Should I Buy Term Life Insurance?

When I talk with clients about the differences in term and permanent life insurance I get a wide array of opinions. While most prefer term coverage because it is much cheaper, others would rather "lock in" on a price with some sort of permanent coverage. 

Actually, they can both do well if structured properly, while at the same time, stay in a budget. The biggest problem is that many people don't see the value of their coverage and will drop the policy when financial strains appear. Ironically, this is the worst time to drop a life insurance policy that may only be costing less than $50 month. (Same folks who will insure their phone but not themselves.)

According to Term Life Online, only about 1% of term policies actually pay a death claim. They say that this is because most people outlive their policy or they let it lapse before the term has expired. And many are unaware that there is a provision in most term policies that will allow a conversion to a permanent plan, which is what they will need as they get older. 

 

I once worked with an agent who had been selling life insurance for much longer than I, and he loved to explain that a 10-year term life insurance policy was a "sucker bet". In his estimation, the odds of someone dying in the first 5 years of a policy after a paramed exam were astronomically low, so the person purchasing this policy was really insuring the second 5 years only. Sucker bet.

Of course, there are people who need a 10-year policy. I can say that almost all of these were because they needed to secure a loan of some sort. In that case, it's a great fit. A better strategy for most of us is to find a term that will carry us out as far as possible, or to "ladder" policies. I touched on this concept previously and highly recommend you consider it when structuring your life insurance needs. 

Remember that term can be great for your needs during your working years, as you can buy a lot of coverage for not much money, but you may want to look into permanent coverage for those later years, and the sooner you buy it, the less expensive it can be in the long run.

If you have questions or comments, let us know.  And in the meantime, please stay healthy and safe!

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life and disability insurance coverage. 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!

What Happens When You Can't Work?

We can presume that most of us enjoy earning a living, getting a paycheck (nowadays direct deposit is the norm) and having some discretionary, or "leftover" money to use after paying our bills. Those funds are what we use for the fun stuff, like eating a meal at a restaurant or seeing a movie or treating a friend to lunch. 

But what happens when those funds are no longer available? What if you aren't able to work due to sickness or injury? 

For many people (like me) who are small business owners, independent contractors or otherwise self-employed, a serious disability could not only be devastating to a family's finances, but could also damage the business providing the income. But there's a solution!

A Disability Income (DI) insurance policy can help you protect your paycheck, which in turn helps you pay your bills and maybe even have a little leftover for a movie. DI can help you and your business stay afloat when you are unable to work. 

There are a few things to consider when looking at DI. 

• Underwriting looks at your health, your income and the type of work you do. An office worker may have lower rates than a welder because welding is more dangerous. Some insurance companies will require to see your taxes for the last 2 years.
• Policies can also be purchased that are solely for keeping the business open. 
• Individual DI policies may not have all the benefits found in group plans, like maternity coverage. However, there are many more options that can be structured to work for your needs.

Premiums may not be as high as you think, and your coverage can be customized to fit your budget. Given that over 85% of claims are actually for illnesses, like cancer or strokes, that doesn't mean accidents can't happen. Either way, if you can't work, a DI plan will be a great way to avoid guilting your friends and family into contributing to your GoFundMe plan. 

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life and disability insurance coverage. 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!

What Is The Slayer Rule?

In a previous post from 2021 I discussed occasions when a life insurance policy wouldn't pay out. One example I briefly mentioned was the "slayer rule" or "slayer statutes", which prevents anyone from benefiting from murdering you, if they are suspected of murder or plotting to murder you. 

I had a few questions (off the record, nudge nudge, wink wink) and I thought it was an interesting topic, so here's a bit more information.

1. Each state has its own version of Slayer Statutes.
2. The rule applies even if there is no conviction.
3. Even the suspicion of murder can disqualify your beneficiary from receiving life insurance proceeds or any other part of your estate.
4. The disqualified beneficiary's proceeds can be distributed to other beneficiaries or the estate. 

The bottom line here is that you should trust your beneficiaries to care more about you than any monetary proceeds that would come at your passing.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life and disability insurance coverage. 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!

5 Ways We Are Different Than Our Competitors

For several months now I have spent a large amount of my time on marketing (or learning to market) our website. I'm realizing that there is a huge learning curve when it comes to getting your message out on social media sites. In this journey for knowledge, there have been times when I have found a new workaround or app that my own social media guy was unaware of. 

With all of that in mind, several of my friends and team members and I kicked around some ideas. After identifying who we think our main competitor is (we'll call them "XYZ"), we took the time to look at their site. We discovered that there were several differences, such as

1. On our site you get your quote* immediately. With XYZ, you will be contacted by an agent (or several). This is because...
2. They sell your name to an agent as a "lead". And it may not just be one agent who gets your information. Several agents may call you. On the other hand...
3. We will contact you to see if you have questions, but all of your information stays with us. 
4. We have other products, such as cancer, accident and hospital indemnity insurance plans that can help you with out of pocket expenses when you or a family member becomes ill. 
5. If you like your quote, you can even start an application! We will get a notification that you have started an application and will reach out to you (via email or phone call) to assist you through the underwriting process. 

Please do us a favor and visit our site and run a "no obligation" quote. Let us know what you think! 

Thanks and please stay healthy!

*Quotes are estimates based on information you submit and final rates are subject to underwriting requirements. 

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!

