Benefits For Business Owners (and Otherwise Self-Employed) 2023

At Surf Financial Brokers, we really do enjoy helping owners of small businesses, entrepreneurs, sales professionals and otherwise self-employed. This is because we are in the same boat as independent agents. The lack of group benefits can be troubling, but we are doing our best to help these great folks (who are the backbone of our economy) have access to quality dental and vision plans, cancer insurance and, of course, disability insurance. 

Being self-employed can be scary, but it can also be very rewarding. Paying for your own benefits is a small price to pay for the independence and freedom of owning your own business. 

We have put a few of these types of plans on our website for you to look at, run a quote, and even apply if you like what you see. If you need information for something that isn't there, drop us a note or book a short phone appointment to speak with us. We look forward to helping you out. 

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life, disability, long term care, cancer, accident and other insurance coverages in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient, and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. And please subscribe to this blog!

How Do I Get Free Money For Getting An Annual Physical?

Sometimes I feel as if I do nothing but discuss life insurance on this blog, when there are plenty of other kinds of insurance to talk about. Yes, from time to time I will write about the need for disability insurance (part of my "Holy Trinity of Insurance") as well as other plans, but I don't feel as if I'm doing them all justice. Especially when it comes to one of the best features on these policies.

Many of these "ancillary" or "voluntary" policies on the market, such as cancer plans, accident plans and critical illness plan, offer a "wellness" or "health screening" benefit.  These benefits give you the incentive to do what you should be doing anyway - getting a check up. The insurance company does not offer wellness benefits available out of the goodness of their hearts. Instead, if they can encourage their policy holders to have an annual checkup, the odds are good that if something is found, it will be caught early and be treatable, thus saving the company money when a claim happens.

Sales agents will use a wellness benefit as part of their presentation and rightly so.  For example, if someone were to purchase a policy that costs around $200* a year and they get back $75 just for getting a check up, the policy really cost about $125.  And if you are buying through payroll deduction and it qualifies to be pre-taxed, you're saving even more!

On those occasions when I do group presentations about these kinds of products, I let the employees know about the wellness benefits and how they vary from policy to policy. I also ask if anyone in the group has received their wellness benefits and hands go up. There's usually some chatter amongst the crowd about how easy it is to get that "free money" as they call it.

Of course, the important part is to remember to get a check up and file the claim.  Unfortunately, too many people fail to file their wellness claims.  Here are a couple of ways to make sure you get your money:

1.  If you have a plan through work, have your HR person keep "originals" of wellness claim forms in a file cabinet.  You can make a copy of it and remit to the company without having to call your agent. 
2. Many of the insurance companies have gone to an online claims process which is even faster and easier. 
3. When you do get a check up, let everyone know.  Inevitably, someone will say, "Did you file your wellness claim?"  Co-workers talk to each other.
4. When you set your appointment for your check up, set a Google reminder for your claim as well.

I work with one agent who owns every single type of these insurance plans. When he goes to the doctor for his annual check up, he "rings the register" as he files his wellness claim on each and every policy. He'll say things like, "I needed to get checked out, so I may as well make a few hundred on the deal." 

And the interesting part is that this agent, who is in his mid 40's, suffered a mild stroke a few years ago. While his major medical paid the majority of his doctor and hospital bills, his Hospital Indemnity plan paid a benefit directly to him which helped with his deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses.

The good news is that you don't have to be part of a group to get one of these plans. We offer them on an individual basis for those who are self-employed or don't have plans like this offered through work. If you are interested in a plan like this, check out our website. You can run your own quote on cancer and accident plans as well as hospital indemnity. If you have questions, drop us a note. 

*These numbers are made up, but probably in the ballpark.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life, disability, long term care, cancer, accident and other insurance coverages in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient, and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. And please subscribe to this blog! 

Do Younger People Need Life Insurance? 2023

If you are a millennial or GenX'er you may wonder what kind of life insurance you should purchase. There are a few different types of coverage available. Term, universal, indexed universal and whole life. Term policies could be considered "temporary" as they only cover you during a specific amount of time, like 10, 20 or 30 years. There are even some companies out there offering 40 and 45-year terms for younger people. Term policies are much less expensive because they only offer a death benefit and there are no other features like loans or cash value. (Some term policies now offer "living benefits" which can help you if chronic or critical illnesses arise.)

Although term life insurance does not accrue cash value, it's affordable for working families during their working years. For instance, a healthy non-smoker in their mid-20's could expect to pay less than $25 each month for $500,000. (Rates are subject to underwriting and are not guaranteed)

On the other hand there are permanent policies, like universal life (UL), indexed universal life (IUL) and whole life (WL).  These policies are more expensive but they also cover for the rest of your life as long as you continue to pay the premiums.

Permanent policies also have various ways to build cash value internally. For example, the UL uses interest rates, but since rates are at historic lows (for now), it's not a great option. We have many younger clients who use IUL's in lieu of investing and are very happy. 

