The Money Machine 2023

Recently I had a conversation with one of my favorite clients. She's had her life insurance with me for a few years. I've tried to convince her that she needs some disability insurance, as she is single and lives alone. No kids and no one else to help her pay the bills. As a self-employed person, her income is above average. She was hesitant, mostly due to the premium payment.

"Let me ask you a question," I said. "But first, I want you to think about your annual income. Get that number in your head."

"Okay, I have the number," she said. "What next?"

"Now imagine that you have a small machine in your house that prints money." A smile crossed her face as she thought about it. "Every year that machine prints the same amount of money as your income." She was curious. "My question for you is would you insure that machine?"

She sat up and said, "Well, yeah. It's printing my income. That's a lot of money!" That's when it hit her.

"You're the machine," I said. "And if you, as a machine, break or go offline and can't work, you won't be able to pay your bills."

She completed that application that day. And she gave me a few referrals as well. Thanks, money machine! Let us help you insure your paycheck. 


Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, as well as a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient. 

Do You Have the Old Kind of Life Insurance or the New Kind? Part 2

In the last post, I discussed how life insurance carriers were struggling with the long term care market. Check out the post if you want to catch up.

As the stock market dropped in 2008, claims reserves (where your insurance company keeps your premiums) dried up like a raisin. And claims were higher than expected. To offset this, almost all of these policies had a provision that allowed for a rate increase if need be. After 2008, several companies put in requests with state insurance commissions for rate increases, from 17-20% on policies that were in effect. Some companies did this multiple times.

I've always considered people who buy long term care coverage, to be "forward thinking". Unfortunately that forward thinking wasn't paying off for many as they saw their rates increase.

Also, at the end of the last post I mentioned the number one objection when people discuss LTC with an agent. The conversation usually goes like this.

Client: How much is this going to cost?
Agent: $120 a month.
Client: That's a lot of money. What if I drop dead and don't need long term care? What happens to my premium?

And that was the deal killer for many. Of course you could purchase a "return of premium" rider, but that would nearly double your premium. There had to be a better answer.



Now we have life insurance with long term care riders which are handled differently by different companies. Some underwrite the rider separately, others just underwrite the life insurance part. Some just called them "living benefits" to work around certain requirements by state commissioners. On the whole, it's just life insurance that you can use while your living.

It's life insurance that you can use for long term care if you need it. And some now have other benefits. We offer one with a critical illness component in the event of a heart attack or stroke. And the cash value can also be used as a retirement supplement. And being life insurance the rates are locked in. No rate increases!

So there's the old kind of life insurance and the new kind that you can use before you die. If you have questions or want to drop us a comment below or go to our website and request information.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, as well as a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient. 

Do You Have the Old Kind of Life Insurance or the New Kind? Part 1

For many years we have had a few types of insurance. There's term life, universal life, whole life and indexed universal life, among others. They generally did the same thing, which was paying if you died and maybe building some cash value. Other than that, the differences were in rates and performance.

And then 2008 came around and the industry had a bit of a shake up. Companies offering life insurance as well as long term care began to change benefits of the latter. And as the years went by, the bond rates stayed very low, affecting dividends and profits. These carriers had to make changes.

Stand alone long term care (LTC) policies were stripped of certain benefits like lifetime payouts. Some companies got out of the LTC business altogether. Some maintain their business on the books but not writing new business, while others just sold their books to other companies.

Demand for the product, along with a slow but increasing awareness, was still there. Around this time, a few hybrid products began to get marketed. I was working at a very large life insurer at the time and we were told to poo poo any hybrid products if a prospect asked. For example, we were to compare a life/LTC product to those TV/VCR's that never quite worked as good as a separate system.

But it did address the number one objection to buying long term care coverage. And I'll cover that in part 2, so be sure to subscribe.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, as well as a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient. 

Cold Calling In Insurance (and other places)

When I first got into sales professionally I was taught to cold call and the mentality that went with it. I was selling accident plans door-to-door in rural areas of North Carolina and the hours were grueling. We'd have a meeting in the morning of a local diner and then spread out to assigned areas throughout the county.

