August 2010
Believe It
"There are agents who don't even have long-term care insurance themselves, so how can they sell it to their clients? Most likely they won't even talk to their clients about it -- which is probably better because they probably couldn't sell it anyway -- they don't believe in the product."
-- No. 1 LTCI producer David Jeffrey, in the Producer Profile article, "The Right Way to Sell LTCI"
Consumer Cutbacks
71% of Americans say they are buying less-expensive brands
57% say they have trimmed or eliminated vacations
11% have postponed getting married or having children. Americans 65 and older are "much less likely" than younger age groups to have cut back on spending. Confidence in retirement savings dropped most sharply for younger Americans (including those age 50-64), but not those 65 and older.
Source: Pew Research Center, May opinion survey of 3,000 Americans
August 1952
Editor's note: The following excerpts are from the August 1952 issue of Life Insurance Selling.
Tremendous Market Today Is In Estate Planning
By Herbert P. Jones, Atlantic Life Insurance Company, Pittsburgh
Former President Hoover said, "When you are sick, you want an uncommon, good doctor." When our prospective clients are considering the projection of their greatest asset for the benefit of their family, that is, the dollars the family will live by, they do not want anything left to chance. Therefore, they need an uncommon, good insurance man. It is true that they owe every consideration to friends and relatives, but when planning for their families, most men feel they owe consideration to the most tax-efficient, sensible and economical plan that can be developed. We can honestly disturb and stir a man to the realization of what he can accomplish based on his aims, if we contrast this with the situation that exists if he fails to take action.
As It Seems To Me
Burgess M. Tanner, Cocoa, Fla.
In view of the miraculous accomplishments of the past half century it is dangerous to doubt what the future may bring. All of the talk of establishing colonies on the moon or on Mars is no more far-fetched than was the talk of flying around the world or talking around the world. Many things believed impossible a few years ago are accepted now as commonplace. Let us have courage and say with the poet, "The best is yet to be."
How often have we seen men give up a job of selling insurance in a given territory because its possibilities had been exhausted, then we have seen another man take over and make an outstanding record? One had lost faith, the other had faith. Can we never learn that where there are people there are insurance needs?
Points That Help You Sell
In the first few years after the war people wanted to spend every cent they had on gadgets -- refrigerators, automobiles and television sets. Everybody was out of everything. Today they have largely caught up. Only a normal amount of their incomes goes for such things. They are not all replacing at once. Result -- this is the best time to sell life insurance since the war. The time has come to emphasize that, after all, the money put into life insurance is largely savings.
