Life Insurance Sales & Marketing Strategies for Financial Professionals

Women Are Ready for Long-Term Care Discussions

October 30, 2019by Highland Capital Brokerage in Long-Term Care

Two women

In your client meetings, which spouse has more influence on decisions? Perhaps you have noticed women are taking an increasingly larger role when couples implement your recommendations.

A survey by LIMRA revealed that women are much more likely to take action than men when it comes to retirement planning. And they are more concerned than men about their financial security risks in retirement (LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute Risk Perceptions study, 2018).

Keep this in mind when discussing long-term care with your clients.

Overcoming the Complexity of Placing U.S. Life Insurance on Japanese Nationals/Citizens

October 23, 2019by Highland Capital Brokerage in Foreign National

Japanese Family

A Plan to Avoid Japanese Gift Taxes while Minimizing U.S. Estate Tax Exposure

Meet the Tanaka Family

Michael and Michelle Tanaka, Ages 38 and 36 (respectively), Married *
Harry Tanaka, Age 6, Son of Michael and Michelle Tanaka *

* Dual Citizens of Japan and U.S.

The Need for U.S. Life Insurance

Michael Tanaka has been a serial tech entrepreneur since graduating in 2004 with master’s degrees in mathematics and computer science. In 2012, Michael created Tanaka, Inc., a technology startup focused on creating sophisticated algorithms that had the potential to revolutionize the quality control systems for major industrial manufacturing companies. A significant technological breakthrough in mid-2017 captured the attention of some of the world’s most powerful multi-national corporations. After receiving several enticing offers, Tanaka, Inc. was sold to ABC World, Inc. for a purchase price of $100MM, to be paid over a 5-year period.

Michael quickly realized that the sale of Tanaka, Inc. would require him to engage a team of financial, accounting and legal experts to assist him in managing and protecting the product of his hard work. One member of that team, a sophisticated estate planning attorney, advised Michael that the need for U.S. life insurance was an essential element to his estate plan, but that Japanese gift tax laws made the placement of U.S. life insurance in a traditional irrevocable life insurance trust (“ILIT”) problematic. Specifically, even though the Tanaka family currently resides in the U.S., the Japanese gift tax laws would continue to attach to them for an additional 6-years because the family established residency in Japan, known as “Jusho”, 4 years ago when they moved to Okinawa to help Michelle’s mother, who was dying of cancer. During the next 6-years, any gifts from Michael to a U.S. situs ILIT would trigger a Japanese gift tax (55% top tax-rate), thus frustrating the ability to fund the ILIT with standard gifting and loan strategies.

Why It’s Time for the Long-Term Care Conversation

October 16, 2019by Highland Capital Brokerage in Long-Term Care

Why It's Time for LTC header

Here’s a list of the most important reasons to talk about long-term care insurance.

Your clients

Clients rely on your expertise and recommendations when it comes to protecting assets and planning for their future. In many cases, your guidance is essential to their peace of mind.

That’s especially true with decisions about long-term care insurance. In fact, 90 percent of consumers surveyed agree their financial advisors should discuss LTC plans with them. (VerstaResearch 2017).

Your clients want you to bring it up – not because aging and health care are as engaging as steady portfolio performance. Rather, they likely know families and colleagues whose lives have been touched by the emotional, physical and financial impact of a health crisis. And your clients want to be prepared.

3 Keys to Producer Success

October 8, 2019by Thomas R. Kestler, CFP®, CLU®, ChFC®, CMFC®, CSA® in Lifestyle

I am often asked by new and old agents alike, “What does it take to become really successful in this business?” What I’ve learned over the years is that there is no one thing that, like a magic pill, will guarantee success. Instead, there are three key things that, when applied consistently, can keep you on track for success and help you avoid failure.

1. Relationships. The relationships you build, nurture and value could be the single most important success strategy in your business – and your personal life. While we cannot choose our family, we all make choices daily on who our friends are, who our idols are, who we hang out with, and who we choose to marry. These choices have an immeasurable effect on who we become and how we see ourselves. Just like the statement, “You are what you eat,” you become like those with whom you choose to associate. The books you read, the TV shows you watch, the recordings you listen to, all combine like tiny threads to form a rope of bondage – or a lifeline. Which one do you have?

Table 10-8-6: SWAT Underwriting to The Rescue

October 1, 2019by Highland Capital Brokerage in Underwriting

SWAT Underwriting to The Rescue

The SWAT Underwriting team at Highland is respected in the industry. Carriers know this team “plays fair” with their case requests and this engenders trust. When a borderline case arises, the carrier will give more consideration to the SWAT team. This is much like basic human nature — people will work harder to find a solution for you when they trust you. In the case study below, learn how this diabetic client benefited from the seasoned SWAT Underwriting team.

Client Profile

Client: Male, Age 35, Smoker
Health: Insulin-dependent diabetic, Age 14 onset
Life Insurance Requested: $4M IUL
Initial Offer: Table 10
Offer with Credits for Control: Table 8
SWAT Intervention Offer: Table 6

Typically, an insurance carrier’s best offer for an applicant who is a smoker and has insulin dependent diabetes is a Table 10. However, in this case, because the diabetes was well controlled, the carrier offered credits which improved rating to a Table 8.

