Myra Palmer, CLTC

Think for a moment about the people you care for and love the most in your life. Now imagine losing them one by one.

Unimaginable, isn’t it?

I am about to tell you an unimaginable story and all that I learned through the worst of circumstances. We at The Palmer Agency help people plan, protect, and provide for their families and businesses in the event of sudden loss. Even when presented with a plan, however, only a small percentage of people put those strategies in place.

What makes it so hard for them to accept such a proposal? Loss through death is the thing many of us fear the most. Facing loss can be daunting. It can cause our clients to put off preparing for it. In the case of our agency, when the second generation took over, we seemed too young, too strong, and too healthy to consider our mortality.

We all have stories of losing a loved one. The following is my story, which I share to inspire others to act.

My family-owned brokerage general agency had been in business for more than 50 years. We were a close family working along with a dedicated team of people building a business, using resources such as https://www.rosspartners.co.uk/vat-return-services-london/ to make sure we were keeping on top of all financials. In 1998 my father executed a succession plan-my brother Alan as president, me as executive vice president, and non-family member Jimmy Harrington as vice president. My sister was a stockholder, and my father maintained the majority of the stock.

For the next five years my parents settled into retirement, and we younger folks continued the business as the second generation. Life changed in November 2003 with the sudden death of my brother Alan, age 37. While dealing with our loss and working to maintain the family business, I watched my aging parents go through years of serious illness and long-term-care needs. Just as my mother went into hospice care, the worst happened. My husband Dave was diagnosed with terminal cancer. During the next few years I watched Dave and my business partner Jimmy, also diagnosed with terminal cancer, battle this disease.

My brother, parents, and husband all passed away within an eight-year period. Jimmy passed away in December 2014. Unimaginable, isn’t it? My loss was like a tsunami roaring in and obliterating everything in its path.

I was drowning, gasping for air. My grief was a powerful and disabling force, tossing me back and forth between the past, present, and future. With each death, I went into a gray fog. I was wandering lost through dark woods, and I couldn’t find my way home. Meanwhile I was knee-deep in paperwork with timelines creeping up on me. Every time I thought I had the loose ends tied up, another bureaucratic nightmare blindsided me. Many times, I even thought about giving everything up, and tried to find out how to sell my company. Everything felt like it was out of order and I wanted my old life back, which was not possible. I needed to find my new normal.

The landscape of my life had been altered completely, and I needed to redefine myself. Those tragedies taught me lessons that I could recognize only with hindsight. I could not see them at the time of each loss. Now, however, with the clarity that is gained through adversity, I have the opportunity to share those lessons.

Grief is not orderly, but our business is about helping clients so that when those moments of truth come, people can find order in a world of disorder. How do we ease the financial burden on our clients so that they can embrace the emotional component of their loss? While this question is complex, I offer the following lessons so that others may benefit from my experiences of loss.

Buy-Sell, Key Person, and Succession Planning
Our agency did not have a succession plan in place or key person coverage on Alan when he passed away. He had been born with a congenital heart defect, and he eventually became uninsurable. Alan did have a personal policy in force with my parents as beneficiaries, but the beneficiary was not changed when he became president and a stockholder. When he passed away, the insurance money went to my father, rather than to the business. Granted, my father suffered an emotional loss, but the business suffered financially. The business desperately needed money to recover and rebuild in Alan’s absence, but we had failed to foresee such circumstances.

The business succession plan had been executed five years before my brother’s death, yet no new contingency plan was put into place. Why not? Because the second generation was young and vibrant. Who would have thought anything would happen to the fresh second-generation owners? Business owners often put off making a business-succession plan until the owners have matured, an approach that we now know can put a business in a perilous position.

Life changes, and unfortunately death knows no boundaries. After Alan’s death, what became exceedingly clear was that Jimmy and I needed to increase our key person coverage. While we waited for the agency valuation to be completed, Jimmy was diagnosed with terminal cancer and became uninsurable. The agency had key person coverage on Jimmy when he died, but the death benefit was considerably less than his value to the firm.

