Pam Green, CLU, ChFC, FLMI, ACS, never thought she would be starting over in the workforce at age 46. After 26 years at United Services Automobile Association (USAA), Green figured she would eventually retire with the organization -- instead, she was abruptly let go from her management position in life insurance sales in January 2006.
Green found herself in the same circumstances that many Americans have faced in the past two years: Trying to transition into a new career after being laid off. "When you've been with a company for so long and then you're let go, you're humiliated, devalued, dejected, you question your self-worth constantly," Green says. "You go through a kind of grieving period."
However, Green, now 49, turned that negative experience into a positive when she joined San Antonio-based Sapient Financial Group, a MassMutual agency, as an independent financial advisor in January 2007. Green quickly found success, winning the 2009 MassMutual Freshman Five Award, and she is currently ranked No. 4 for all MassMutual 3rd year agents in premium. Her achievements as an independent advisor have come through a calculated focus on building relationships and helping those in her same situation: People transitioning out of jobs and business owners, particularly women.
"After USAA, my husband told me to find something that I enjoy, and joining Sapient was an opportunity to stay in a career where I have so much experience and can help others," Green says.
Binding relationships
Green entered the industry early on, starting with USAA when she was 19. Having chosen to stay home and help take care of her younger brothers instead of going to college after her mother passed away from ovarian cancer, Green developed an interest in financial services when she began taking night and weekend classes. Earning several professional designations over the years, she was more than prepared, knowledge-wise, to help others when she started her practice with Sapient. However, Green believes her skills lie more in her ability to build client relationships.
"The most important thing to me is to earn the trust of my clients," Green says. "I want to be able to provide the best service possible, and they need to be able to know and trust me to do that."
Those relationships are key when Green works with clients who have been laid off.
"My very first client was a former co-worker who was transitioning as well. It goes way beyond just talking about their financial needs. It's about actually helping them in the transition process. That is binding cement in a relationship -- they know you care about them."
Green goes as far as helping her clients sign up on unemployment sites or calls them when she sees a "Help Wanted" sign or job posting. And when she sits down with clients, she takes them through an entire process and discusses everything they may be facing.
"We look at whether it's smart to roll over a pension into a 401(k). We talk about what insurance benefits have been lost. We talk about what kind of work they want to do now. When are they going to retire and how they are going to do that," Green says. "It's an entire total needs analysis -- what do you want to do from here, and how can I help you get there? It's a huge process -- it's what are we going to do from here for the rest of your life?"
If a client is interested in changing their profession, Green provides assistance through a network of people she used to work with, who are now in all different fields as a realtor, decorator, etc.
"After working in one organization for so long, you find that as people leave that company, there's still a bond amongst everyone," Green says. "So if I have a client and they say they're interested in going into real estate, well, I have the business card of someone they can call. It's not like it's a job opportunity, but it's someone who has gone through the same experience, done the transition, and can talk about whether it's something they can be successful doing or if they'd even like it."
Going beyond just the financial needs requires extra time and effort, but Green does not see it as any hindrance to her practice, especially since the majority of her new clients come from referrals.
"Is the feeling I get in my heart from helping people worth what's in my pocketbook? Absolutely. There are many ways that people get self-fulfilled, and that's one of them to me. And after I help someone, he or she will then refer someone else to me, and it goes on. Kind of like 'pay it forward.'"
Lessons learned
While Green has not had trouble finding clients, she has found that there is much to learn about running a business, having come from corporate America.
"I brought all of the sales skills, product knowledge and industry knowledge with me, but what I didn't bring was the knowledge of how to run a business," she says.
Green has relied on Sapient's Agent Resource Center, as well as other advisors to guide her along the way, but she also recognizes that "some of it you learn by stepping on the cracks and falling, then you back up and do it again."
One of her first lessons she learned was the need to move beyond just the niche of clients who are transitioning. Until those clients enter back into the workforce and resituate their lives, Green found that there are limited sale opportunities.
"When you're dealing with people who are transitioning from one position into another, it's usually a single sale at first. Even though you're talking about all of their needs, they're transitioning and don't have a big pocketbook at the time. If I wanted to talk to someone about an entire financial plan, I needed to increase my market niche," Green says.
Woman to woman
While clients in job transitions may have been 80% of her business initially, Green has found other outlets for prospects, including women business owners like herself.
"Out of the third of my practice that is business owners, probably 90% are women, because women like to deal with women," Green says. "They feel more comfortable, they can relate to me because I am also a woman business owner. I don't think they feel as threatened -- you're talking about putting out money, so you need to make sure you trust this person."
Green helps those female business owners with products like life insurance to fund buy-sell agreements, business overhead insurance, disability insurance, and group policies for their firms. Once the business needs are taken care of, often she will help them with their individual needs as well.
Aiding other women business owners in their path to success is extremely important to Green, as is her own success as a female in a male-dominated industry. When she won MassMutual's Freshman Five award (given on a quantitative and qualitative basis), she was the only female that year, as well as only the 18th female winner in the 57 years of the award.
