Par Final Expense Plans

[psrayburn]

Hello, Im new here and didn't see any info on this. Are there any participating FE plans available? This just seems like a no-brainer, use dividens to increase death benefit. Kinda like a quasi-inflation fighter?

Somebody's got to design an Icon

Quasi-Inflation Fighter---

 

[Newby]

Hello, Im new here and didn't see any info on this. Are there any participating FE plans available? This just seems like a no-brainer, use dividens to increase death benefit. Kinda like a quasi-inflation fighter?

Somebody's got to design an Icon

Quasi-Inflation Fighter---

All of the pre-need funeral insurance products ore increasing benefit policies. They don't do this through dividends but through the design of the product. They usually increase at 3 to 4% annually.

Some are sold only through funeral homes but others allow agents.

Here are some of the main players:
Forethought Encore and Select (not ForeLife) (Agents)
Homesteaders Life Pre-need (Funeral homes only)
Monumental Preneed (Funeral Homes only)
NGL (Agents but limited to single pay or 12-month pay)
Funeral Directors Life Insurance Co. (Agents)
Cincinnati Equitable (Funeral Homes Only)
Southland Life (Funeral Homes only)
Lincoln Heritage Preneed (Funeral Homes only)
American Memorial/Assurant (Funeral Homes only)
Investors Heritage Life (Funeral Homes only)
Columbian Life (Agents)
And many more regional players

The best way to get into this type of sales is to contract with a funeral home (some states require you to be a funeral director.) Selling it separate from a funeral home, it is a difficult sale because it is priced MUCH higher than final expense due to the limited payments and growth of the death benefit.

The company that is doing the most non-funeral home business is NGL which gets past the higher payment objection by requiring all single-pay plans. They also have very low growth rates (2%) which allows them to offer higher commission but is not really protecting the consumer too well. They promote the irrevocable trust at the time of sale which is really not that great of a benefit because funeral plans have no lookback period for Medicaid. People shouldn't irrevocably-assign them UNTIL they are applying for Medicaid (in my opinion.)

It's a good niche market. All of the agents that I know of that make real good incomes with this product are contracted with one or more funeral homes.

 

[psrayburn]

Thanks for the input Newby. I think this is something the industry should look at. I live in a very rural area, no towns within a 60 mile radius have more than 40,000 people. The few Funeral Homes around already have somebody "in house" selling those type of plans. Said they aren't interested in having more competition locally.