Dropping by someone's home unannounced was the nature of the work, and many times the people were home. If someone was home, I'd go through my spiel only to be told that they wanted to wait for their spouse to come home and discuss it over. The whole scenario was dumb.

Through all of this I learned that how to introduce myself to total strangers, how to persevere through a lot of rejection, but most importantly, not to be afraid of the cold calling process. Knocking on doors was easy if you could handle people not wanting our product.

A few years later I sold office supplies for a small company. With just a few accounts I had adopted from a previous salesman and barely any knowledge of the products, I had to develop my own strategy to build a clientele. Using my experiences from the world of accident plans, I methodically worked one office building at a time, walking in with something in my hand to give out other than a business card. I would distribute our new catalog, or a sale flyer that I designed myself (this was before everyone had a computer with a word processor).

Working B2B was so much easier than calling on people in their homes and my success rate was above average when you consider the resources I was given. People were happier to see me at their businesses than their homes.

That office supply company was okay, but there was no room for growth and I didn't want to be an old guy asking people if they needed paper clips. I eventually got back into insurance again, but I decided to call on businesses to grow my book of business. Many times the sales calls result in individual policies, so it all works out.

Cold calling has gone by the wayside for most people nowadays. There are other ways to get clients, but I still use those basic skills to work a room or networking event.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, as well as a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient. 

New Year, New Insurance Plan

As we enter 2020, one of the things we should put at the top of our list of resolutions is making sure that our families are taken care of if something should happen to us. A review of our current plan can fix any potential landmines that could impede our goal.

Years ago I met a guy, we'll call him Chad, who was a confirmed bachelor. We talked for a while and he decided that he had no use for life insurance. We parted on friendly terms and I let him know I would be keeping in touch. About a year later, I called him and everything had changed. His brother had died and Chad was now the legal guardian of an 18 year old boy who had some severe learning disabilities. Chad was blindsided by this change of status and we set him up on a life insurance plan to provide for the boy if Chad should die.



By checking up on Chad instead of forgetting about him, we resolved a potential problem. Chad knew he needed to do something, but kept putting it off until I called him. It all worked out.

The moral of this story is that we should use the beginning of the New Year to make resolutions, but to also follow up on our old ones as well.

Happy New Year and let us at Surf Financial Brokers know if we can do anything to help you plan your family's financial security.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, as well as a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient. 

What Is Final Expense Insurance?

We've all seen the commercials on TV with Alex Trebek telling senior citizens that they can cover the cost of a funeral with a life insurance policy.  But what kind of insurance is it and how much will it cost?

Usually, final expense coverage is a whole life policy, which is the most expensive type of life insurance because it builds some cash value.  But do you really care about building cash value to pay for a funeral?  Probably not.  The main concern is covering the cost of a funeral  while making sure your premium doesn't increase.

In the case of our friend, Mr. Trebek, he says that you can't be turned down.  That's a good thing if you are in poor health, but being "guaranteed issue" also means that the additional risk to the company is being passed on in the cost.  Generally speaking, "guaranteed issue" costs more.

If you are in good health, there is a better and more affordable alternative.  Guaranteed Universal Life (GUL) typically runs about a third less and the rate is also guaranteed to never go up as long as you pay your premiums.  The GUL may ask for a paramed exam to qualify buy this lowers the carrier's risk, which in turn lowers your price. 

If you're looking for a way to cover the expenses of a funeral, let us help.  Contact Surf Financial Brokers for information. 

Time To Insure Your Love Again

February is when the life insurance industry wants you to "insure your love".  Using the month of Valentine's Day for promotion may sound cheesy but doesn't this get to the matter of what life insurance is all about?

When you really get down to it, life insurance isn't for the person who is covered, but to pay a benefit to those loved ones (spouse, kids) who will need that money in the event that you die too soon, to help pay for everything like usual living expenses to college funding.  And if you love your family, you'll make sure that after you are gone they can keep moving forward with their lives.

So give us a call and let us help you insure you and your loved ones this month.  And check out our website at www.SurfFinancialBrokers.com or look us up on Facebook.