Some LTCI Issuers Count More on Future Rate Hikes Than Others: S&P

By Allison Bell | January 11, 2019 at 02:03 PM

If state insurance regulators started rejecting too many long-term care insurance (LTCI) rate increase requests, that could cause serious reserving problems for some U.S. LTCI issuers, according to a new report from S&P Global Ratings.

Deep Banerjee and other analysts at S&P Global Ratings have included data on LTCI issuers’ rate increase revenue forecasts in a new look at the assumptions the issuers have used to set their reserves.

(Related: Fitch Wants Insurers to Post More LTCI Performance Data)

Eight insurers  with large blocks of LTCI policies on their books have assumed, when they set their LTCI reserves, that they will get permission from state insurance regulators to implement future LTCI premium increases with a total value of about $12 billion, according to S&P analyst figures.

The projected premium revenue from the “unapproved rate increases” amounts to about 11% of those eight carriers’ $108 billion in LTCI reserves.

Full Article

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The Ten Commandments of Prospecting

By Bryce Sanders

If you had to pick one set of rules with staying power, the Ten Commandments tops the list.  A second set of ten commandments, specifically written for prospecting, has come to light.

1. Thou shalt not imagine business comes to you. You must find it. You need some form of client acquisition strategy. It might be client-prospect dinners, cold calling, social media, networking, seminars, mailings or many other approaches. It must be active, not reactive.  You must be able to drive the process. It must target your market segment, not just anyone.
2. Thou shalt not have a sour attitude when prospecting. It’s a driver of future revenue, not a necessary evil. Prospects can sense the enthusiasm (or lack thereof) in your voice, posture and attitude. Don’t overthink it. Once you get started and get into a rhythm, time passes quickly.
3. Thou shalt prospect every day. Get it done early when you are fresh. Time block. Don’t skip it for four days and say you will spend all of Friday prospecting. You will end up calling in sick instead. Even the biggest producers allocate time to finding new business and new assets.
4. Thou shalt use a script. Thou shalt not wing it and make up every conversation as you go along. You initially need to get the prospect’s attention, get them engaged and lower barriers. Sometimes they can make a comment or toss out a question that throws you off course. Working with a script allows you to easily get back on track.
5. Thou shalt not take rejection personally. You approach someone for business. They say “Get lost.” Your entire relationship can be measured in seconds, not years. They don’t even know you. They either aren’t interested in buying now or don’t have money available. They’ve actually done you a favor and saved you time.

Full Article

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LTC Benefits Creep Into 2019 Medicare Advantage Plans

By Allison Bell                         

About 7.5% of enrollees will have access to extra LTC or chronic condition benefits.

Medicare Advantage plan issuers seem to be taking a quiet, careful approach to adding home- and community-based long-term care (LTC) benefits for 2019.

About 1.5 million of the 2019 enrollees, or 7.5% of Medicare Advantage plan enrollees, may have access either to support services in the home or community, or to extra benefits designed to help enrollees cope with the burden of diabetes or other chronic conditions, according to officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

But CMS officials have not given an estimate of how many enrollees might have access solely to the new home- or community-based services.

Full Article

 

To Close More Sales, Open This

John Pojeta is back with more ideas about how to turn prospects into clients.

By John Pojeta | December 14, 2018 at 01:09 PM

If I were to ask you if you have an open mind when you enter a sales conversation, you would likely nod and think, “of course I do.” Most sales people would, but an open mind is not so simple, especially as the value of a potential sale climbs higher and higher.

A first meeting with a prospect can become a complex juggling act of agendas and concerns as you and your prospect both do your best to determine if continuing the conversation is worthwhile.

As the value of the prospect increases—which means the competition for that prospect’s attention increases in tandem—creating an engaging, thought-provoking meeting becomes more and more critical. The prospect already has an advisor, and she fields pitches from your competitors on a regular basis. To win the business, you have to stand out, and that means having a different kind of conversation.

Here is what most advisors don’t do when they enter a meeting: Listen.

Full Article

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