What's A Fact Finder?

There are two types of sales - transactional and relationship based. When you go to the store and buy groceries, you pick out what you want, take it to the cashier and pay. No one asks you about your dietary restrictions or who else is going to eat dinner or what your grocery budget is. It's a pure transaction. Some would even go so far as to call this sales person an "order taker". 

A relationship based sale is different. No, there isn't a real "relationship" involved, but the seller will ask questions. And if they are worth their salt, the sales person will drill down for more information. This is where a great tool, the fact finder, comes in handy. 

In my 35+ years in sales I've seen people who do both. When I first broke into the insurance business, we sold accident plans door-to-door. There weren't a lot of return visits or questionnaires. All we did was push the benefits of the plan and close hard. One co-worker referred to it as "guerrilla sales" because we attacked the prospects and left. There was a lot of high pressure stuff going on and, as you can imagine, a lot of cancellations of policies after we walked out the door.

Years later I worked for another insurance carrier who had a fact finding questionnaire, but it wasn't required and seemed like more work than it was worth. Again, sales were lackluster. I glanced at it and memorized a few of the questions, but didn't make it a workable part of my presentation. 

Eventually I went to work for a very large life insurance carrier and it was mandatory for us to use a fact finder. Theirs was about 10 pages and very in depth. Mentally, it was a struggle for the agents to wrap their heads around this booklet. The managers were insistent that we use it. "The sale is in the fact finder" was the mantra.

It took a few months to get comfortable with asking the questions. I found short cuts and ways to ask the questions that were relevant to the client. As their needs changed, I could ask the other questions later on down the road. I learned how to do this correctly and my sales started to get better. I was managing to get bigger cases. More importantly, I was finding out what the client wanted and how much they could actually spend. 

If done correctly and casually, a good fact finder will help find out what the actual needs of the client are. And by asking sincere follow up questions, the sales person can build a rapport with the client. Don't think of it as a questionnaire and giving someone the third degree. Instead it's a great way to get a relevant conversation going, thus building the relationship on a foundation of trust and genuine concern. 

If you look to the right side of this page you'll find a button asking you to schedule a time with one of our agents. With the Covid-19 virus in consideration, we can do some good fact finding over the phone. We look forward to hearing from you and helping you find the protection you need. 

And as always, stay healthy!

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

Life Insurance Is Easy To Purchase During the Covid-19 Lockdown

I recently saw a TV commercial for "contactless delivery" of some brand of pizza. With the pandemic around us, it's good to know we can still enjoy a delicious pie without worrying that someone could infect us. 

The same is true with your life and disability insurance needs. And the tools we use have been in place for a while, so most agents already know which companies offer them and how to use them. For instance, I've had several companies offering web based applications for years. This means that the client can sit at home and give me their information for the application over the phone. The application is sent directly to the underwriter in a matter of seconds. 

Also, most of these apps bring any errors (mostly from me, the user) to light before submitting, so I don't have to deal with unchecked boxes or missing information later. In the old days when we had paper applications, I was notorious for accidentally forgetting to check a box here and there.

These web based apps are used for all types of insurance we offer, including cancer plans, heart and stroke plans, hospital indemnity and short term home health care plans. 

Another way we can make the buying process easier is the use of "drop tickets". The agent collects basic information and submits it to the company, who in turn calls the client and completes the application over the phone. We have several carriers who use this system and many of our clients like the way it works because the client may not want the agent to know all of their personal health information and would rather deal directly the insurance company. The agent likes it because the onus is off of them to complete the application fully and correctly.

If you have been considering purchasing life, disability or another type of insurance, and would like some information, go to our site and schedule a phone call with us. We can discuss what your needs are and how to fit it into your budget.

As usual, stay safe and healthy.

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 Consider Yourself To Be A Forward Thinker?

I spent this week cleaning out my father's house. He passed away in February after a battle with Parkinson's Disease, leaving us with some several bills. As I mentioned at the time, he had used the equity in his home to pay for his care instead of taking the advice of his son (me) to purchase long term care insurance when I brought up the subject years ago.

Hindsight is 20/20. However, as I go through boxes of old pictures of my parents when they were much younger and healthy, I realize that it wasn't really that long ago. With that in mind, I also know that it won't be too much farther in the future when I could be in the same situation.

Being chronically ill is an expensive proposition. Nursing homes, assisted living facilities and home health care are not cheap. Ask anyone who has had to pay for such care. But just as knowing that our own death is inevitable, we have to come to terms with the probability that we may need to find a way to cover these expenses, or be a burden to our children.

My father with is mother and sister, circa 1933

The whole point of buying any kind of insurance is to shift the burden to someone else, namely the insurance company. No one is going to lend you money for your care, as you won't be able to repay that loan. Nor does anyone really want to contribute to a GoFundMe page when you could be taking care of this from now.

Take some time to think it over. Do you want to be a financial burden? Do you want your family to interrupt their lives to care for you? They will out of love, but there are better options, some more affordable than others. Let us know if we can help, and as always, please stay healthy.

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

A Promise Kept

Did you know that only about 40% of Americans have the amount of life insurance they need? As an insurance agent, I find that people don't want to discuss life insurance because they want to "live in the moment" or because it's not something they can use. In other words, they don't want to plan ahead or worry about what might happen to their family when they die.

