- 5,575
So what exactly do you mean here?
Why does Final Expense feel scummy
- Thread starter DHurd
- Start date
So what exactly do you mean here?
- 11,996
Sometime next year I'll have spent over $500k on attorney fees... f**k attorneys... if you want to talk about parasites, that's a keeper.
- 5,302
Two attorneys will thrive in a town where one attorney would starve.
- 5,575
matt0420228
New Member
- 10
Got some real Pro's on here. Find the solution to their problem, and you will not feel anything but good because you helped their family. Just listen to their needs, they need HELP and you should be the HELP/solution to their needs. Put yourself in the clients shoes, sometimes they are desperate to get everything in order. It is a big weight that is lifted off their shoulders when they know their family will have less to worry about when they pass on.
If you don't like the leads fish with a different bait. Scripts can usually be bullet pointed into a checklist just hit the main points and get a commitment check box and move to next point. This sometimes helps someone not come off quite as canned. In person in old days when it was all paper I just wanted them to see me with a pen in hand writing so it wasn't a big surprise when I began the real writing. It was a different but similar profession.
- 2,584
I hear what you are saying. I understand why some people in these shows choose to live off grid. Looks like a tough existence too though.
tikibarrister
Guru
- 473
I believe the product fills an important niche. The product itself is in no way a scam and is usually a good solution for clients who buy it.
However, I also believe the way it's sold is often scummy.
What's the classic lead? A highly deceptive postcard. Look at the language:
"BENEFIT INFORMATION" - it's not a government benefit. It's a private company product.
"STATE-REGULATED PROGRAM" - so is gasoline. So is pornography. State-regulated doesn't mean state-endorsed.
"THIS BENEFIT WILL PAY FOR 100% OF ALL FUNERAL EXPENSES UP TO $30,000" - an abuse of the term "benefit". Insurance people mean "death beenfit". 99.9% of seniors think "government benefit paid for by taxes".
"RECEIVE FREE INFORMATION BY RETURNING THIS CARD" - which to most people means in the mail. Most people aren't expecting a salesman to call...or just show up at their door and knock.
Because of competition, lead costs have grown to the point where no FE guy worth his salt is going to let a lead go without working them to death. Seniors get STACKS of cards and God help them if they reply to one. Salesmen range from true information-sharers to used car salesmen.
And of course, I'm talking about the best FE people here. There's also the TV companies that only sell GI and the client never learns they could have gotten much more elsewhere, or the agents that will replace a three-year-old product with a new product with a two-year wait, etc.
Again, I do think there are a class of people that need the product. But the industry...
However, I also believe the way it's sold is often scummy.
What's the classic lead? A highly deceptive postcard. Look at the language:
"BENEFIT INFORMATION" - it's not a government benefit. It's a private company product.
"STATE-REGULATED PROGRAM" - so is gasoline. So is pornography. State-regulated doesn't mean state-endorsed.
"THIS BENEFIT WILL PAY FOR 100% OF ALL FUNERAL EXPENSES UP TO $30,000" - an abuse of the term "benefit". Insurance people mean "death beenfit". 99.9% of seniors think "government benefit paid for by taxes".
"RECEIVE FREE INFORMATION BY RETURNING THIS CARD" - which to most people means in the mail. Most people aren't expecting a salesman to call...or just show up at their door and knock.
Because of competition, lead costs have grown to the point where no FE guy worth his salt is going to let a lead go without working them to death. Seniors get STACKS of cards and God help them if they reply to one. Salesmen range from true information-sharers to used car salesmen.
And of course, I'm talking about the best FE people here. There's also the TV companies that only sell GI and the client never learns they could have gotten much more elsewhere, or the agents that will replace a three-year-old product with a new product with a two-year wait, etc.
Again, I do think there are a class of people that need the product. But the industry...
- 2,038
A true cobra feels no sympathy for it's meals.
- 4,060
Years ago I was at a country club attending a NAIFA meeting. A law firm from nearby was also having a lunch meeting. At the lunch buffet I ran into an acquaintance I had known while he was still in college. He had become an estate planning attorney and asked me for my card. He called a couple days later and invited me for lunch.
It became clear as lunch progressed that his main interest in me was as a potential referral source (and it probably wasn’t exactly going to be a two-way street). I made it clear that most of my clientele weren’t going to have the kind of assets or income he would be looking for.
But he astutely observed that in the world I was working in, a funeral bill would be devastating to a family of modest means. In reality, it could be much more devastating than the estate tax bill on the families he was serving. So he pointed out that, in my own way, I was doing estate planning, too, just for a very different demographic. He observed that the people I was serving probably needed me as much, if not more, than his clients needed him.
He did not think I was scummy.
It became clear as lunch progressed that his main interest in me was as a potential referral source (and it probably wasn’t exactly going to be a two-way street). I made it clear that most of my clientele weren’t going to have the kind of assets or income he would be looking for.
But he astutely observed that in the world I was working in, a funeral bill would be devastating to a family of modest means. In reality, it could be much more devastating than the estate tax bill on the families he was serving. So he pointed out that, in my own way, I was doing estate planning, too, just for a very different demographic. He observed that the people I was serving probably needed me as much, if not more, than his clients needed him.
He did not think I was scummy.
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