In today’s changing health marketplace, producers will need to diversify their product offerings to ensure maximum results. As we all face tougher challenges with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), disability income (DI) sales can offer a strong supplementary revenue stream.
Small Business Owners Are Excellent DI Prospects
Chances are strong that many of your current medical health insurance clients are small business owners. This group is largely ignored when it comes to disability income products. If you haven’t talked to your small business owner clients about disability income, it’s likely no one has. Yet, who needs to protect their ability to earn an income and the vitality of their businesses more than business owners?
Disability income carriers are targeting small business owners, providing incentives such as occupation upgrades and income enhancers to make individual disability insurance more desirable for this group. More important, carriers offer multiple disability income products specifically designed to protect business owners’ incomes and their businesses, providing multiple DI sales opportunities for producers.
The key to increasing disability income sales is the ability to help your clients understand the risk of an unexpected illness or injury that may cause them to be unable to work for a period of time. Working with a disability income specialist in a brokerage general agency provides access to a variety of carriers’ products, someone who can help you understand the differences between the various contracts, and most important, someone who can help you sell the need for the DI product to your client.
Mapping a Disability Income Strategy
Disability income carriers have developed a variety of products targeted specifically for small business owners, so the opportunity is ripe for multiple sales. Working with a specialist you can structure a disability plan that fits the individual needs of your client and his business. Unlike medical insurance, disability income premiums tend to remain stable throughout the life of the contract and there is rarely a reason to replace coverage.
Mapping a strategy with your business owner clients will not only protect them from a very real financial risk, but it will also help them begin to see you as their trusted advisor—the person who “watches their backs.” Although each client’s situation is different, you can use any combination of the following disability income products to structure a protection plan for business owner clients:
• Individual disability income protects the business owner’s income and lifestyle.
• Business overhead expense keeps the doors of the business open.
• Business loan protection continues business loan payments.
• Key person disability ensures that the business will be able to remain financially healthy in the event a key revenue-generating employee is disabled.
• Buy/sell disability funds the business succession plan.
A disability income specialist can not only help you tailor the plan but also can help you understand the key features and coach you on the sale of the products. In addition, most disability products are financially and medically underwritten, so your brokerage disability specialist can assist you with pre-screening your clients before the application is submitted to avoid any underwriting surprises.
Don’t let a disabling illness or injury derail your business owner clients’ businesses that they worked to hard to build. As busy professionals, often wearing many hats, these clients are often too busy to spend the time to research and investigate all the options and possibilities. They rely on you—their trusted advisor—to bring them the information and make them aware of the options and the best strategies.
A Disability Income Expert Can Make All the Difference
By working with a brokerage disability specialist, you stay abreast of the changes in the industry, and your income from DI sales will increase. You’ll find you have created a steady income stream that has a high degree of stability—a refreshing idea in today’s changing health insurance marketplace.