For those who are single with no dependents but own a home, a policy will allow you to keep that home in the family. Having parents or nieces or nephews who could use that home if you should pass can be beneficial and life insurance can pay off the balance of the mortgage. 

So how can you get a policy? You can usually get a policy through work if they offer one, however we always recommend you have additional coverage outside of work, in case you leave your job. Also, that coverage through work is rarely enough to cover all of your debt and replace lost income. If you have a family, you will definitely need much more.

A great way is to use a quoting tool (we have one on our website) which lets you enter your information and will give you several choices of coverages. If you like what you see, you can even begin the application.

A simple method to find out how much life insurance you need is to add up your expenses and liabilities, like the mortgage, car payments and other debts. That should be a minimum for your needs. You may also want to consider lost income if you are the sole breadwinner of the home, and future education costs if you have children. On our website, our life insurance quoting tool offers a calculator to help determine your needs.

You may or may not be required to have an exam. It really depends on several factors, like the carrier and the amount you are applying for. Many companies have decreased their usage of exams during the pandemic, but they still reserve the right to have your medical records transmitted to them. And if there is no exam, you could have to answer a lot of medical questions during the application process. The secret here is to be as truthful and honest as possible, especially when it comes to questions about smoking (tobacco or cannabis) and your family's medical history.

If you have questions about what type of insurance you need or how to apply, let us know. In the meantime, please stay healthy!

Want to know how much disability insurance you need? Drop us a note and we'll send you our free PDF!

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life, disability, long term care, cancer, accident and other insurance coverages in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient, and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. And please subscribe to this blog! 

Wrapping Up Disability Insurance Awareness Month

Memorial Day is upon us, which is the day we recognize all of the men and women who served in our military and made the ultimate sacrifice. It is an important day and too many of us don't take the time to appreciate these people. If you have an opportunity to attend a ceremony, you will be happy you did.

As it's also the end of May, we can close the books on another Disability Insurance Awareness Month (DIAM), which is when the insurance industry promotes the importance of disability insurance. Unfortunately, disability coverage is not top of mine for most people. Part of this is due to misconceptions of why to buy it and what it does.

For example, most group disability plans cover a few weeks "maternity" coverage, immediately after a child is born. I have worked in some of these groups, like schools and municipalities, when the employee decides to drop her coverage because "I already had my kids." I try to plea with people to keep their policy, not because I'm will lose a commission (I'm on a salary), but because there are so many other times when that policy will be useful.

One of my old sales managers would tell us that when people hear the word "disability", they think of someone in a wheelchair who has been seriously injured in a car accident. The truth of the matter, however, is that over 85% of disability claims are for illnesses, with cancer being the leader in that category. (Heart disease and other cardiovascular illnesses are not far behind.)

Of course there are those people who do get injured. I spoke with a teacher in western North Carolina who had been in a car accident. Someone "t-boned" her car and broke her femur. She was out of work for four months while she went through physical therapy. Of course, her policy did what it was designed to do, which made her a strong advocate for disability insurance among her coworkers.

But what is your disability policy designed to do? Your policy is actually "paycheck" or "income" protection. If you were to get sick or hurt and were unable to work, your policy would help you pay the bills. And we all know that those bills don't stop coming just because you are a very nice person. 

There are those people who don't necessarily need a disability insurance policy. They may have passive income, like rental properties or other investments, that will provide some money to pay monthly bills. For most people, though, this is not the case.

If you have an employer who offers a disability policy, take a good hard look at it. And if you are a business owner, a contract employee or otherwise self-employed, you may want to consider an individual disability policy. They have a few differences from the traditional group plan but can be an integral part of your financial plan.

Have a great Memorial Day and remember those who gave all for our freedoms.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life, disability, long term care, cancer, accident and other insurance coverages in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient, and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. And please subscribe to this blog!

Making Insurance Accessible To All

As we all know, the internet has changed the way people do business. More importantly, it's also changed the way businesses do business. 

Not that long ago if you needed someone for a specific service, you "let your fingers doing the walking in the Yellow Pages". Now I make that reference to my college age daughter and she doesn't know what I'm talking about. Everything from entertainment to financial services has gone digital, and for those who aren't offering some sort of web-based platform, they may as well be throwing a chunk of their marketing dollars into the garbage. 

This struggle is real in the insurance industry as well. The old school method of getting a referral, meeting with them in their home or office over several appointments, and hoping to get an application completed (along with more referrals) has lost some of it's appeal. For younger, more internet savvy consumers, doing their own research and making online purchases is the norm. 

At the same time, these younger people are less interested in selling insurance, mostly because of the old school methods that still are being taught in training offices throughout the country. According to a 2017 article by the World Economic Forum, the average age of a life insurance agent was 59. Considering that agents tend to sell to those around their own age, millennials are, for argument's sake, not being properly attended to when it comes to their own life insurance needs.

