Covid-19 and Disability Insurance

As the pandemic continues to work its way across the country, there is a lot of uncertainty. But one thing is for sure and that is that people who have disability insurance (DI) in place, whether through their employer or bought as an individual plan, are grateful to have it right now. And I don't think any of our clients will be cancelling their coverage any time soon.

More than ever Americans are learning how valuable their DI plan is. In a recent conversation with a local business owner, she asked me if I would prefer short or long term disability during a time like this. Not trying to sound trite, I said it would be best to have both. This is because the Coronavirus can put you in the hospital for a few weeks, and short term DI is good for that, but other ailments may not be getting treated in the meantime. Elective surgeries can be postponed, leaving people out of work for longer amounts of time. 

One thing to be aware of is that if your employer is offering to pay for your DI coverage, that benefit can be subject to income tax. And if that benefit is around 60-65% of your income (which is close to your take home pay), expect to get another haircut from Uncle Sam. In the same vein, if your company offers a Section 125 plan, in which you can have the premiums deducted "pre-tax", again you may be subject to taxes. 

On the other side of things are the people who have to get their own individual policies. This makes up the vast majority of my clients, who are business owners, self-employed realtors or other contract employees. Generally speaking, the people who purchase their own DI are cognizant of why they need this protection. If they can't work, they can't pay their bills. For a affordable premium, these folk can shift the onus to an insurance company. 

Since these entrepreneurs are in different fields of work, from barbers to realtors to attorneys, they all have differing risk factors with their jobs. But the one thing they all have in common is that they have to work with other people who may or may not be contagious. 

As I watch our local news, I see that restaurants are closing temporarily as employees begin to test positive. I applaud them for being proactive and taking action. But if that is your co-worker, how confident or nervous does it make you knowing that you could be out of work due to the virus?

In the upper right of this page you can run your own quote (it's an estimate subject to underwriting) for disability insurance. It only takes a few minutes so check it out. You may be surprised as to how affordable it really is. 

If you have any questions about our DI plans, or any other plans we offer, feel free to drop us a confidential message from our website. We will respond promptly. 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.

Accidental Death Rider at No Additional Costs

One of our favorite carriers now offers Accidental Death Benefit Rider (ADB) at no additional cost on their term life product. But what does that mean for you?

First, let's define what an ADB is. Simply put, if you were to die as a result of an accident, this benefit would add an additional 15% to the face amount of the policy. Lets's take a look at the following scenario that shows what this can mean for your family during a time when they are most likely already devastated by emotional loss and would welcome the chance to grieve without another financial worry. 

A young couple, we'll call them Jack and Holly, had been married for 14 years and were happily raising their three sons together when tragedy struck and Jack unexpectedly passed away in a car accident at the age of 40.

Because the ADB Rider was included at no additional cost with his $150,000 face amount term policy, Holly received an extra 10% of the face amount ($15,000) for a total of $165,000.

At a heartbreaking time when she and her children were mourning Jack’s death, they were able to use the additional $15,000 to pay for the various costs associated with his funeral, giving them a bit more space to grieve without additional financial worry.

Here, the ADB Rider shields Jack's beneficiaries from having to use a significant portion of the death benefit to cover his final expenses. 

Contact us for a free quote and let us complete an illustration for you. We can even take your application over the phone to keep us all 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.

Big News From Surf Financial Brokers

I am happy to announce that Jeanne Doran has decided to join forces with Surf Financial Brokers. She's an awesome agent and even better person. Located in the Charleston, SC area, she's licensed in several states, including Maine, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Jeanne is originally from Elkins, New Hampshire. She studied Liberal Arts at Siena Heights University and Keene State College. In 1993 she moved to South Carolina.

After getting her insurance license in 2007, she worked with companies such as Guardian, Western and Southern Financial Group, and Blue Cross. Jeanne specializes in finding the right solution for her clients. Her expertise is in Medicare supplements, life and disability insurance, and health insurance, working with individuals and groups, large and small.

Incidentally, I met Jeanne when she was working for a large agency. She was my contact person, and even though we only spoke on the phone, we formed a friendship that continued after she moved on to other companies. I continue to pick her brain for useful information on various insurance products. 

One of the things I've noticed about Jeanne over the years is that she is truly a student of the industry. She stays on top of new products and is constantly sharing industry topics with me. And most importantly, her clients think she's awesome and trust her with the financial security she provides for their families.

If you are in the Charleston, SC area and need help with your life or disability policies, give her a call at 843-864-3749. 

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

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.