Check out our Final Expense sales tools located within the Agent Resource Center!
Check out our Final Expense infograph
Carrier Spotlight Video Training
Final Expense Request More info
As an independent Medicare agent, branching outside of your usual portfolio of products can be quite the task. As an agency JSA has been built with the foundation of understanding and delivering Medicare options to America’s aging population since 1972. Due to this commitment and philosophy we have simultaneously specialized in bringing the additional insurance products to the forefront that Medicare aged customers routinely look to for security, peace of mind, and day-to-day coverage.
Currently, there are roughly 65 million Medicare aged consumers in the United States, and the census tables show that the Medicare aged population will grow to roughly 82 million members by the year 2030. These consumers have more than one insurable need, and we want to help you understand and develop your own foundation to accommodate the additional insurance products that exist and their purchasing habits.
Would you be surprised to know that the #1 buyers of final expense life insurance products are Medicare-aged consumers? The average issue-age of a final expense sale in 2018 was 63.5 years old. The Medicare market has dramatically increased in size over the last decade with the first wave of the Baby Boomers now having aged into Medicare. During this same period, final expense sales have grown by double digit increases year over year. The increase in market size, carrier options, plan affordability, and the ease of doing business will continue to ensure that the final expense marketplace grows at an exciting rate. If Medicare is your career, final expense sales should be your retirement.
There are proven methods to get into the final expense arena, generate interest with your current clients and get new sales on the books. You do not have to reinvent the wheel.
It all started with your initial Medicare sale. When you think about it, it’s a mini miracle that your clients choose you out of all the other agents, agencies, toll-free numbers and websites to help them with their Medicare health plan options. You fought against the current, and you have won the battle for the customers relationship but realize that the war will never be over as your clients continue to get bombarded with letters, post cards, television, email and pay-per-click advertisements enticing them to learn about another product or avoid this downfall or that. You have the relationship with your clients, it should be you who advises them on their final expense options, so what do you need to know?
Final expense plans are small death benefit whole life insurance products, otherwise known as simplified issue whole life (SIWL). The plans are simple to quote, simple to underwrite, simple to explain and simple to sell. Premiums are guaranteed to never increase, death benefits are guaranteed to never decrease, and are designed to cover the immediate costs of one’s end-of-life needs like funeral costs, cremation costs, and small debt items. Most SIWL products have yes/no underwriting questions with many carriers offering point-of-sale approvals. Furthermore, applications are typically approved in less than 5 days and commissions are paid to you upon approval.
When looking to your current clients for final expense sales, you may be astonished to find out that most of them haven’t planned for their end of life needs or even had a conversation with their immediate family about it. Remember, there is a 100% chance that we will all meet our maker and the burden of that moment will fall upon our loved ones during one of the most emotionally draining times of their lives. Having a plan in place, and the resources necessary to execute that plan, will make sure your client’s family can focus on the true celebration of life without worrying about covering the bills.
What if my clients have already taken care of their final expense needs? Great question, and some of them may have procured coverage a long time ago. A review of their current policy can drum up new sales, re-affirm their buying decision and shore up any doubts that they may have, strengthen the relationship and lead to more referrals. Relationships are what keep sales alive.
You’ll have your work cut out for you as most clients will overestimate the cost of their final expense premiums, anticipate the underwriting process to be far too difficult as their current agent, and need affirmation that you, their Medicare agent, can help them with their life insurance options. Simple, easy dialogue can help you bypass your client’s misconceptions and further your sales success.
To be intentionally redundant, everything about final expense is simple. After all, they are called simplified issue whole life plans. You owe it to yourself to read on.
Pick Up the Phone – Make Statements and Ask Questions
Final expense plans are emotional products. No one needs final expense insurance, however, if your client has loved ones, they more than likely will want a plan of some sorts when the inevitable happens. In order to sell SIWL correctly they need to be sold with emotion. This will ensure that the need is there and the plan that is being offered fits the consumer’s budget today and for the long term. These SIWL plans need to be sold with retention and affordability in mind. As the agent, you need to be emotionally invested in the good that these products can do.
What better way to engage them than by generating dialogue with your client? Don’t just sell the life insurance aspect, sell on peace-of-mind, protection, and ensuring that your client’s family are taken care of in their time of need. As their agent you are not just selling a service to pay for their Memorial and Casket, these plans offer benefits that are a ray of light in typically emotionally dark times.
