Getting Clients to Talk about Life Insurance

[hstarn]

How many of your clients (or friends for that matter) are reluctant to talk about the subject of death? I had several relatives that died without Wills because they just wouldn't talk about it. Worse I had another relative that cashed out his life insurance policy in his 80s after he started having serious health complications. As planners one of the many values we bring to our clients is an objective perspective on risk management. That means we have to get our clients talking about life insurance.

Years ago I read a fasincating book by Frank Bettger (a former professional baseball player) who made an outstanding living by selling life insurance. His book is entitled, "How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling." It was written in 1947 but remains a classic among books in the category of "selling." I highly recommend it.

One of the take-aways from that book that I still remember is the point that: "life insurance isn't about death, rather it's about life -- the life of your loved ones after you have moved on." We need to help our clients understand that having adequate life insurance in place is a way for him or her to continue to provide for their family when they are no longer physically there.

What are your thoughts? How do you get the conversation moving and motivate action?

[hstarn]

Insurance planning is a routine part of our discussions with clients but our client acceptance rate is dismally low (less than 50%, where our standard client acceptance rate is 85%+ for other products and services).

We do full 'in-force' reviews for clients. We invest the time, energy and our resources to do a comprehensive check of where a client is vs. where they need to be. But the moment you start talking about insurance, the client will back off. Discomfort around topics of death, disability, etc. Or maybe they just want to put their head in the sand and figure 'when I'm gone, let everyone else figure it out'. It drives me crazy. I have a few very large clients right now that are in desperate need of insurance to pay for estate taxes and they won't even listen. The wife specifically even said to us 'isnt' that a high commission product???"

The commission argument always baffles me. The client isn't paying the commission, the insurance company is! And the client needs the insurance to pay their estate taxes. What is wrong with adding value to a client's life and being compensated for it? Insurance is the most loathed and 'slimy' of the investments in a lot of clients' minds. I believe it adds true value. Clients believe that all you care about is getting every last penny of commission. there needs to be a middle ground somewhere!