"I thought it was incredibly important to be a role model to other women," Green says. "They make a huge deal out of it -- they put you on stage and talk about your accomplishments in front of all your peers. So people who are brand new to the industry -- particularly women -- can see that it's something that can be accomplished by a woman."
Green also won the National Women in Financial Services (WIFS) Rookie of the Year award in 2009, and will conduct financial education seminars for women. One of the reasons why Green started her career with Sapient was its dedication to recruiting women into the business.
"This particular organization understood the fact that there are more business owners who are women out there, and there's a need for them to be helped, possibly by women agents."
Annuity expertise
Since she started her business within Sapient, Green has also taken on the role of annuity specialist for the agency, stemming from her annuity and teaching experience at USAA. Her responsibilities include training new agents about annuities, and keeping people abreast of any product changes in MassMutual or in general in the industry. In addition, Green will do joint work with other advisors who aren't annuity experts.
"Sometimes a new agent might have a client that they've indentified as a possible annuity candidate -- maybe they've got an annuity with another company," Green says. "It constantly forces you to learn about outside products and different ones that MassMutual may not offer. It's a continual education process."
The challenges of business
While Green has quickly found success as an independent advisor, the path has not been without challenges, both self-inflicted and industry-related. And while the lackluster economy has resulted in more transitioning clients for Green to help, it has also created roadblocks to selling.
"Potential clients are less likely to commit to new products, not knowing where the economy is going, not knowing if they're going to have a job or their spouse will have a job. So how does that affect my business? I have to see more people, and the people I talk to take longer to make their buying decision.
"Secondly, you now have a level of trust issue, because you have disreputable people in the industry with Ponzi schemes, you have organizations that have gone under that have taken TARP money, so the trust level is at an all-time low in the financial services industry. So you're not only faced with people who are reluctant to commit money to something they really need, but it also takes longer to build trust with the organization and you and what you're trying to do."
Family and the future
Green is not letting those challenges stand in her way, however. She has taken the lessons learned from her first two years running her own business and is using that to propel her forward.
"Because I'm so new, I hopefully foresee more professional and individual growth in the future," Green says. "Even though I'm 49, which many may see as near the end of your career, I'm starting a new one and I think what will help me is the growing trend of business owners being women. They enjoy meeting with other business owners, so I see a lot of potential in that area. As I continue to grow my business, I will try to tap more into that market."
With help from her assistant, Terrie Brooks, Green has been able to enjoy the flexible hours that come with owning your own business. She contributes to the San Antonio community through the American Cancer Society, United Way, and Boysville, an organization for orphaned children, among other charities. Those flexible hours allow Green to paint, decorate and garden, but most importantly, to spend more time with her family -- her husband Russell and sons Justin and Braeden.
"The thing that is most important in my life is my family -- both their happiness and financial well-being. I want my children and family to see me walk the walk, and doing the right thing -- what you do when the lights are out and no one's watching."
As she continues to grow her practice and build relationships, Green leads by example.
"What I'm most proud of is having worked for a corporation for 26 years, thinking you're going to retire there, and getting kicked to the curb, but then being able to transition into a business owner with a very successful practice," Green says. "It's not something I expected, but it's the way I responded. I could have sat there and cried and been peeved at the other company, but this is what I chose to do, and I did it successfully."
Case in point
"This woman was in the midst of job transitioning, and she was recently divorced. She was at a pivotal point in her life. Her dilemma was, do I stay in the marketing field, or go back to school? That was what our initial conversation was about -- can you afford to go back to school? What kind of college assistance is available for you right now, as a single, unemployed person? She was looking for help -- for me to be another set of eyes and ears to help her make a decision that is going to impact the rest of her life.
Our meetings started about what to do with her life in a transition period like this -- "I'm recently divorced, I'm not used to making the financial decisions like this, my husband used to do that all. I have this bucket of money here -- do I use it to go back to school and live off of it? Or do I save it and get a new job and try to go back to school at the same time?"
We have gotten past that part and are in the process of rolling over her pensions and 401(k), talking about the insurance aspect -- but it wasn't until the second or third meeting before that came up. At first, it was her sitting across the desk from me, and let's have a discussion. Here's a friend, here's a shoulder, let's talk.
She ended up going back into the workforce, and will be taking some courses that she received tuition assistance for. In the long run, do I think because of the relationship-building, that was a successful case? Yes, very much."
Funding insurance with annuities
"This has worked for several of my clients -- we used a portion of their assets that they may not need in retirement and dramatically increased the amount of assets that they'd like to pass to the heirs.
I have clients who have annuities that are just sitting around, and they have no need for the money. Their entire intent for this money is: I don't need it for retirement -- if I die, it'll just go to my heirs. So let's see how buying a permanent plan of insurance and funding it with that annuity can leverage that, and provide three times the amount of money to your heirs, completely income tax-free.
It's about using the money more wisely and getting the assets to transfer to your heirs income tax-free -- just a different way of using this money. Because they already had this annuity, they weren't taking it out of their pocket, and it's been very successful."
Laura Graesser is Associate Editor of Life Insurance Selling magazine.