The client did not accept the offer.

Enter SWAT.

Who needs life insurance?

September 24, 2019by Highland Capital Brokerage in Life Insurance

Who needs life insurance? Well, almost everyone. Purchasing life insurance can seem mistakenly complicated and expensive – but it doesn’t have to be.

Some of the most common reasons people buy life insurance are to replace income, pay for funeral expenses, transfer wealth to the next generation, pay off a mortgage, or pass on a business. There are also many reasons people choose not to buy it. Other financial priorities get in the way or people mistakenly think it’s too expensive. If they have life insurance already, they may think they have enough despite life circumstances changing like getting married, having a baby, or buying a new house. Life insurance costs less than most people think. The fact is, a $250,000 term policy only costs, on average, $160/year for a healthy 30 year old.¹

This video illustrates the need for life insurance and highlights common misconceptions while emphasizing its affordability. Share this video now with your community and encourage those you know to make an appointment and speak with an advisor today.

¹Source: 2019 Insurance Barometer Study, LIMRA and Life Happens

Download and share this video with your online community. Spread the word about life insurance and make a difference in the lives of loved ones now.

LIAM: Start the Conversation Now

September 10, 2019by Highland Capital Brokerage in Life Insurance

Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM) is the perfect opportunity to reach out to your clients about life insurance. Whether it’s a life event like a new baby or a wedding or divorce, circumstances change and so does the need for life insurance.

Many organizations like “Life Happens” will be flooding social media and advertising channels to remind consumers about the need for life insurance. Don’t miss the opportunity, while it’s top of mind, to reach out and engage clients and potential clients during Life Insurance Awareness Month.

Life Insurance: It’s Not for You. It’s for Them.

September 3, 2019by Highland Capital Brokerage in Life Insurance

Across the nation, September marks Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM). LIAM serves as a necessary reminder to individuals that life insurance is an important, and often forgotten part of financial planning.

The theme this year, “It’s not for you. It’s for them.”, by Life Happens, annual organizer of LIAM, is focused on who life insurance is really meant to protect – your loved ones. There are few better ways to illustrate this than by watching the role parents play in families.

Think about how many ways parents support their loved ones — the indispensable tasks they take care of on a daily basis. What happens when that support is interrupted? While life insurance can’t replace a loved one, it can make the financial path easier for those left behind. Once the life insurance is in place, it is done. No more thinking about it.

Encourage those you know to make an appointment and speak with an advisor today.

Have You Stress-Tested Your Premium Financing Proposal?

August 27, 2019by Michael J. Sapyta, CFP®, CLU® in Life Insurance

In order to educate clients on the inherent risks of a premium financing program, it is important to “stress test” any plan proposals. Stress-testing may involve any of the following:

Illustrating the plan using reasonable increasing future cost of borrowing
Illustrating the policy with a lower than current crediting rate, we suggest using 85% of the current rate
Illustrating the combined effect of 1 and 2

The best way to demonstrate the importance of stress testing your premium financing cases can be illustrated by using a real example. Highland was asked to opine on a financed supplemental retirement income design, using a leveraged indexed universal life product. The client, a male aged 40, was to borrow $200,000 a year for ten years, accruing 100% of the loan interest, and repay the third-party loan at the end of year 15. He would then take an income of $434,105 per year for 25 years, beginning year 26 via participating policy loans.

Quick math on the proposed plan design:

✓ $2,000,000 of premium borrowed

✓ $528,000 out of pocket interest payments by the client, amounts over $40,000 accrued

✓ $10,852,625 of tax-free income

✓ $3,157,092 of tax-free death benefit

What could go wrong?

Best Practices: Financing Life Insurance Premiums

August 20, 2019by Michael J. Sapyta, CFP®, CLU® in Life Insurance

There are many ways to fund an insurance program. In most cases, the funding source is the checking account of the client or trust. However, what do you do when your client’s funding needs outpace their available liquid assets or gifting capacity?

Reading the title of this article would lead most to conclude that the focus is on clients who borrow funds from a bank to pay annual insurance premiums. That is not entirely wrong. However, when the team at Highland thinks of financing life insurance premiums, we think in terms of premium funding strategies. That includes commercial premium financing, but also private finance, split-dollar, sales to intentionally defective grantor trusts, and dual loan strategies.

There’s no free lunch

You may be familiar with the phrase, popularized by the award-winning economist, Milton Friedman, ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’. Commercial premium financing is no different, this is a pay me now, pay me later proposition. While the initial interest cost is very low, at 5% of the 1st year premium, the cost to simply service the funding escalates quickly reaching 50% by year ten. Not to mention the increasing collateral exposure the client must plan for annually. This simplistic example below assumes a static interest rate environment. An increasing cost of borrowing only serves to increase the ongoing servicing cost, or the outside collateral exposure.

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Women Are Ready for Long-Term Care Discussions

Overcoming the Complexity of Placing U.S. Life Insurance on Japanese Nationals/Citizens