Lessons: As agents and brokers, we can help ourselves and other business owners make the difference between a company’s demise and its continued success by doing the following things:

• Develop a contingency succession plan
• Have adequate life insurance in force for key people
• Fund a buy-sell agreement in advance of need
• Perform annual beneficiary reviews

Long-Term Care
Our family, like many others, experienced a long-term care need, along with the associated expenses, for our aging parents. Mother had Alzheimer’s and was in an assisted living facility for five years. Our father’s health declined alongside our mother’s, which required hiring a private caregiver. Long term-care insurance covered the majority of the expenses as well as the coordination of care. The insurance eliminated financial burdens, eased emotional disruption, provided excellent care, allowed us time to focus on our families and businesses, gave us freedom to grieve, and protected the financial assets our parents worked hard to accumulate.

Lesson: Tell your clients and prospects what long-term-care insurance does for them, not what it is.

Estate Equalization
When my father died, his personal house was in order, which streamlined my job as his co-executrix. Unfortunately the business was another matter. Once the original succession plan was in place, my father reduced the amount of his business and personal life insurance, after which his health declined and he became uninsurable. The need for additional life insurance was painfully clear once my brother passed away and my sister decided to leave the business to pursue a career in the ministry. The reduced death benefit was barely enough to purchase her stock, and the proceeds from the personal policy were not enough to purchase her half of the office building.

Through the determination of its principals, The Palmer Agency survived the upsets caused by losses, surprises, and less-than-stellar planning, but we were lucky. Many companies do not survive through the second generation.

Lesson: For family businesses, maintaining adequate life insurance coverage is crucial to the future success of the business and the relationships of the surviving family members.

Personal Insurance Protection
My husband and I were fortunate in at least one way. During the four years Dave was ill, our comprehensive health insurance covered the medical expense, while the disability income gave me the freedom to focus my attention on him and our children during the last few months of his life.

When Dave passed away, his last gift was a gift of love in the form of a life insurance policy. The proceeds of that policy, combined with excellent financial planning, allowed me to maintain the lifestyle he and I enjoyed together. It also gave our family peace of mind and provided us time to heal, rebuild, and strengthen our lives.

As a widow and executrix of my husband’s estate, I quickly found myself submerged in paperwork. Our attorney had worked closely with us as a couple for many years and has continued as my trusted legal counsel. Sadly the same was not the case with our financial advisor and accountant. He and my husband were more closely aligned. I became a statistic, one of the 70 percent of spouses who change their financial advisor when their spouse dies.

Lesson: Plan, organize, and simplify. Is everything in order? Take another look. What you find might surprise you.

I never imagined the story of loss and the lessons I learned would become my story. I benefited in some ways from proper financial planning, but I also felt the disappointment and impact of improper planning in other ways.

Are you prepared for the unimaginable? Are your clients?

According to LIMRA statistics, 100 million adult Americans are without life insurance protection. Has our industry made the simple too complex, or have we become too wrapped up in what we do instead of why we do it and what our products do for our clients? Have we lost the art of selling and connecting with people?

Your clients and prospects need you now more than ever.

Call them, ask them about their dreams, share a story, protect them, and you will improve their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

Women have carved out an important role in today’s insurance industry. The perspective that women bring to the industry has helped drive product and marketing innovations to better fit the needs of all clients.

So how does a woman gain a high degree of success and continue to grow in this constantly changing, competitive business? Broker World asked several extremely successful female producers about (1) how to approach the sale of insurance to women, (2) important products to consider for female clients, and (3) what recommendations they have for building a successful career in the insurance business.  Following are their responses.

Dorothy Conway, CLU, ChFC, The Conway Group, Inc.

Sales Approach to Women. There are several things I would advise. Most important, do not expect that another female will purchase insurance from you because you are female-and do not assume a male will not buy from you because you are female.

Over the years I have had many female agents tell me they think women should purchase insurance from them because they are female.  In reality, women will purchase insurance from you because you are knowledgeable, you take time to listen to their needs before you present a solution, and you follow up on the process.

Many times during interviews, questions were asked of me that probably would not have been asked of a male insurance sales person. However, once I took the time to answer and prove that I deserved to be listened to, those clients soon became the most loyal.

Advice to New Agents. Designations, while not easy to obtain, willwill earn you more respect from others with degreees, e.g., CPAs, attorneys, physicians, etc.

Know your product, and know what your product can do for your client. Understanding the tax codes is also very important. 

If a question is asked of you that you do not know the answer to-do not make up a response. Tell the client that you do not have the answer at that moment, but that you will get back to him-then get back to him as soon as possible.

