When last we left our hero (me), just over a month had passed since Morstan was taken over by Brown and Brown and things were going “Gang Busters”. Well we are a little over two months into it now. I guess this is where the rubber meets the road! In our last episode I was so excited by the number of Brokers that stayed with us as we formed our own company, post Brown and Brown take over. Since Episode 1 we have had to hire more support staff and our Website Development coupled with Life Insurance Carriers is going brilliantly.

It’s nice to be able to choose your partners and not be obliged to work with them just because some corporation and your boss says you need to. I guess that was the best feeling of all, Independence!

Rather than be anecdotal, here is what really happened –

The Story of Broker Number One – This guy was really looking for help in developing his Life Business, he knew that it was a great retention tool. Unfortunately, until now he was not very successful in doing so. According to him, he could never get any of his clients to talk about their Life Insurance with him and he really had no confidence in himself. I tried to explain that his clients needed to feel that there was a level of knowledge that he had which would allow them to open up, but I think he approached the Life aspect like a P&C Sale. This P&C Broker just did not feel comfortable discussing anything other than the simplest of products, (term, etc). Anyway, I told him about a program we were launching called LIFE SUPPORT PLATFORM ™, that gives P&C Brokers 7 day a week access to their own Life Insurance Support Specialist. Of course his first question is “how much of the deal do you take”? “Nothing” I said… Then a corrected myself… “That all depends”, “If you just need us on the phone to talk to your client, introducing us as your in-house Life Staff, we take nothing”, “you keep all the comp”… “If it’s just a matter of getting us on the phone to explain a product or help figure out what the client is really looking for and run some numbers real time it’s not a problem”. “If by chance it turns out to be a case that you feel is out of your grasp and beyond your scope of knowledge and we need to meet with the client face to face or go to their home… That is a different matter” I explained. “OK, sounds good” the Broker replied, and jumped on-board (with two feet!) In the first week he had us on the phone with three different clients. Two were pretty easy, Term, best price, navigating through different risk classes as we got information for them… 2 term Apps… BINGO! Broker Happy – Great Service…

The third client was a bit more involved. He had gotten kind of a raw deal from another Life Agent and asked if I could come see him in his home (a 90-minute drive away). I spoke to him and qualified him as being genuinely interested in knowing if he had gotten the shaft by this other Life Agent… Well the answer was he didn’t! I arrived at his house and looked over the Whole Life Policy he had, it was a good one, and he received a good risk class and premium. Too bad the agent didn’t stop there… he saw there was some more money on the table and sold the client an additional product that was really useless and did not have much value – the premium was not big but it was a waste… The client was a little upset and wanted to rewrite both policies – I explained to him that because he had accrued and borrowed against the other WL Policy it really was not in his interest to get out of it. Best thing was to keep it, repay the loan he took and let it keep growing with the healthy dividend structure it provided… “Forget the guy who sold it to you” I said… “It’s a good product”, “keep it”! So now he was going to cancel this other policy… fine… Then he starts asking me about what kind of policies can afford him a good dividend structure or perhaps do even better…. He explained that he would like to start putting money into some kind of high yield fund but wanted the benefit of Life Insurance for his family. “IUL”! I exclaimed, participation in the market with a floor is 0 loss – so he will never lose any of his basis and can participate in gains when the market goes up. Even better the IUL I had in mind had a guaranteed coverage to age 85…! He was ecstatic! Loved the idea!… long story short, by the end of the week I was back in his house (another 90-minute drive) taking an application for $9,000 a year in premium on a great product.

This leads us back to the Broker… The client called him to thank him for sending over his “Life Guy” who didn’t try to sell him anything, but came with real valuable advice, on top of that the Broker will get the “Lions Share” of the case (60%) which he would have never seen any of had he not utilized the LIFE SUPPORT PLATFORM ™. For me I am happy to get this Broker writing, helping him with the other two term cases (about 5,000 in premium), and well if a case like this pops up once in a while, that’s OK too.

The Story of Broker Number Two – There is not much to tell – You see this Broker was really only interested in quoting the products to his clients according to which insurance company had the highest comp. “That’s not the way we do things” I explained… “That’s not how you are going to grow your Life Business”. “As a matter of fact, that’s a great way to diminish the value in your P&C Business”, “and since we are here to increase the value of your P&C Business, we won’t work like that”. I left off explaining that “we are happy to work with you if you want to show your clients value” – “If it’s just about trying to score”… “Sorry we’re out”! and that was that…

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