All of Symetra’s term policies are fully convertible to permanent insurance. With our new conversion credit endorsement,1 your term life clients may have a new incentive to take a closer look at the benefits of permanent insurance.
Harold Roberts is frustrated. He’s working with a 77-year-old client whose 10-year term life policy is expiring. The client is worried about his disabled wife, because when he dies she will have only her Social Security to live on. He desperately wants her to have the policy’s $50,000 death benefit. Unfortunately, the couple simply can’t afford the new, higher premiums, which will jump from $150 per month to more than $500 if he renews his term policy.
“Sadly, if his agent had contacted him before his 75th birthday he could have converted to permanent insurance at a rate that’s less than the annual increasing premium for term insurance,” said Roberts. “But since he’s approaching his normal life expectancy and has health concerns, like most people he’s probably going to die without life insurance.”
These kinds of cases concern Roberts greatly, because if he could explain it to them, he knows most people would prefer to have life insurance for when they die, not if.
|
 |
| His Secret? Passion! |
|
At 74, Roberts, CLU, owner of Tacoma, Wash.-based Roberts & Associates, is one of Symetra Life Insurance Company’s top-selling life insurance agents. In addition to offering auto, homeowners and investments, last year he brought in more than $250,000 in annual first year premium — more than 50 of the 130-plus cases were conversions from term life to permanent life.
Roberts operates on the philosophy that it’s incredibly important to know what clients are trying to accomplish with their money. Recently, he was approached by the mother of a 10-year-old girl with mental disabilities. She had only $25,000 of life insurance and worried that, if she died, her daughter wouldn’t get the extra life skills training she needed.
When the conversation turned to how she bought her policy, she said she called her property and casualty (P&C) agent. He didn’t bother to ask what she needed the policy to do, and he didn’t talk to her about permanent insurance. And so, she simply picked the cheapest policy.
“When she decided to increase her coverage, she called the agent back and he told her he didn’t do life insurance anymore,” said Roberts.
That was a big mistake on his part, and it’s one Roberts believes too many P&C agents make. “It’s statistically proven the more lines you have with a client the more likely you are to keep their business. If that agent offered life, I wouldn’t have had a chance to get my foot in the door. But what a lot of P&C agents tell me is, 'I don’t have time for that or I can’t disturb my clients by bringing up life insurance.’ Well, in my opinion, you’re not doing your job if you don’t talk to them about life insurance!”
Roberts promptly met with the mother to review her needs and converted his new client to a $100,000 permanent life insurance policy that will guarantee her daughter will have financial protection after she’s gone.
“As it is, I’ll probably take auto and homeowners from this agent as well,” he noted. “I’m meeting with the family in March to review all their policies, and I know they’ll probably be glad to move their business to us.”
|
|
| Conversions: Four Key Things to Watch For |
|
As people age, even common habits and health problems — such as smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes or weight gain (64 percent of Americans over the age of 20 are overweight)2 — may make term insurance prohibitively expensive or inaccessible.
The good news is that purchasing a term life policy doesn’t close the door on permanent insurance. All of Symetra’s term life policies are fully convertible. This option often appeals to young people who may be unable to afford permanent insurance now, but who want to leave the door open to covering those permanent needs and protecting future insurability. If you’re looking to offer your clients that kind of peace of mind, here are four important things to watch for:
- Availability of non-medical conversions. Not all carriers allow policyholders to convert a term life policy to permanent insurance without evidence of insurability. All of Symetra’s term policies are fully convertible to permanent insurance — without additional underwriting.
- Duration of the conversion period. Many insurance carriers limit the number of years in which a customer can convert to a permanent policy without evidence of insurability. All of Symetra’s term policies are fully convertible to age 75.
- Availability of a broad range of quality permanent products to convert to. Even among carriers that allow conversions, some limit the permanent insurance products policyholders can convert to. Symetra’s term life policies are convertible to any permanent policy of your client’s choice with no limitations.
- Clients earn a conversion credit1 and you earn full commission. When your clients convert a term life policy issued in or after 2002, they may be eligible for a conversion credit in the form of a premium deposit into the non-variable permanent policy. An added bonus for you is that helping clients convert a term policy to a permanent policy allows you to tap into another source of income from your existing block of business. After only 13 months, you can help a client convert a term life policy into any Symetra permanent life policy for full commission. (Not available in all states; see the box on this page for details.)
“If people never got married, never had kids and never bought a home there would be no need or little need for life insurance,” said Roberts. “But that’s not how life works. People will have kids, and they do things like refinance their home to pay for their kid’s tuition. Just by living life we create problems that can become financial setbacks for loved ones whether we die too soon or live too long.”
Permanent life insurance can solve all these problems. It can help loved ones stay in the family home if your client dies too soon. Or, if your client lives too long, it can provide extra dollars for retirement.
For example, a permanent policy might allow a retired couple to retain the husband’s full pension rather than reducing the monthly payments by 20- to 30-percent to ensure payments continue to the wife if he happens to die first. In this scenario, if the wife outlives the husband the pension terminates, but is replaced by cash from the death benefit. If the husband outlives his wife, he keeps the full pension, plus he can cash out the life policy to supplement his own retirement needs or leave the death benefit to loved ones as a legacy.
Want to learn more about policy conversions and commissions? Contact the Sales Center at invest@symetra.com or 1-800-706-0700.
|
|
| Coming Soon: New Conversion Credit Endorsement1 |
Clients who convert from term to non-variable perm may be eligible to earn a conversion credit equal to a percentage of their annual term life policy premium for the previous policy year. The conversion credit — available after the policy has been inforce for at least two years and two years prior to the expiration of the level term period — is awarded as follows:
- After Year 2 = 50%
- After Year 3 = 75%
- After Year 4-plus = 100%
Policyholders whose term life policies were issued in or after 2002 may earn credit when they convert to Symetra Accelerated Universal Life and Symetra Target Excellence. Learn just how easy it is to convert a term policy to a permanent policy.
Watch for additional details.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Roberts gets a chuckle from reading a grocery store ad from 1979. Three boxes of tissue were 89 cents, a 12-ounce package of bacon 78 cents, and a half gallon of fabric softener 59 cents. He uses old newspapers to show clients the dramatic impact of inflation on retirement income.
|