Be professional. Always remember clients want you interested in them-they are not interested in your entire life story-just your sales credentials.

Elizabeth Ashmore, Ashmore & Associates Insurance Agency, LLC

Sales Approach to Women. In reality, a sales approach to females should not differ from males. The basics are the basics–reputation, technical product knowledge, and follow through are important.  After that any presentation should be slightly adjusted for the priorities and personality of the prospect or client. I find myself relating to prospects more as a fellow small business owner, which helps establish a common ground.

Admittedly, I felt more comfortable dealing with women prospects in my early years in the business.  There was a common ground, since most women have dealt with the challenges of being a working mom and starting from ground zero in your twenties with toddlers. Needless to say, today, with more than 30 years of experience, more gray hair, and having dealt with agency growth, my approach and conversations have definitely changed.

There is a second part of this issue.  I do not sense that the majority of women expect a different approach anymore. They don’t want games; instead, they want good data, good recommendations and a clear picture of support systems. They want to learn everything they need to make a solid, educated decision.

Product Needs. The most important insurance product for women is long term care insurance. Having experienced the situations surrounding aging parents, I now recognize the potential of this becoming the largest financial hole a woman could impose on her children.

Advice to New Agents. As far as advice for females entering the insurance business, I can’t stress enough to take really good care of yourself– physically, mentally, spiritually, and professionally. One of my first managers told me, “Don’t worry about how the watch works.” This advice does not work in today’s professional environment and hurts us all. Assume it is your job to know more than anyone else. As Winston Churchill said, “Never give up.”  Insurance is a great career–full of demands but full of opportunities and flexibility.

Jean Garner, J. Garner & Associates, Inc.

Sales Approach to Women. The sales approach to females is not much different than the sales approach to males-the most important part of the sale is listening to why your client wants to talk to you about a particular product in the first place. Those are the needs and concerns that need to be addressed. A male client is more concerned with what will happen to his family if he were to die, whereas a female is more concerned about who would take care of her family if she were to become severely ill or disabled.  Occupations also come into play, but again, not necessarily dependent on gender.  Engineers are more technical and want to know the entire policy language where a marketer or salesperson is okay with just knowing the highlights of a product. 

Product Needs. There are two very important insurance products women should always have–disability and long term care insurance.  Both are necessary to protect a client’s lifestyle and assets if she were to become disabled. Since women generally living longer and most households have two incomes, it is important-whether they have a family or not-to be able to cover expenses as a result of a disability or long term care event.  If your clients do not protect these two areas, their care will become someone else’s problem.

Advice to New Agents. Find a niche or product that you are passionate about and become an expert in that area.  Be proactive in becoming a continuing education provider in your area of expertise and participate in your local associations and trade shows while taking along advertisement items such as your trade show banner and more, to increase the visibility of your brand. Get as much exposure as possible as an expert in your field.  Participate in networking groups and partner with insurance professionals in other areas of insurance so that you can refer cases or split cases in each other’s areas of expertise.  Referrals are your best advertisement and source of new business.
   
Lynda Baccoli, W. S. Vogel Agency, Inc.

Sales Approach to Women. Giving examples and story telling is part of a good skill set when selling to women. A more emotional approach, as opposed to statistical, should be used when selling to females.  

Product Needs. Although the percentage of people in nursing homes is shrinking, 69 percent of the population is female.  Therefore, leaning toward longevity products would be good for women-e.g., long term care products, immediate and deferred annuities, etc. The new life products with LTC riders are great for younger women.

Myra Palmer, The Palmer Agency

Sales Approach to Women. 1, Establish trust, listen to her, understand her needs and what motivates her. Both men and women focus on facts, but women tend to focus in on details. Women make decisions on a wider range of emotions than men. A woman generally appreciates her questions and objections to be answered in a straightforward manner. A woman will, most likely, want and ask for references especially from other women with whom you have established a working relationship.

Product Needs. A woman’s product needs depend on her lifestyle.  If she is a single physician with a successful practice, disability insurance with a strong “own occupation” definition might be the most important product to her.  On the other hand, a married women with children, who has chosen to put her professional career on hold, is going to be more focused on a product that protects her children and family assets.  Since statistics reveal women typically outlive men, long term care insurance is an important addition to a female’s financial plan.

Advice to New Agents. Build mentoring relationships with other successful women in the insurance industry.