Since they already know a lot about their clients’ financial and personal profiles, financial advisors are uniquely positioned to offer life insurance. They have all the information and data at their fingertips to identify basic needs, as well as planning opportunities like generational wealth transfer, business succession and supplementing retirement savings.
That said, some advisors say they lack the time and resources to get up to speed on the vast world of life insurance. More than a third (37 percent) in the Saybrus survey said the most complicated part of selling life insurance solutions was the variety of policies and riders. Another 25 percent said it was the abundance of paperwork required to sell and issue a life insurance policy.
Financial advisors also found the frequency of product development and regulatory changes to be complex, and some have struggled to understand combination products that address multiple needs.
Certainly, life insurance product types, policy riders and combination offerings constantly change to reflect the needs of the market. So it’s understandable why in the Saybrus survey, of those 30 percent of advisors who don’t regularly provide life insurance to clients, nearly one out of five said they don’t sell life insurance because “it’s too complicated.”
Ways To Get In The Game
The opposite view, of course, is that advisors’ practices will grow if they can expand their scope to include more life insurance. There are a number of ways to go about becoming more versed in life insurance that will help integrate it into the services they provide clients:
1. Consider A Partner
Generally speaking, advisors who have most successfully integrated life insurance into their practice have done so by joining forces with a knowledgable life insurance expert. Partnering with an outside specialist enables an advisor to identify clients’ needs and opportunities and to propose the most appropriate life insurance strategy for each individual situation.
The specialist, who should have expertise in both life insurance and hybrid products that offer long-term care benefits, can work with the advisor to assess his or her client base. Together, the specialist and the advisor can systematically review the client demographics assets within the advisor’s book to identify multiple opportunities. Then, the specialist can help the advisor map out a plan for approaching the clients, discussing their needs and proposing solutions.
While it’s usually helpful for the specialist to join the advisor during client conversations, it is particularly important to assign roles and responsibilities for these meetings. The advisor owns the relationship with the client, and the specialist can help to foster and maintain that relationship. Discussing how the specialist will be introduced and other speaking roles for the appointment will go a long way to inspire confidence and trust for the client and create a positive overall experience.