Agent’s Sales Journal October 01, 2007
Sales From The Darkside
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Tom Wins When a Competitor is Unmasked
My company sells supplemental insurance products, and our customers range from entrepreneurs to professional corporate buyers. So after months and months of calling on a Joliet, IL hospital prospect, I was shocked to receive a call asking me to come
Front Page Stories
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Underwriting a Business Case - How Both Sales and Underwriting Can Win
You're just getting ready to leave the office for the evening when the home office underwriter sends you a fax requesting more information on a life insurance case that you submitted.
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5 Ways to Make Prospecting Easier
Prospecting for new business should be easy. With more than 1.25 million Google entries on the subject, there should certainly be more than enough advice available to make anyone selling anything a great success. If that's true, then why
Short Takes
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The Financial Planning Talk Show
Transcript from: Money Talk: The Financial Planning Talk Show Sunday, Sept. 30th, 9:00 PM ANNOUNCER: And now it's time for Money Talk, the fastest hour in radio, where all of your financial questions can be answered by our
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10 Tips for Successful Seminar Selling
If you love selling insurance but prospecting is your least favorite activity, you are not alone. So what can you do to prospect more effectively and generate hot leads? You might consider seminar selling. Seminars are not simple,
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7 Tips to Saving on a Commission-Based Income
You earn your living advising others on what to do with their money. But what you do with your own money is just as important. For the more than 12 million self-employed Americans, including insurance professionals with commission-based incomes that
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Partnership Seeks to Automate Electronic Annuity Sales for Independent B-D Distribution Market
NAVA Inc. (Association for Insured Retirement Solutions), and the Financial Services Institute (FSI), an advocacy and membership organization for independent broker-dealers and independent financial advisors, recently announced a strategic alliance
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Distribution Strategies - How Your Clients Receive Their Money
There are a number of ways that you can integrate annuities into your clients' long term care plans -- and some better than others. Regrettably, not many producers know there are annuities that are specifically designed to address the
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The Online Option: Tips on Conducting an Internet-based Seminar
Imagine prospecting with a small budget and little effort while growing your book of business. Oh, yeah. And you don't need to leave your house, either. While online seminars may be more convenient, a live
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8 Estate Planning Strategies for Unmarried and Same-Sex Couples
Unmarried couples, whether they're homosexual or heterosexual, can find themselves in a unique situation when it comes to proper estate planning. Though they have many of the same estate planning needs and concerns as married couples,
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Succeed at Succession, Exit, and Transition Planning
Insurance agents need to encourage business owners to protect their hard-earned assets through succession, exit, and transition (SET) planning. Most business owners acknowledge that they need to plan for the future, but they are too busy handling
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Protecting Special-Needs Children with Trusts
We should all be aware of the importance of getting our financial and legal affairs in order. But for parents of children with disabilities, the importance of planning is even more essential. Myriad issues face the parents of children with
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How To Use Retiree Benefits in Your Client's Plan
Today, it is more and more common for an individual's retirement benefits to be one of their largest assets. The increased popularity of employer-sponsored qualified plans and individual retirement accounts means some individuals will be
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Prospecting for Estate Planning Clients
Broadening your portfolio to include estate planning can be a highly effective means of expanding your practice, but advisors who are considering entering this market should be prepared to make subtle changes in the way they interact with clients.
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9 Common Estate Planning Mistakes
Since the passage of the Economic Growth Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act in 2001, (EGTRRA), estate tax rules have been in a state of flux. The federal estate tax exclusion credit has now increased to $2 million per person, and many Americans are
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What Every Client Should Have in Their Estate Plan
As advisors, we are often called upon to assist clients when a death occurs in their family. Based on what we have learned from these experiences, we want to help our clients understand that everyone needs to plan ahead for their death or
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Estate Planning - Why? How? And for Whom?
According to a recent study, 55 percent of Americans have no estate plan -- and, according to another survey by PNC Financial Services Group, 37 percent of affluent Americans have not drafted a plan, either. Given the current tax system, many
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Study Says Employers Consider Adding New Worksite Benefits
New research from LIMRA International forecasts that up to 363,000 U.S. businesses with 10 or more employees are considering introducing a new voluntary benefit within the next two years, which could impact as many as 45 million employees.
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Retirees Depend on Home Equity
Home equity is considered insurance for unexpected expenses, say the majority of retirees and those that are soon to be retired. Seventy-two percent of respondents in a recent poll by Harris Interactive and the Center for
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LIMRA Says LTC Sales Are Up in First Quarter
Individual long term care insurance sales edged into positive numbers for the first time in four years in the first quarter of 2007, with a 2 percent gain in premium over the same period last year. Policies continued to slip, with a 2 percent
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Study Finds Subsidies Won't Significantly Cut Number of Uninsured
Government subsidies that cut health insurance premium prices in half for people without insurance would reduce the number of uninsured Americans by just 3 percent, according to a RAND Corporation recent study. The study by the
Sales Review
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Closing the Door on the Close
For as long as anyone can remember, perfecting the close has been an all-consuming obsession in the sales world. Judging by the multitude of books, articles, classes, and workshops available that focus solely on the sales close, it's clear
Perspectives
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The Politics of Estate Planning
Some voters are in favor of the estate tax repeal because they believe that the tax creates unfair double taxation. Others oppose it because they feel that the potential repeal is yet another example of the rich getting richer. Many
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Where There's a Will, There's a Way
There are the philanthropists: Upon his death, Bill Gates plans to distribute most of his fortune through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which was set up to help reduce inequities in the United States and across the world.
Marketing
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Eight Ways to Win As a Multicultural Agent in America
The face of America's financial services community is changing. We often speak of America as a melting pot in which cultures and nationalities are not assimilated but rather are able to retain their identity. This, in turn, changes the
Prospecting Corner
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6 Ways to Get Referrals Without Asking
Many experts agree: You should ask your clients for referrals. But you can't ask every client every time you meet with them. So following are six proven ways to earn referrals from your clients. About 70 percent of the time,
Objection of the Month
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Objection Of The Month - October 2007
How would you respond to a prospect who says... "I don't have enough assets to worry about estate planning." "That is something I hear often, and I will tell you what I tell everyone who says, 'I