Pick up the phone, follow up with your customers on their current coverage, advise the customer that you are there to help them and their family, today and tomorrow, and always advise them that you’re able to help them with more than just their Medicare coverage. If they don’t know you offer final expense options, are they going to buy from you? When you’re done eating a meal at your favorite restaurant, do they bring out the dessert tray? Exactly.
The most successful sales agents have days carved out of their schedule weekly to have sales conversations.
Send Out a Thank You Card
For this all to work, you must have a current, active relationship with your clients. Capitalize on the good will that you have garnered form previously helping your Medicare clients, and look to set a future appointment to discuss the possibility of rate increases, service area reductions, network changes, etc. Health and finances change often, discuss how the products and the services that you offer can safeguard their health, financial wellbeing, and overall peace of mind. Most carriers have marketing pieces that can easily be put into use, and they all exist to keep you top-of-mind with your client and to help generate more conversations.
A postcard, letter, or flier can be sent to your customer as a follow up to a conversation, or to jumpstart a new conversation – the bottom line is to do something. Action creates opportunity.
Here’s an idea – select 10 new customers weekly and send them a “thank you/retention” letter on Monday. The following Tuesday after the letter was mailed, follow up with a phone call. When you speak to your customer you’ll want to focus on retention, referrals, and to open that cross-marketing door.
Conversations turn into retention, referrals and new sales, the building blocks of any sales empire.
Increase Your Visibility
A wise fisherman knows that you can catch more fish by having more than one line in the water at the same time. Begin with Medicare and everything will fall into place. If you’re already practicing Medicare, it’s time to double-down on your efforts. If a potential client in your community is looking for assistance and they’ve never heard of you or seen any of your advertisements, they’ll likely confide in family and friends for a referral or do some searching online. The adage goes – it doesn’t matter what you’re selling if nobody knows they can buy it from you!
If you’ve relied primarily on one source of prospecting, it’s time to spread your wings. Senior facilities have bulletin boards ripe for marketing materials. Your car door can easily adorn a magnet that promotes your services. You can place brochure holders at dentist, chiropractor and dermatologist offices (good client demographics) for the cost of supplying coffee and bagels once a month. Be available to your community and they will know where to find you. Remember to focus your prospecting efforts on the places where your clients congregate, shop, eat, play and pray. We all remember the movie Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner, right? “If you build it…”
Leave Behind Materials
Every time you meet with a new or existing client, you’re setting the stage for additional products to cover their insurable needs. I have children in grade school, they tell me, “dad, you need to begin with the end in mind”. I chuckle and smile, and I think to myself “how true”. Because the Medicare sale is done, doesn’t mean you’re done as their agent. Give the client a SIWL brochure and let them know that you’ll discuss this when you follow up with them to ensure they have received all their new insurance information. Provide them with a final expense quote that can be ran in less than a minute, and don’t be surprised when they realize they can get around $15k in coverage for less than the cost of their monthly phone or cable bill.
Plus, ask them if anyone in their family has ever dealt with a cancer diagnosis, suffered a heart attack or had a stroke. This will open the door to other solutions you can offer like cancer/critical illness, hospital indemnity, dental, vision and hearing plans, just to name a few. Client’s with multiple policies have the best retention in the industry. As an agent, you get paid by making new sales and increasing your retention. This is the definition of win-win.
Stay Committed and Repeat
Outside of the products you offer as an independent agent, it’s good to remember that you’re selling your service, time, and talent. Your relationship with your customers in your community is just as important as the income this business provides, and how you spend your resources. Reinvest in your business and find other opportunities to showcase your expertise by utilizing a portfolio approach with each of your clients. If all you offer your clients are solutions to their Medicare coverage, you’ll only be known as a Medicare agent to them and their friends and family. Keep the conversations going, uncover additional needs, and focus on providing solutions with every client. A well insured and profitable book of business is the beautiful biproduct of your hard work and dedication. Knowledge is power, teach your customer and sell your service day in and day out.
Prepare Your Final Expense Portfolio
You’ll need one carrier that you use primarily for your healthy clients, and another carrier for clients that’ll need a guaranteed solution. This way, no matter your client’s health, you’ll be able to take care of their final expense need. Make sure you’re well versed on the carriers’ application and enrollment process, plan benefit designs and how to quote.
The Opportunity’s There, are You Ready?
This is the recipe for long term growth and profitability. This is the “not so secret” special sauce for a community that is well cared for by their local independent Medicare agent, you.
Call the JSA Sales and Marketing teams today and take advantage of the service and support we provide. We’re ready to get you set up with contracting for our preferred carriers, tips/tricks/tools used by our most successful final expense producers, and much more. We are your Medicare partners, let us help you add another leg to your stool!