration.
3. Life Insurance You Can Use While Living
How many of your clients are aware that today’s life insurance products offer a variety of features and benefits they can take advantage of while living?
Some policies can offer:
- A Long Term Care rider.
- A Chronic Illness rider.
- A Critical Illness rider.
- A guaranteed retirement income for clients reaching a certain age to protect against outliving your retirement assets.
- A complete refund of all premiums, in the event of early surrender.
- Tax-free deferrals and tax-free income that is available from many cash value life insurance plans that offer generous interest accumulation.
4. Getting to Know Smokers (All Kinds)
It’s been a year of changes for smokers including tobacco users and “others.” We now have several carriers that will offer non-smoker rates to occasional marijuana users, and even one carrier that will offer non-smoker rates for very occasional cigarette smokers. And while vaping continues to make headlines, all of our carriers consider this as smoker rates for now.
5. Group Term for Older Ages
Employees approaching retirement age with group term plans may be surprised to find their death benefits automatically reduced. Repositioning individual term insurance is a cost effective way to obtain this coverage, possibly even at a cost savings, once income taxation is accounted for.
6. LTC for Businesses
Businesses may be able to offer LTC as a tax deductible benefit to employees (and owners in some cases and even spouses) depending on age of insured and type of business entity. Only true LTC (that does not include a life insurance benefit) is normally deductible.