In 2007 I went to work for a large life insurance company. We were the "best of the best" according to the management, so you would think that we could attract agents who would succeed and thrive. Our managers boasted that we were ahead of our competitors in agent persistency, because we had a rate after three years of 17%, opposed to 10-15% by our peers. This meant that if they hired 100 agents today, a whopping 17, on average, would be around after three years. And they were actually proud of this.

For the consumers, though, this is bad news as well. How many times have you purchased life, disability or other kind of insurance, only to find out that your agent is no longer with the company?  

As a society, we have become numb and/or jaded when it comes to having bad service. This is why a growing number of people are cutting their ties to agents and buying financial services from the internet. The television is full of ads letting us know to get car insurance, life insurance and investments straight from our computers. Convenient and quick. 

But what about the personal service? What if we have questions or concerns or need to file a claim? Are we destined to having to call an 800 number each time we need something. Even worse, what if we have to speak to someone who is out of the country? Is that good customer service?

At Surf Financial Brokers, we have tried to combine the best of both worlds. Our quoting tools for life insurance, dental, vision and hearing plan, cancer insurance, hospital indemnity insurance and accident plans make it easy and quick for people to find a policy within their budget. And if they like what they see they can start an application.

At the same time, if they want a more personal touch they can book a short phone appointment with one of our agents who can help with our products, including others like Long Term Care and disability insurance. We want to help anyone who recognizes they need insurance to be able to get it in the way they want. 

Let us help you find the right product for your needs.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life, disability, long term care, cancer, accident and other insurance coverages in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient, and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. And please subscribe to this blog!

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Of Insurance Sales

A few months back I ran into a great lady who had purchased a life insurance policy from me many years ago. We had stayed in touch for a few years but I lost touch with her. Needless to say I was a bit surprised when she responded to one of my posts on Facebook regarding some new policies Surf Financial Brokers was offering. 

After speaking to her for a while I realized that a lot of things in her life had changed since we had last spoken. She had made several career changes and was currently working for a non-profit organization. Her personal situation had changed as well, as she had a new beau who seemed to be a good guy. During our conversation she mentioned that the life insurance policy she had purchased from me years ago had lapsed and now she was in the market for a new policy.

Her concerns had also changed a bit over the years. Her parents were now deceased, but before they died she had been one of the principle caregivers in their later years. With that experience she had come to realize how expensive care in a facility was. Now she was in the market for some sort of life insurance, but she also wanted something to help offset the costs of long term care. The problem was that she had a limited budget to do all of the things she wanted to accomplish. 

One of her main concerns at the time was that Covid was sweeping through nursing homes and assisted living facilities. With this in mind, she really wanted to know that if she needed care, she could stay in her own home. Luckily we had a great way of handling this part of the issue in a way that would be affordable for her. 

Our Short Term Home Healthcare plan (STHHC) offers clients a way to offset the extremely high costs of having caregivers in the home. The policy helps with costs for up to 365 days, which do not all have to be consecutively, since many people have caregivers come to their homes only 3 or 4 times a week, usually when family is unavailable. This means that the policy can conceivably be stretched out over several years. 

Even better, the application only has 3 questions, which means getting approved is very easy.

But the best part for her was that the policy is very affordable compared to a full-blown Long Term Care (LTC) policy. Saving her money was a priority for her, but this was only one part of the issue. 

We still needed to resolve the life insurance part of the puzzle. This is where things got messy. She had gotten older (by about 15 years) since she had purchased the previous policy from me, so that made the rates go up of course. Even though the face amount of the policy she wanted was fairly low, we both agreed that a permanent policy would be a better fit than a term policy. 

I took her application and submitted it to the insurance carrier, and soon after a paramed nurse met the client at her home. Everything was going smoothly until I got a call from the insurance company. Apparently when the underwriter pulled her medical records there were some underlying health issues that had not been disclosed previously. 

The insurance carrier rated up the policy, meaning that her premium cost would go up. They gave me a new price, as well as different face amount for the premium she wanted. I knew in my gut that the client was not going to be pleased either way, but I picked up the phone and gave her a call. 

When I gave her the new numbers she said she needed a few days to think it over. The following week I called her and left a voice message, followed up with a few more over the next week or so, along with emails. I got no response. This wasn't good. 

After several weeks I got a letter in the mail from the insurance carrier. She had called in and requested that the company withdraw her application. Since she decided that she did not want to communicate this information through me I left her alone. I don't want to badger the lady and honestly I think she prefers I drop the matter. 

The moral of this story is that if she had been upfront with me on her health issues, we could have gotten her a more accurate quote from the beginning of the process. Remember that life insurance quotes are merely estimates based on the information given. A final rate is not determined until the full underwriting process is completed. It may be uncomfortable, even embarrassing, to discuss these kinds of personal matters with your agent, but full disclosure is always the best option.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life, disability, long term care, cancer, accident and other insurance coverages in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. And please subscribe to this blog!