Most people are more than happy to put off life insurance discussions— I know, right? IKR?
But seriously, experience has shown me the reasons that consumers hesitate to move forward. Dealing with this all the time is the difference between a financial planner and a life insurance agent!
Here's why nothing happens (sometimes):
They know they will have to pay premiums they have previously not spent, so that is new and daunting. Fear of unknown, and taking on a new obligation.
They fear it will be expensive.
They don’t want pressure from some stereotypical agent in a plaid suit.
They will need an exam:
Hassle-- They may not realize that our nurse calls you and comes to see you at your office or home, whenever you want. Easy-breezy. No cost to you, and it's mostly just blood and urine and a few questions, if at all.
Bloodwork—needles? Nurse? Covid?-- Can't help if needles freak you out. However, our nurses are professionals who do this very thing for a full time living, and have all the protocols nailed down.
Secret smokers or pot smokers or drinkers, worried about their health history for some secret reason. Maybe they never weigh themselves. Happens all the time. BTW, we have carriers who are liberal about pot.---Waiting rarely works out. While you wait, something else can happen, and it is never good. And dropping weight? Well, you need to keep it off, MD documented, for a year. So... that's a long delay.
5. People don't realize they will feel really good when they write that check, just like the secure feeling they get when instituting a financial plan with their CFP. Taking care of family responsibilities feels great, like completing home repairs. If the agent has a little bit of personality, it isn’t a difficult discussion. It can-- should-- be pleasant.
6. Sometimes, folks want to wait until they get a complete physical before they buy life insurance. Arrrgghhh! No-o-o-o-o-o! Bzzzzz.
---Don't let that happen. When you client goes "up on the hoist" and gets all sorts of fancy tests, so much can happen. The insurance exam is quick and cursory, and then we can work on getting the new policy approved.
But once your client gets a state-of-the-art calcium scoring test, all bets are off. This test almost never gives good news. Insurance rates can go through the roof once that is part of his/her permanent medical chart. Can it wait? Please, Mr/Ms Client, hold off a few months for that concierge exam!
*******************************
I am a CFP by training and that helps me understand the big financial picture, but…a life guy actually gets paid really for one thing-- to create urgency.
Otherwise people’s natural tendency is to put it off. There is always some convenient reason to do so.
And then:
They get older and insurance gets more expensive each year
Often life carriers pull an attractive policy from the market-- it happened several times in the last two years with Pru and Principal, for starters.
God forbid they get a bad result at a routine exam or get some bad news in their bloodwork, and can never buy coverage for a reasonable rate again. I have more stories like this than I can count.
Just last week I delivered 5 mill to a 32 year old physician who was issued at table 3. Last year he was preferred!. Procrastination cost him thousands per year (forever!) because in the interim they discovered a significant health issue.
You see, my Uncle Dave, who brought me in the business, taught me as a rookie that we need to love our clients. And I truly believe that. If one of my clients dies or gets disabled, I need to know that I did all I could do to make sure their life and disability planning was right on. I want clients to know as they think about their family and their income, that they did all the right stuff to take care of contingencies.
I know you feel the same way.
So, the time is now to take care of life and/or disability insurance planning. This is a critical piece of everyone's financial plan, and delay is not your friend.
Gare
