Product Strategies

In our previous two blogs, Marc Schwartz talked about how pricing adjustments among a few life insurers had created an "out-of-control" environment for some of our clients. In part two of "Putting Clients Back in Control," Marc explored several product solutions that can help put your clients back in control – but for you, what's most important is knowing first what your clients want out of their life insurance policies. Here, Marc and DuWayne Kilbo discuss why you need to review your clients' policies now. The idea and process of Policy Review has been around forever. Why is it so important n...

Term life insurance sales in the US consistently represent about 70% of the total death benefit bought by consumers every year, according to the Insurance Information Institute. And for many of those buyers, the provision to convert their term insurance into permanent life insurance somewhere down the line represents an important option. But according to several leading term insurers, less than 5% of term life policyholders ever take advantage of this option, and those who do often are motivated by deteriorating health. Because these clients have a mortality risk of about five times normal for...

Willard Scott can't keep up! It's no longer unique or surprising when we come across someone who is approaching age 100. We probably have someone in our own immediate family going strong at 85, 90 or even 95 years old. Whether because of good genes, healthy living, medical improvements or all of the above, living longer is a reality. The blessing of a long life has many advantages but it also requires that we think about how to pay for that extended number of years. The axiom that people fear "running out of money" more than they fear death is truer today than ever before. The major risks to r...