Make Life Insurance Great Again!

The market, the products and the tools put great results within our reach.

As noted by many sage philosophers, with challenges comes opportunity. And I think that the many challenges we face in the life insurance business today present us with an unprecedented opportunity to make life insurance great again — great to own, great to manufacture, and great to sell.

Why do I think this way? Well, studies have shown that life insurance ownership in the United States is at a 50-year low. About 40 percent of the adults in this country have ZERO life insurance. And of those who do have coverage, they only have of what is enough to replace about three times their income. Is this a mature, oversaturated market? Or is this a market that is ripe for a re-education program about the value of life insurance to protect their families and businesses?

The recent and prolonged low interest rate trough has challenged company reserves and made it more difficult for product manufacturers to make new policies more attractive through lower premiums, higher cash values or both. The converse hope is that now, slowly improving interest rates will make the products more attractive and company balance sheets healthier.

Company concerns about the Department of Labor regulations compressing profits on qualified money are also, I believe, causing companies to re-look at life insurance as a reliable profit line. And past studies have shown that life insurance, not annuities or mutual funds, contributes the largest embedded long-term company profitability per dollar of premium.

But what about those of us who are advisors in the field? Well, we now have more products, with more features, at a lower cost, and with less competition than we have ever had. The number of households with dependents, our prime prospects in the middle market, is about 20 percent higher than it was 15-20 years ago. People are living longer and, by so doing, extending their dependency periods. And as we hitch our stars more and more to digital marketing, we have tools like LifeHappens Pro — your own personal digital marketing platform. This tool is flexible to Home Office compliance concerns and is available at discounted prices if you are a member of NAIFA or one of the other LifeHappens sponsoring organizations.

So, what will it be for you? The market, the products and the tools put great results within our reach. Opportunity or challenge? As said by pundits long before me, “It’s often your attitude, not your aptitude, that often determines your altitude.”

Let’s choose to make life insurance great again!

Brian Ashe, CLU, is president of Brian Ashe and Associates, Ltd., in Lisle, Ill., and the 2012 recipient of the John Newton Russell Memorial Award. A past president of MDRT and a past chair of LIFE, he may be contacted at bashe29843@aol.com. <pull quote:>

We now have more products, with more features, at a lower cost, and with less competition than we have ever had before.