The Difference is in the Policy

Don't avoid discussing Long Term Care (LTC) products with your clients, especially not during the month of November. As an adviser, you should be using this month as your opportunity to start educating your clients and prospects about the importance of including this vital coverage in their

financial plan.

Over the past several years, traditional LTC products have struggled due to increasing premiums. At the same time, combination policies for LTC and Life or Annuity have been gaining in popularity.

According to the Journal of Financial Planning, traditional LTC plans are still cheaper than combination plans. It stands to reason that a product that does one thing compared to a product that doubles up would cost less.

The "use it or lose it" scenario of a traditional LTC policy causes the combination policies to look very attractive. For many advisers, explaining that a policy can provide both the LTC benefit and a death benefit is easy, and with that kind of flexibility your clients can see their money working for them. Education for yourself and your clients is key to the sale.

If you are not sure how to get the LTC conversation started with your clients, MVP can help. Visit our website, www.mvp4me.com or contact us.

September is…?

No, not NFL football season…September is Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM).

True, If there were official rankings for public knowledge of all the themed calendar
dates in a year, Life Insurance Awareness Month would probably fall somewhere

between National Bath Safety Month (January, in case you were wondering) and Pet Peeve Week (October).

This September marks the 12th anniversary of LIAM. While the event is well known among industry insiders, it’s barely on the radar for a significant portion of the general population.

If you look at the statistics, it’s startling how under-insured we are
in this nation, it should be our mission to have that life insurance conversation with every person we touch.

And that’s a lot of lives…

Here’s the bottom line: A majority of families have either no life insurance or not enough;
leaving them one accident or terminal illness away from a financial catastrophe for
their loved ones.

The questions to ask your clients are simple… What if you were suddenly gone and your
family had to manage on their own? When was the last time you did the math to make

MVP Financial Services, Inc.
is a proud member of AimcoR
Group, a national IMO. 

sure your loved ones would be OK financially? Have you checked with your employer to find out what kind of life insurance benefit you have through work and whether you have the option to increase your coverage? When was the last time you had your life insurance needs reviewed by an insurance professional?

To make sure Americans are reminded of the need to include life insurance in their financial plans, the nonprofit LIFE Foundation coordinates Life Insurance Awareness Month. Each September, LIFE is joined in this educational initiative by more than 100 of
the nation’s leading insurance companies and industry groups.

Your client’s family financial future is too important to leave to chance. 
     Check out these websites for LIAM materials and resources:

• LifeHappens.com
• MVP4me.com      

This blog post was brought to you by AimcoR Group.

Have Clients that Work for a Living?

It's the end of May and the industry push for Disability Insurance Awareness Month is coming to a close. Did you do your part to promote disability income protection in your practice this past month? Will you continue to promote it? Is it your ethical obligation to make sure that your clients are

protected? We think it might be.

Whatever your primary business is, let's just say, for the purpose of example, that it's selling life insurance... So you sell a life insurance policy to your client to protect their estate, their retirement, their loved ones; and you don't talk to them about disability insurance to protect their income. Then your client becomes disabled. Instead of their first phone call being to you to help them set the wheels in motion to tap into their disability policy, maybe their first phone call will be to their lawyer because you didn't offer them disability insurance as a means to protect their income. Suddenly the burden has fallen right into your lap.

If you have clients that work for a living, not only should you be selling the idea of financial protection, your most serious advice to them should be about protecting their paycheck.  95% of disabling accidents and illnesses are not work related, so Worker's Compensation doesn't cover them and only 1/3 of workers have access to a disability insurance plan at work. 

If you sell disability insurance, you must also practice what you preach, and buy a disability policy on yourself. When you purchase a disability insurance policy on yourself, you benefit in many ways:

• You experience firsthand the application and underwriting process, giving you valuable insight into what your clients will experience
• You address your own income protection needs
• You earn first-year commissions and ongoing renewals that help offset a portion of your premium each year

According to Life Happens, approximately every 7 seconds, a working-age American suffers a disabling injury or illness that will last for at least one month. 50% of them wouldn't be able to meet their expenses after one month without a paycheck and some won't last even that long. 

Selling disability insurance is also a huge market opportunity because there aren't many agents selling it. 51% of consumers are concerned about supporting themselves if they were injured or became ill and couldn't work, but only 29% actually own disability insurance. 

The disability insurance sale is a more difficult one, but if you put forth the effort, it pays well and it might help you sleep better at night. We challenge you to find ways to make the need for disability insurance relate-able to your clients. There are many tools and calculators available to help you draw connections between the coverage and your clients’ everyday lives. 

*All references to statistics can be found at lifehappens.org.

Policy Reviews After the GUL Downturn

Life insurance is not for your clients, it is for their next generation. This might have been a true statement three years ago, before the introduction of actuarial guideline 38 (AG38) and when guaranteed universal life products were cheap, provided “guaranteed” protection for life, and carried

little to no cash value inside of the policy. Arguably, the only value of a GUL contract to the insured was the amount that it could bring in the secondary market, and even then, this is a market tainted with hidden fees, and a bad reputation for taking advantage of their prospective clients. Whit that said, it did not change the fact that most advisors and brokerage agencies were all about guaranteed universal life. It was easy, required little skill to sell and when used in a life insurance policy review process, could provide longer guarantees and lower premium payments to the client making it an easy decision to replace that policy purchased in the 80’s, 90’s or early 2000’s that was under-performing and requiring additional premium. Yes, over the first decade of the new century and for a few years following 2010 permanent life insurance for the first time could be sold on a spreadsheet and the cheapest cost with the highest commission was the way to go. The art of storytelling and the value behind the products we sell became obsolete. The focus was solely on price and for most, life was good. Brokerage agencies and their advisors sold more life insurance then in years past and replacements, 1035 exchanges and policy reviews became a larger source of annual revenue for both the advisor and BGA.

Read the entire Whitepaper here | Get the entire Policy Review e-Kit here

Happy New Year!

Like most people, you probably want many more new years? Our government says you probably will, and they are never wrong. According to the Social Security Administration, the new average life expectancy for a male, age 65, is 84.3 years. For a 65 year-old female, it is 86.6 years. This positive information allows us to think of so many opportunities such as, new avocations, travel, a second career, and volunteer work for our favorite organization.

Here's some additional good news: According to the experts, it only takes about $166,000 in savings to provide $1,000 per month over 20 years (assuming a 6% return and 2% inflation). If the average American can live on $60,000 per year they need to have only $800k - $1M of liquidity to live 20-30 years past age 65. And even more good news: There is still Social Security to hope for.

Now some troubling statistics: The average 401k plan contains $74,600. The average American over age 55 has about $155,000 in savings and pensions. All of this money lasts only 4 years if they stop working at age 65. And by the way, if the average American doesn't die immediately but suffers from a critical illness, the average cost associated with that illness is about $200,000.

Just in case you haven’t noticed, there is a dramatic gap between what Americans have and what they will need.

Your industry has decided to focus on this problem and give you a chance to not only make a difference, but to also build a very successful practice. Emphasis is once again being placed on cash accumulation. Flexibility is being built into products for access in the event of chronic or critical illness. There are even products that will allow access to the death benefit to supplement retirement.

These solutions will require more education and knowledge, and MVP stands ready to support you with classes, webinars, and written materials. All studies show that the average American wants an advisor to help them provide solutions. MVP looks forward to being your partner in 2015, and we challenge you to challenge us to be that resource.

Thank you for your business and for making MVP one of the most highly respected life brokerage leaders in our industry.