Secrets to Learning product (are there...??)

[TheBatman]

When I first got started, I made a grave mistake of contracting with anyone and everyone and overwhelmed myself.

I've fixed that, but there are still quite a few carriers in motion. Do any of you know any tricks to learning basics about the products or do you just look things up on the fly? I know the more I'm in the application process, the more familiar things will get (build charts, product quirks, whatever) but are there any hacks anyone wants to drop?

 

[DHK]

Here's the biggest hack:

Most products (contracts) are about the same.

If you understand the basics of cash value life insurance, and how the general investment account works, they can't be that much different from one company to another. They'll just have a different dividend estimate (whole life) or different options budget (IUL).

The biggest thing I'd look at are definitions and terminology.

For example: does the contract have disability waiver of premium? Is it just a waiver of costs of insurance? Or will it add additional cash to the contract? Is there a cap of premium or is it the entire illustrated premium?

Is the disability considered any occupation or own-occupation?

Look up the living benefit riders and understand how those work.

As far as build charts and illnesses/conditions, there will be some slight differences from carrier to carrier, but it won't be so huge to create a monopoly for that issue. Companies don't want adverse selection of only retaining poor risks on the books.

As @Sheryl J Moore wrote a few years ago in NAILBA Perspectives: "If a product is SO MUCH MORE competitive than others, the insurance company will have to be made whole eventually."

The next 'hack' is to have 1-2 primary companies for most of your business and just deviate as needed - usually for a given rider or a medical condition.

Don't overcomplicate it.