Hortz: Can you further detail what is entailed in a “best-interest focused” insurance marketing organization? What does that look like and how is this focus designed into your firm and processes?
Mann: The bottom line is always keeping the focus on the client, not the advisor and not the IMO. At Clarity, our focus from a product, training and practice development standpoint is to simplify the best interest process for the advisor. Along with our training company, Clarity 2 Prosperity, advisors are trained on the Bucket Plan Best Interest Sales Process and the appropriate use of insurance products within the Bucket Plan process.
Hortz: What is your five-layer annuity screening process and how does that help identify the appropriate insurance product for a specific client’s situation?
Mann: Through our proprietary Best Interest Annuity Screening Process (recognized as the 2019 winner by WealthManagement Industry Awards for insurance innovation), we conduct an objective, thorough and analytical search of available products and providers to identify the best product fit for each case. Annuity products are screened by: carrier strength, fees and expenses, growth/accumulation potential, income produced and renewal rate integrity. We regularly screen more than 200 annuities to provide advisors with the strongest products available on the market based on a client’s needs and objectives.
Hortz: How is Clarity Insurance Marketing positioned to be a strategic part of C2P Enterprises collective service offerings for holistic advisors?
Mann: C2P Enterprises is all about simplifying the power of process for advisors. The connected ecosystem of companies — that includes Clarity 2 Prosperity (training), Clarity Insurance Marketing (IMO) and Prosperity Capital Advisors (RIA) — helps advisors with the use of best-interest focused, insurance-based solutions as part of an overall holistic plan. Together these companies provide guidance and pure recommendations, expertise in products and process, and regulatory and compliance comprehension.
This enables advisors to be hired for their superior advice as they establish and develop trusted client relationships. The growing complexities in today’s households place greater emphasis on objective guidance and education in specific household planning recommendations. Clarity was designed to be the Gold Standard for providing advisors and their teams access to proven processes around insurance products which are divided into simple steps for easy implementation.
Hortz: Any other thoughts or recommendations you would like to share about the changing nature of and working relationship with the insurance industry?
Mann: Insurance will be moving to more of an advice-based model in the future, similar to the shift we have seen in the financial advisor space. Not to mention, the demand for solid professional advice will increase as the financial marketplace becomes harder for households to navigate. This will require insurance professionals to select optimal relationships for every vertical of their business to continue to offer the best planning, products, and processes to their clients.
Clarity Insurance Marketing is knowledgeable and able to be diverse in our recommendations. Advisors must remain agile as new facts are discovered in the planning process. Any lesser result may cost time —and most importantly — the client relationship.
The Institute for Innovation Development is an educational and business development catalyst for growth-oriented financial advisors and financial services firms determined to lead their businesses in an operating environment of accelerating business and cultural change. We position our members with the necessary ongoing innovation resources and best practices to drive and facilitate their next-generation growth, differentiation, and unique community engagement strategies. The institute was launched with the support and foresight of our founding sponsors — Pershing, Voya Financial, Ultimus Fund Solutions, Fidelity and Charter Financial Publishing (publisher of Financial Advisor magazine).