Why You Should Plan For 3 Stages Of Retirement 2023

Two weeks ago I was asked to give a talk to a local networking group about long term care insurance, as well as other related subjects. Most of the material I discussed had to do with the products available to us, like long term care insurance, short term home healthcare insurance and life insurance with "living benefits" that can be used in the case of a chronic illness or cognitive impairment, like Alzheimer's or dementia.

As usual, I discussed the three stages of retirement which are the Go Go Years, the Slow Go Years and the No Go Years. Unfortunately, most people don't plan for the last part, which is what ultimately costs them the most money. 

Take a couple of minutes and watch the video below which covers a short talk on the subject. If you have any questions or comments, please post them below and if you can, please subscribe to our channel on YouTube. 

 

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!

Should There Be Humor In Insurance?

Selling insurance is a serious business to most people. Let's face it, life insurance, disability insurance and other lines like cancer and accident plans are heavy subjects. Sitting with a client and talking about how their family will handle it when they die isn't the happiest discussion of the day. And asking them how they think their loved one will handle the family's finances if they can't work or become chronically ill is necessary, but not the kind of conversation one considers enjoyable. 

As an agent and insurance broker, I've had people tell me that they just want to avoid these doom and gloom topics. I completely understand that our everyday lives are full of negativity and bad news, especially with a pandemic and economic troubles in the news each day. But some topics, like making sure that your family is taken care of, have to be considered.

With this in mind, I try to keep the conversation serious, but not too serious. Half of the battle is to keep a good demeanor and let the client know that the seriousness of what we are trying to accomplish, which is securing the financial future of a family. 

However, sometimes a little humor injected into a conversation lightens the mood. I'm not advocating wearing a clown outfit when meeting with clients. But I do think that tossing in a little humor doesn't hurt anyone and keeps it all in perspective. Check out the video below to see how a bit of humor is okay.

A good example of this is when I discuss life insurance with a client. Part of the talk usually involves funeral costs. The average funeral runs about $7360, according to the National Funeral Directors Association, and there are usually some other expenses associated with death, like a brief hospital stay. To be safe, I may give a client an illustration for $10k. I sometimes will include a second illustration for $15k and show that as well. 

When the client asks why I show two illustrations I say, "The first quote covers the cost of your funeral. The second one is for the funeral plus an open bar for your mourners." That usually gets a chuckle. I even had one client take the higher coverage.

In my 20+ years in the business, I've worked with people who tried to be either too serious, or thought that they were standup comedians. Personally, I try to get to know my client a bit before trying to inject jokes. And I have even had clients who took a dark subject, like their own death, and made light of it. 

One client of mine began by telling me, in front of his wife and kids, that he had been shopping around for someone to cremate him and was on the hunt for the best rates. "I think I've got a guy down to $750, but I want him to guarantee that rate." His wife looked on in horror as he laughed at his own comment. "She's worried that the crematorium will increase the price when I'm not around to argue," he said with a sly grin. Dark humor at it's best.

Someone once said that people won't always remember everything you say, but they will remember how you made them feel when you said it. I don't expect my clients to remember every facet of the policy they are considering, but I do want them to feel comfortable and know that I'm looking out for their best interest, hopefully with a little humor.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life and disability insurance coverage. 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 Surf Financial YouTube Channel

As mentioned in a previous post a few weeks back, Surf Financial Brokers has made a serious effort to expand our social media footprint. We added an Instagram page to our group of platforms recently and now we have a full-fledged YouTube channel. 

We hope both Instagram and YouTube will be great for our business. Recognizing that many people are visual learners and that not everyone wants to read a blog, we hope that short informational videos on topics like life insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance and our other products will help our viewers understand how these policies work, along with reasons why people should look into them. 

Did you know that YouTube is now the number two search engine, behind their parent company, Google? People search on YouTube for all kinds of information, from how to repair the thermostat on a 2005 Chrysler to the best way to make a pan-fried steak. Personally, it can be a lot easier for my brain to retain information when someone is explaining it to me, rather than reading a blog. 

We had a couple of reasons for wanting to do all of this work from a marketing standpoint. First, the traditional way of prospecting, asking for referrals and networking is good, but it can wear an insurance agent down. And we had a feeling we were missing out on a more social media savvy segment of the population. (see "younger people")

Making Surf Financial Brokers more of a virtual agency was starting to look appealing over a year ago.Then the pandemic arrived and sped things up a bit. Since we had already decided to make the adjustments, the virus just expedited the process. 

The internet has changed the way almost everyone does business. From marketing to the delivery of products and services, nearly every industry has had to make changes in the last 25 years. The life insurance industry still has a few holdouts though, who maintain that policies need to be "sold" in person by a trusted agent. 

This old school way of thinking kept agents, for the most part, limited to a geographical location. By expanding our social media footprint, we hope to cast a wider net of prospects. And we provide tools for our clients to use that can help them do some homework before setting an appointment with us.

As we have seen with auto insurance, more and more people are comfortable looking for coverage online. And almost all of the major car insurance companies have a strong social media presence. We hope this translates to other lines of insurance, including life, disability and long term care.

By making Surf Financial Brokers a "hybrid" agency, we can give the personal touch of having a live person on the phone if you have a question, as well as a virtual aspect for those who want to do their own research. As one of our taglines says, we're the "No Pressure Insurance" company. 

A great way to convey that message is through our various social media pages. You can find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. With a mix of memes, blogs and short videos, we hope to get the word out that Surf Financial Brokers here to help people protect themselves and their loved ones. 

Look us up on YouTube and subscribe to our channel. And please, stay healthy.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life and disability insurance coverage. 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!