Met Study

[somarco]

According to a Met Life study, the premature death of a spouse caused a major or devastating impact on finances.

More than half of the surviving spouses who received life insurance proceeds described the amount of coverage as "inadequate.

On average, it took surviving families four to five years to recover financially from the premature death.

The vast majority of surviving families had to make significant adjustments to cope with the financial impact of the death.

 

[James]

And Met conclusion is what???

More coverage provided at work, it is up to the employer to fix this! Great answer Met!

Now I hope you know I'm getting somewhat sarcastic at Met's conclusion.

 

[somarco]

Well, the study was commissioned by the group department . . .

My feeling is, if it causes people to rethink their position on life insurance, then it is a good thing.

 

[bartimus]

We live in a price based society. People want coverage but they want the lowest price possible which will come at the expense of adequate coverage. Unfortunately, many agents who are eager to get business over the greater good of their clients will sell policies on price, not value. This leads to under coverage and issues if tragedy happens and the insurance is needed.

When you consider the minimal cost of life insurance and the real cost of living without the income of the spouse who was covered, the value sale seems like a no-brainer over the price sale every time. The difference is premium cost is minimal compared to the reality of under coverage.

 

[micahme2]

consumers really don't know how to calculate coverage, at least not enoulgh to keep them stable after death of companion.

 

[micahme2]

That is agreeable, most consumer don't know what they need but it is very important the the agent knows what he is doing to make sure that price does not become the greater issue with clients. Price comes in when agent is product relation and not client relation. The first need isto know client to assess the proper need. If the assessment is thorough, the client accepts the value over price.

 

[James]

Hey, I got an idea? Why don't these large Insurance Companies start hiring more agents and sell more and better products, hell they might even be able to sweeten the enticements for agents? Gee, what an idea??? I'm not trying to pick on Met, way too many carriers have left the marketing game and things are going downhill it would seem.

 

[somarco]

way too many carriers have left the marketing game and things are going downhill it would seem.

I had that exact conversation with a college buddy a few days ago. Where does someone go to learn the life insurance business? There are very few career shops. Most of the big mutuals demutualized and then were gobbled up by other carriers usually in Europe.

It seems the ones that are left only want to do brokerage which is fine up to a point. But if there are no new agents coming along to replace the older ones where will the brokers come from in the next few years?

Of course a lot of the career shops were run by people who could not sell and really had no clue what was going on. I can probably name 10 guys at most who were GA's or managers in career shops that really knew what they were doing.

I'm sure there are some out there, but I can't think of anyone under the age of 40 who, as an agent, is actively pursuing (and being successful) the estate planning or business continuation market. There is no one left to train them.

For all practical purposes, there are 3 career shops in Atlanta that are making it work. Guardian, NWML and NYL. All the others are mostly satellite offices, part of a network of half a dozen or so agencies.

Go back 20 years ago and I could add MONY, Penn Mutual, New England, Mass, JHL and a few others to the mix.

All gone.

Knoxville really never had anything dynamic, at least not in the last 30 years. Chattanooga had a good shop for Provident and a decent one for JHL. Nashville had a great Mutual Ben shop at one time.

All of these are gone too.

 

[James]

I had that exact conversation with a college buddy a few days ago. Where does someone go to learn the life insurance business? There are very few career shops. Most of the big mutuals demutualized and then were gobbled up by other carriers usually in Europe.

It seems the ones that are left only want to do brokerage which is fine up to a point. But if there are no new agents coming along to replace the older ones where will the brokers come from in the next few years?

Of course a lot of the career shops were run by people who could not sell and really had no clue what was going on. I can probably name 10 guys at most who were GA's or managers in career shops that really knew what they were doing.

I'm sure there are some out there, but I can't think of anyone under the age of 40 who, as an agent, is actively pursuing (and being successful) the estate planning or business continuation market. There is no one left to train them.

For all practical purposes, there are 3 career shops in Atlanta that are making it work. Guardian, NWML and NYL. All the others are mostly satellite offices, part of a network of half a dozen or so agencies.

Go back 20 years ago and I could add MONY, Penn Mutual, New England, Mass, JHL and a few others to the mix.

All gone.

Knoxville really never had anything dynamic, at least not in the last 30 years. Chattanooga had a good shop for Provident and a decent one for JHL. Nashville had a great Mutual Ben shop at one time.

All of these are gone too.

It is no doubt, if you can't teach yourself today there are very few good avenues! Yet Knoxville does have a good NYL office, the district or area manager seem to have quite a few years under his belt. I still wonder how it would of turned out if I decided to actually work for them?

NOT

 

[padthaiforlunch]

Where does someone go to learn the life insurance business?

I'm sure there are some out there, but I can't think of anyone under the age of 40 who, as an agent, is actively pursuing (and being successful) the estate planning or business continuation market. There is no one left to train them.

And so I come here and elsewhere on the nets trying to learn. I have enough sales experience (and dog knows there are enough books about it, but sourcing info on life and how to talk about it is quite the challenge.

I drool at the though of working the estate planning market, but I realize I need to learn to walk before running. Have to admit I find DI to be very interesting, but it seems the GA's (fmo's) I come across are interested in annuities and life. I've contacted Bisys, and I have a password for their site, but my contact pretty much blew me of when I said I was new. Suggestions??

If some of you really smart guys want to recommend a reading list instead of writing a treatise, I am all eyes!