Senior Market Advisor February 01, 2008

Free Product Information

Feature

  • Get your business on course

    By Staff Writer

    Golf, despite its overwhelming popularity, is one of life's rarities. It's one of the few pastimes that doesn't have to be done particularly well to be enjoyed. While the best players in the world compete on television every week and earn vast

  • Seminars done right

    By Staff Writer

    For many advisors, the meal-based seminar remains the very bread and butter of their practices. Careful planning, well-orchestrated content and diligent follow-up with prospects can turn the events into your most effective marketing

  • Top responses to LTCI objections

    By Staff Writer

    Select SMA readers offer up their best counterpunches to the most common excuses prospects have for not purchasing long term care insurance. Any good article about overcoming objections to LTCI is bound to include direct quotes from producers out

  • 5 tips to reduce taxes on IRA earnings and, conversely, avoid penalties

    By Staff Writer

    1. Advisors should enable clients to maximize the nature of growing money tax-free with a Roth IRA, whether they are investing in traditional stocks and bonds or alternative assets like private stock, real estate, tax liens and others. 2. The

  • How to hit a moving target

    By Joseph Finora

    The ball is always in play for the senior advisor. Not only do clients' lives, needs and expectations steadily change but new regulations, laws, taxation, practice-management, recruitment and compliance issues commonly cloud the planning picture.

Special Section

Up Front

  • Spotlight figures to be brighter in 2008

    By Staff Writer

    If you thought 2007 was a rough year for the industry in the mainstream media, I wouldn't be counting on a reprieve in 2008. All indications point toward even further increased scrutiny on the tactics unscrupulous advisors use to sell annuities

That's Life

  • A light in stormy seas

    By Staff Writer

    ?? 1/2 But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.?? 1/2 ?? 1/2 Benjamin Franklin Sunny skies and smooth sailing are not always the forecast in life. Instead, more often than not we find ourselves in turbulent waters

Coach's Corner

  • How to create an album of credibility

    By Staff Writer

    The most powerful tool a salesperson can have is a third-party endorsement. Proof: verification. This is your book of evidence. In a trial, people are convicted or found not guilty based on the quality of evidence either against them or for them.

Profitable Practice

  • Practice what you preach

    By Staff Writer

    The following is based on one of Norm Trainor's clients, Ed. All of the names and telling details have been changed. As a former teacher, Ed takes great pride in teaching his clients the truths of successful investing. Yet, as his coach, I found

LTCI Insider

  • Opening up the lines of communication

    By Margie Barrie

    Q. I know asking questions to encourage prospects to share personal experiences is an important part of the first LTCI sales appointment. Can you provide some questions that will get the client talking? A. The structure of the conversation during

Annuity Advisor

  • Liquidity costs are always comparisons

    By Staff Writer

    Owners of annuities typically incur costs if they surrender an annuity prematurely. The penalty for getting out of an annuity can be as high as 25 percent, although a review of annuityspecs.com shows that the first year penalty is 10 percent or less

Marketing Playbook

  • The advantages of common ground

    By Staff Writer

    Isaac Asimov, the great science fiction writer and political philosopher, reasoned that "all things being equal, we root for our own sex, our own culture, and our own locality."

Know More

  • The brave new world of genetic testing

    By Staff Writer

    If you're a "Star Wars" or "Spider-Man" fan, you already have a glimpse of how Hollywood views the future. But let's forget George Lucas and comic books -- let''s look at your future in serving senior clients. There's something

Practice Management

  • Estate planning is not succession planning

    By Staff Writer

    Estate planning consists in part of deciding how property should be distributed at death. Succession planning focuses on decisions about the form of ownership and the organization and operation of the business, including the eventual transfer of the

Ethics in Action

  • Drive at high speed to success

    By Steven McCarty

    Welcome to the Internet autobahn, where information zooms from carriers, to advisors, to FMOs, to regulators, to the media, to clients and back again -- in seconds. It's a world that has rendered the following excuse obsolete: "No one told

The Motivated Seller

Compliance Watch

  • California ponders restricting annuity sales

    By David Hollander

    Last August, I testified at a public discussion regarding possible additions to the California Code of Insurance Regulations, dealing with annuities sales to seniors -changes that are being prompted by new powers awarded to the state's Insurance

The Close

Feedback

  • Readers react to "The art of the seminar"

    By Staff Writer

    I handle seminars about 75 percent the way you describe [in the January cover story on Phil Cannella, "The art of the seminar". I have tried both Power-Point-type seminars and workbooks and currently combine the two. The invitation tips were most

Seniors Speak Out

Vitals

  • Study looks at retirement problems

    By Staff Writer

    The retirement wave is coming. To address some of the questions that are sure to arise and provide some potential solutions, the MetLife Mature Market Institute conducted a study, ?? 1/2 Searching for the Silver Bullet: Leading Edge Solutions for

  • Industry trade associations merge

    By Staff Writer

    Two of the better-known trade associations in the insurance and financial services industry approved a merger that went into effect Jan. 1. LIMRA International and LOMA members voted to unite the organizations, and they did so with a unanimous

  • Insurance trends to watch

    By Staff Writer

    Too many Americans are woefully short of proper life insurance coverage, according to groups like LIMRA and the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education. The reasons for this lack of coverage are manifold, and financial advisors are st

Out & About

  • Unkefer & Associates' Christmas celebration

    By Staff Writer

    Thirty-four people gathered together with Unkefer & Associates employees in December to join in a Christmas celebration and mark a company milestone of topping $3 billion in annuity and life insurance sales. The event was held atop the tallest

New Products

  • Jackson enhances VA lineup

    By Staff Writer

    Retirement isn't a short-term proposition anymore. Americans can expect to live 20, 25, even 30 years after they retire, which means longterm strategies have to be implemented. If younger seniors and older boomers are comfortable with some risk in

  • ING expands FIA market

    By Staff Writer

    Three new fixed index annuities make up ING USA Annuity and Life Insurance Company's family of ING Envoy annuities. All three FIAs feature withdrawal flexibility based on what the company calls "windows of opportunity," which allow full or

  • Exchanges, replacements made easier

    By Staff Writer

    A new tool from Blue Frog Solutions, a technology solutions provider and business processing outsourcing firm, will make it possible for advisors to analyze and evaluate annuity 1035 exchanges and qualified plan replacements more easily. The

  • Final expense products announced

    By Staff Writer

    The days after the death of a loved one are emotional and sometimes confusing. As funerals become more expensive and taking care of any final bills remains cumbersome, insurance products that help survivors grow in popularity. Lincoln Heritage

Red Flag Reminder

  • Join, don't fight, the senior protection movement

    By Staff Writer

    Regulators and lawmakers are ramping up efforts to protect seniors in response to increasing levels of senior fraud. But rather than view these efforts as yet another regulatory burden, financial services companies should recognize opportunities