This is a shame

[moonlightandmargaritas]

Working for NYL, your bread and butter is whole life insurance. It's an excellent "rich man's" product. Most people are better off with term. Unless you've got an entre into large estate planning, non-qualified deferred comp cases the like, or a network of wealthy people, it's going to be one tough road to hoe. Not impossible, but it'll take lots and lots of time to get established. Have you written any cases yet?

 

[NHB_MMA]

You come here and list negatives about NYL, your manager, training and recruiter then turn the thread into WL discussion.

Well, I need someplace to vent. Safe to say if I started complaining in the office, I'd be black-balled in a nanosecond. The WL discussion comes from what is an acceptable use for WL? I have my opinion and I think many might agree with me to a point, but I don't think WL is acceptable as the sole vehicle for retirement funding, in most cases.

Is/has the training been top flight?

NO. I hear the continual training at the weekly meetings is good, but the initial training really lacks in product knowledge. It was as if they assumed I was in the business for five years and not new to life.

Are they teaching you how to SELL the product?

I think they've done a fair job, as good as I would ever get in this industry which has poor training to begin with.

How to Market?

Yeah, several good ideas.

Does your manager help close deals? Do they do so in an ethical manner?

He is generally unavailable to work when I available hours, so I almost feel like an independent. He did meet someone with me once. Would he sell in an ethical manner? Oh, HELL NO!!!

Understand your in a tuff spot but if their not providing top notch training then at very least hook up with a mentor in the office.

I do need to do that. How much time a person would give me as a charity I don't know.

 

[NHB_MMA]

Working for NYL, your bread and butter is whole life insurance. It's an excellent "rich man's" product. Most people are better off with term. Unless you've got an entre into large estate planning, non-qualified deferred comp cases the like, or a network of wealthy people, it's going to be one tough road to hoe. Not impossible, but it'll take lots and lots of time to get established. Have you written any cases yet?

Again, I think the average person should have about 75% to 90% of their coverage in term, for affordability reasons, but I do not advocate 100% term for people.

I don't have any real connections to people with money. I suppose I could leave my card and brochures and every doctors and attorneys office within a reasonable drive. If I'm lucky, they'll get put in a drawer with the other 100 agents that have left info for them and if I'm unlucky they'll end up in the trash. I'd bet the farm I don't get a single call.

 

[James]

Re: where are we at?

At this point I'm not sure where we are at? I know you work for NYL, I know or percieve you are having problems with getting ink on paper. Is this about right?

I've only talked with a few people. I need to meet my first quota before I quit my full-time job, which is taking up all my time. I'm brainstorming to see what else I can do.

Here is my suggestion, ask for a mentor and give a percentage to that mentor. Hopefully one of the best agents in your area, if that is possible I'm not sure with NYL but I think if you're willing to sweeten the pot they will perform for you.

Then ask for the "5 Way" script or I can give it to you. Go check out some books by Feldmen and Bert Meisel. Then you go to 30 businesses cold calling or call 100 businesses a day and use the 5 Way to get appointments. Let the mentor take the lead and you'll get your appointment with NYL. What you need is activity, if you do that everything else should fall in line, yet you already know that. Its a matter of getting in touch with a mentor with NYL, hopefully not your manager that is where I'm not sure about NYL? I'm told by others they have a mentor system of training so go and talk to other Agents that have a good track record and invite them to go to your appointments and take the lead for a cut of commissions.

 

[James]

Working for NYL, your bread and butter is whole life insurance. It's an excellent "rich man's" product. Most people are better off with term. Unless you've got an entre into large estate planning, non-qualified deferred comp cases the like, or a network of wealthy people, it's going to be one tough road to hoe. Not impossible, but it'll take lots and lots of time to get established. Have you written any cases yet?

Again, I think the average person should have about 75% to 90% of their coverage in term, for affordability reasons, but I do not advocate 100% term for people.

I don't have any real connections to people with money. I suppose I could leave my card and brochures and every doctors and attorneys office within a reasonable drive. If I'm lucky, they'll get put in a drawer with the other 100 agents that have left info for them and if I'm unlucky they'll end up in the trash. I'd bet the farm I don't get a single call.

No go B2B and concentrate on small to micro small businesses. I agree to break into the HWC is next to impossible, remember the old saying, "Serve the Classes eat with the Masses, serve the Masses and eat with the Classes" or something like that. It isn't a matter of size of the policy but the quantity of the policies in the beginning.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

Why is it that you don't advocate 100% term for people?

