Thought for the day:

In life, as in Golf, You can hit a two acre fairway 10% of the time and a two inch branch 90% of the time.   -Unknown

If you will read no further:

Just about every day at Westland Financial we are made aware of another individual who has waited too long to buy insurance that they now would pay almost anything to have.  We wonder if the advisor ever thinks about what would be if they had approached the client sooner instead of waiting for the client to ask them to look into it.  Westland helps make the process of buying/selling insurance as painless as possible.  Reviewing current coverage and considering additional, is not all that difficult with us by your side in the process.

In the grand scheme of life, buying insurance that is never needed is a small item.  Needing insurance and not having it….makes you feel foolish

Thought for the week:

Recently I was asked to help one of our advisor’s clients who has term insurance which is terminating after 15 years and the client wants to continue coverage for a while.  Whoever originally sold him the policy was clearly not interested in preparing for such a possibility, as our client has few options because he is now pre-diabetic.  And now we know why he wants to “continue the coverage for a while”.

Not all term insurance is created equal.  We have a great website quote engine that will provide you with alternatives and prices of the best insurance carriers in the business.  But it is important to understand that price should not necessarily be the only consideration when purchasing term insurance for your client.

Several questions should be considered

1. 1. Is the insurance really just temporary? If your client’s health were to fail, would you want him/her to have viable conversion alternatives?
      1. Most policies have conversion privileges, but sometimes the cheapest do not allow you to choose from their regular portfolio for a conversion. In such a case your client may be required to pay considerably more to convert.
      2. If we are talking about $1/2 million or less, probably no big deal. But, if it is a large amount of insurance, it’s a good idea to go with a carrier with a full inventory of alternatives available?
   2. How healthy is your client?  The difference between Super Preferred (fairly rare) and Standard risk class is substantial within one carrier.
      1. That may not be the case when comparing one carrier to another, depending on the health issues the client has. Concern about various health conditions vary in significance from carrier to carrier. If your client has any health issues and you are purchasing a large policy, it’s best to have us do some pre-qualification before selecting the carrier.
   3. Will the client be paying Annual or some other mode?
      1. Be sure to check to make sure there isn’t a big surcharge for monthly or quarterly premiums.
   4. Are the clients future needs important to consider? While this is often hard to know now, reducing insurance in the future may be an issue.
      1. Consider laddering or splitting term policies so that one can be dropped while leaving others in force. Or purchase half the insurance with a longer term period even though that is not anticipated now. The difference in cost may be modest, but the value 10 years from now could be great.

Questions like these are the kind that our life insurance experts, Nancy Woo and Randy Masciarelli deal with daily. Take advantage of their expertise when you have to acquire term insurance for your client. They can help you provide expert service your client won’t get from an online provider. They can also make it easier to sell it. Call them at (800)238-8144

A couple of announcements:

• John Hancock’s Cost of care survey is available now to provide you with current costs for long-term care in your community.  We know you have been curious so, indulge yourself.
• Genworth has increased the credited interest rate for the new Total Living Coverage policies from 3.25% to 3.85%. This new rate will be available in all states except CA, CT, FL, HI, IN, NJ and NY.  We are liking TLC more and more.