With that in mind, I wanted to share a video that gets the point across of why we should all consider life insurance. Take a minute to watch.

As you can see, life insurance isn't for you, as the insured, but for your loved ones. If you need help finding the right amount of coverage within your budget give us a call. And as always, please stay healthy.

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

Will Covid-19 Kill the Long Term Care Insurance Industry?

I've been working with a client who expressed interest in purchasing a Long Term Care (LTCI) policy a few months back. As a matter of fact, he was already sold on the product because of a family member who is chronically ill and in a nursing facility. My client, as many in that situation, realized how expensive a facility can be and decided that he didn't want to be a burden to his family if he was in the same situation.

I sent him a couple of illustrations and we discussed the merits of each. He made a decision and we agreed to meet in a week to get the paperwork finalized. That's when things went awry. 

Wanting to make sure I was doing everything correctly, I called the insurance company and found out that due to the Coronavirus, the carrier had put a moratorium on new sales "until this thing blows over". That could be months, or never. 

After making another call to a brokerage house, I was told the same thing, but they added, "This virus is going to be the excuse some carriers will use to get out of the long term care market." Really? Now?

The LTCI industry has had a strange road in the last 20 years or so. Policies evolved from the 1980's as different types of care emerged. Thinking that they could make nice profits, many carriers jumped into business, and with little actuarial numbers to base premiums on. On top of that, no one predicted the steady rise of healthcare cost over the coming decades.

To mitigate losses, LTCI policies included a provision that the insurance company could raise the premiums if they needed to, typically with the approval of the state insurance commissioner. And after the Great Recession of 2008, more than a few took that step and implemented 17-20% increases on business that was "in force". One carrier did it twice! So much for being a forward thinking person. 

Along with the price increases, companies also stopped selling stand alone policies or sold a stripped down version of their previous products. And some carriers sold their LTCI books of business to other carriers. Many have replaced the stand alone policies to life insurance policies with LTC riders. 

The point of all this is that at the end of the day, many of these insurance companies are looking for a reason to get out of the business. The claims are higher than expected and the premium increases are squeezing potential buyers out of the market. And Covid-19 has prompted the few remaining carriers to "suspend" sales until further notice. 

What does all of this mean for you? If you are concerned about your long term care needs in the future, you still have some options. As mentioned earlier, there are life insurance policies, both term and permanent, with LTCI or "living benefits". Companies vary as to their offerings, so ask your agent to verify what you're purchasing. 

A few months ago, I discussed the Short Term Home Healthcare (STHHC) plan we offer. Many people don't realize that the costs of home health care can be double of that in a facility. In my opinion, this is a fantastic product and very affordable. 

The Coronavirus has probably put the last nail in many carriers LTCI coffins, but don't let that dissuade you from looking into your options from now. Click here to book a free fact finding phone call to find out what we can do within your budget. 

And as always, stay healthy and safe!

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

Life Insurance and Education Planning (Use Our Free College Calculator)

When I sit down with parents to discuss life insurance, we try to determine the face amount needed by calculating items like debt, mortgage, costs associated with death (funeral expenses, hospital expenses if sick, etc) and loss of income. I also ask people if they would like their children to be able to go to college if the breadwinner were to die unexpectedly. And even though I've had a few parents tell me that their kids will have to pay their own way, most want to contribute to their kids' education costs.

Planning for your child's college expenses can be daunting. First there's the issue of whether or not your child will be attending school at all, much less where they'll go. Technical schools, universities and grad school can be confusing as none of us has a crystal ball to foresee the future or what tuitions will be. 

When discussing education with a client I either talk about using life insurance to fund the education if someone dies, or using a permanent policy to help fund the costs. There are several ways to do this and either option is good and it really depends on the budget we are working with.

A good friend of mine, a single dad with a first grade daughter was looking into college planning a few years ago. We found an indexed universal life (IUL) policy that worked beautifully. By overfunding the policy, he could have enough ready when she was ready to go off to school. On the other hand, if she decided not to attend college, or even better, got scholarship moneys, he could use those funds as a retirement supplement. 

Most people don't realize that when applying for student loans or financial aid, they are required to disclose any college planning funds, like a 529 plan or a Coverdell plan. However, you don't have to disclose any life insurance plans. 

One of the items I use is a college calculator, which determines how much student debt will cost. If you have kids who may want to go to school, check out our calculator (below our retirement calculator). To use it, click here. 

As always, stay healthy and let us know if we can help you.

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

Memorial Day and Insurance (short post)

On Memorial Day we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice to secure our liberties. These men and women left their families and loved ones for foreign lands to put themselves in danger. We call them heroes in honor of what they gave up for the rest of us.

With that thought in mind, we too can be heroes to our families and loved one by making a very small sacrifice. The purchase of an insurance policy can also give us security to know that the people we care about can continue to live in their homes and educate their children. For a few dollars, we can take the steps to show that, just like those we memorialize from wars, we too can make a lasting difference. 

Everyday I talk to people who tell me that a parent "took care of things" by having enough coverage, whether life, disability or  long term care, and that forward thinking saved their family. 

As we remember the fallen military personnel who sacrificed for all of us, remember that you can also make a very small sacrifice for your loved ones. 

Stay healthy and have a safe Memorial Day. 

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