 

[James]

Why is it that you don't advocate 100% term for people?

More then likely some like myself believe people have a need of insurance for life. Now the amount may vary but I think that is a proven idea today as it was yesterday. The ageing process today as it was years ago shows a clear need of insurance for life not just the producing years of ones life.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

That's fine, but why?

If I have no dependents, and have accumulated a decent amount of assets (not rich, just decent), why would I have a need for life insurance my entire life? What does the aging procee have to do with it?

 

[James]

That's fine, but why?

If I have no dependents, and have accumulated a decent amount of assets (not rich, just decent), why would I have a need for life insurance my entire life? What does the aging procee have to do with it?

Well maybe not you, I really don't mean to say everyone has a need but most I believe do. The aging process I was referring to was the natural progression of life. Today people are living longer causing them to work longer into their senior years, have debt longer more then likely till they die, have desire to leave a legacy of money to someone or some group, have need to pay for final expenses so on so on.

 

[sman]

I personally have compared the WL products to Northwestern and State Farm and found them to be lower in the quotes I ran, although SF had lower rates for children's insurance.

As I said, you may very well be competitive on permanent products, but not even close on term.

Another agent ran the preferred rates against some companies on an internet site and found NYL to be right in the middle, for one of the term products.

I don't know what internet site the agent was looking at, but a good one is www.term4sale.com. They don't sell term insurance. Just comparison software to agents. You choose the criteria (age, amount of coverage, rate classification, premium guarantee or not, A.M. Best rating, etc.). Once you input the criteria, they list the 50 cheapest plans based on that criteria. I used a 40-yr old male, Preferred Non-Tobacco (2nd best rating), 20-year plan (without the guarantee - although most of the plans you'll see offer a full 20 year guarantee), $750k of coverage, A+ Best rating or better and NYL was number 49 on the list. And as I said before, their premium is only guaranteed for 10 years.

Most of the "consumer gurus" tell you not to buy insurance without some of the bells and whistles. I remember on the other board reading threads about how some of you guys have to battle that stuff ("consumer gurus"). I talked to an agent yesterday fresh out of training that replaced 50K on the husband and 25K on the wife, giving them 100K on each...and some money back in their pocket.

First of all, there aren't many bells and whistles with term insurance. The one big one most companies use that sell permanent coverage is the convertibility benefit. Well guess what? Many of the cheap term carriers have some form of permanent coverage (WL, UL, VUL) that they allow the client to convert to. Also, most of these will allow you to convert at a later date than NYL. And if this agent saved this couple money by selling them a NYL term policy, the couple didn't talk to an independent agent.

When I say price competitive, I mean falls somewhere in what is reasonable to pay when comparing apples to apples.

So what's reasonable? And what's apples to apples? It's hard for you to compare a NYL term to most other term products, because NYL only guarantees their premium for 10 years. The other carriers guarantee it for 20 or even 30 years. In addition, you have to pay about 50% more for the NYL term. Is that reasonable?

Tell me this, you have two gas stations side by side, one has gas for $2.00 a gallon, the other is $3.00 a gallon. Which one do you fill up at?

The indy has a different mentality. Most of you guys sell exclusively on price, might cross-sell a little bit, but tend to specialize in one thing, whereas the other approach is a more comprehensive long-term relationship while working on the entire portfolio, as Melmunch said.

Let's clarify one thing. I do comprehensive financial planning. My goal as an "indy" is to provide the best benefit to my client, the most efficient way possible while still getting paid. The majority of my clients have multiple lines of business with me. I can't possibly fathom asking a client to pay $1,040 a year for a 20 year term policy that only has a guarantee of 10 years, when I can give him the same amount of coverage with a 20 year guarantee for $665 per year. That saves the client nearly $400 per year for 10 years and possibly much more the next 10 years that he could invest in his Roth IRA he has with me. That $375 invested for 20 years at a return of 8% gives the client an extra $18,500.

I've learned a lot from you guys, but most of you did the same thing I am doing. I don't know of any prominent poster here that up and started the insurance business as an independent. On the old forum, I asked if I should accept the NYL position and even STIBROKER said "yes", even though he has had fun ripping some of my posts since then. 8)

No, there aren't many that started as independent. I started captive and I started full-time from the beginning. There is nothing wrong with you working for NYL. My issue is with the statements that you are "competitive". Then you changed a little and now it's "reasonable". The reason I went independent is because I got tired of trying to sell an inferior product. Now if you only come across people who are candidates for WL, more power to you. But please note, not everyone is a candidate for WL.