What is the number one challenge producers face when selling life insurance? According to the latest Agent's Sales Journal study (see page 16), the number one obstacle to selling life insurance is not finding qualified prospects. It's not getting cases through underwriting or overcoming clients' objections to price. The number one challenge faced by three out of five life insurance agents is client procrastination.
That probably comes as no surprise to you. According to LIMRA International, nearly 75 percent of Americans believe that the best way to guard against the potential financial devastation from the death of the primary wage earner is life insurance, beating out all other financial assets or sources of income surviving family members expect to have available to them. Why then do 24 million U.S. households have no life insurance at all, while a substantial portion of those who do have coverage don't have enough? You guessed it -- procrastination. It's not that Americans don't see a need for life insurance. LIMRA reports that half of consumers admit that they just haven't gotten around to buying the appropriate coverage.
And then there's Olga and Helen...
Unfortunately, no one can accuse Olga Rutterschmidt of Hollywood and Helen Golay of Santa Monica, CA, of procrastinating when it comes to buying life insurance. The women, both in their 70s, allegedly befriended two homeless men and purchased life insurance policies on them. It seems that both men died in suspicious hit-and-run accidents, conveniently not too long after the two-year contestability period expired.
Not surprisingly, Olga and Helen were the beneficiaries of the policies and received more than $2.2 million in benefits from the 19 life insurance policies they took out on the transients -- that's right, 19 life insurance policies! The pair was under surveillance when police became alarmed after witnessing more meetings during which the elderly women were collecting signatures from several other men.
While this case is, in the words of an investigator, "pretty evil," it does provide a sort of counterbalance to the traditionally held attitudes toward life insurance. Unlike more than half of Americans, Olga and Helen certainly had no difficulty recognizing the value of life insurance and acting on that awareness by purchasing a policy -- actually, 19 policies that investigators have uncovered.
There has to be a happy medium between the slacker-like propensities of typical Americans when it comes to buying life insurance and the murderous ambitions of Helen and Olga, right?
Fresh market insight
In this issue, we're releasing the results of our nationwide study on life insurance. We surveyed more than 400 agents to find out the challenges they're experiencing, the opportunities they perceive in the market, the kinds of support they need from insurance carriers and marketing organizations, and more. Find out how your perceptions and experiences compare with your colleagues. You won't find this kind of market insight anywhere else.
The study on page 16 kicks off ASJ's second annual Life Insurance Sales Guide, a comprehensive editorial package designed to give you practical information and sales tips to help you build your life insurance business. And just in case you run into a few slackers, you'll even find tips on how to move clients past procrastination toward the purchase decision.
Changing of the guard
I'd also like to take this opportunity to introduce Christina Pellett, the new managing editor of the Agent's Sales Journal. Some of you have been in touch with her already. Christina's unique background includes stints as a newspaper journalist and an insurance advertising copywriter. She's currently working on her insurance license.
Please feel free to contact Christina or me to offer your suggestions on how we can make ASJ more useful to you and your business. Our goal is to make ASJ the premier resource for readers like you, and we look forward to hearing from you.
Jamie Green
Editor-in-Chief
editor@agentmediacorp.com
