More Sales Ideas

• Susan Glass: A champion for women in insurance The national president of Women in Insurance & Financial Services went from viewing the insurance industry as the domain of men to devoting her time to helping open doors for women. Read more.
• Beyond sales: The power of why All too often we talk to prospects and clients as experts and wrongly assume they understand the why of the conversation as well as we do. Read more.
• 5 Proven Ways to Reach Stuck Customers September’s Life Insurance Awareness Month is the perfect time to reach out to “stuck customers,” which LIMRA defines as those who know they need life insurance, but don’t have an individual policy. LIAM gives you a great “excuse” to say, “It’s Life Insurance Awareness Month. What better time than now to review your coverage?” LIMRA put together this great infographic with 5 tips to help. Read more.

Sales Ideas

• Advisor of the Year Jeff Bucher talks about the future of the industry Advisor of the Year winner Jeff Bucher talks prospecting, dealing with the DOL and predictions for the industry. Read more.
• Make “simplicity” your focus Follow these three easy steps to simplify your message for your busy clients. Read more.
• Addressing the fear inside your client The fear and uncertainty our clients are feeling right now is much more severe than we realize. Read more.
• 6 advantages of Indexed Universal Life insurance IUL policyowners enjoy virtually all the advantages they would enjoy if they owned regular universal life policies including flexibility and transparency. Read more.

New LTC entrant could appeal to execs

Bruce Shutan

September 19 2016, 4:20am EDT

A new partnership seeks to breathe new life into the long-term care insurance space, whose sales and acceptance producers have long found to be sluggish.

The National Guardian Life Insurance Co. (NGL) recently became the nation’s first insurer to enter the market for stand-alone LTC insurance in more than a decade. Teaming up with NGL is the LifeCare Assurance Company, which designed and will administer the product.

“A new entrant in the long-term care insurance market is clearly a positive development, not just for benefit brokers and advisers, but for consumers as well,” notes Teresa Miller, Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner and chair of the Long Term Care Innovation (B) Subgroup. “This is a market that has frankly struggled over the last several years as more and more companies have decided to stop selling the product.”

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The Last Word On LTCI…Myth Busters

Ronald R. Hagelman Jr.

It is certainly widely accepted that rate increases, particularly the big fat and somewhat unanticipated ones, are bad for all concerned. It should not however be a revelation be that individual health insurance is often subject to the variable and often violent wind storms created by medical inflation. Unfortunately, that universally accepted truth does not exactly hold water when viewing the history of rate increases in the world of stand-alone long term care insurance. Medical inflation has been consistent with expectations and was always a planned-for pricing consideration. The fact is that, this time, what did contribute to the creation of what I suspect looks more like an adverse selection rate spiral than anything seen before could simply not have been anticipated by those stakeholders involved in the creation and growth of this market.

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5 ways Genworth wants to reboot LTCI

Sep 07, 2016 | By Allison Bell

Thomas McInerney says private insurers can ease the burden on Medicaid

Can private long-term care insurance really do much to help the United States pay the baby boomers’ home care, adult day care and nursing home bills?

The debate has been cooling and flaring since 1989 and 1990, when the Pepper Commission was looking into the possibility of creating a universal Medicare long-term care benefits program.

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8 ways long-term care insurance applicants are different

Aug 31, 2016 | By Allison Bell

Researchers say people who seek coverage tend to be much healthier than other Americans.

The researchers confirmed what every agent knows about long-term care insurance applicants: They tend to be well-educated. 48 percent had a college degree.

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7 new LTC planning marketing graphics

Aug 16, 2016 | By Allison Bell

One of the ways you, a trusted long-term care planning advisor, can set yourself apart from the order takers is by producing content that shows how much you know.

You can tweet, post on Facebook and blog. You can appear on local talk shows, organize in-person seminars, and even try writing books.

In some cases, your source of inspiration may be obvious: You’ll take what an insurer or distributor gives you, and that’s that. Getting anything else through the necessary approval process might be too difficult.

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