Insurance Agent Forum

[cwittusen]

Hi Everyone:
I'm a new agent since last month and I want to focus on annuities and life insurance.

I was thinking about starting doing dinner seminar but its a big cost to take on as a new agent since it wont be less than $4,000 to mail out 5,000 pieces of mail and the food it self.

So, I wanted to ask if anyone had any other suggestions on how to get started in order to maybe get 1-4 sales before I start doing dinner seminars? Dinner seminars seems to be the most successful approach but like I said, very expensive start.

The other question is, would I have to get approval for a mail out of a mail piece that compared bank CD's to FIA if I tried to keep it as general as possible, and does anyone have any suggestion for how a thing like that would look like?

Finally, does anyone have any good suggestions on why someone would roll their 401k, IRA to a FIA? I'm looking for 5 good arguments to use.

Thank you to everyone for keeping a really good forum going and for always being very helpful.

/Chris

[insuranceexec]

Have you talked to your upline? First place to start.

How much do you know about annuities? The reason I ask is that you would like for us to give you 5 reasons why to roll a 401K, etc, etc into a FIA.

If you knew how annuities worked; you would realize that every situation is different and requires fact finding and suitablility reviews.

What was your prior profession?

[scagnt83]

Originally Posted by insuranceexec

Have you talked to your upline? First place to start.

How much do you know about annuities? The reason I ask is that you would like for us to give you 5 reasons why to roll a 401K, etc, etc into a FIA.

If you knew how annuities worked; you would realize that every situation is different and requires fact finding and suitablility reviews.

What was your prior profession?

Very true statement. I dont know that I would do direct mail marketing exclusively IEAs...maybe annuites in general...or just IRA, or 401K rollovers.

But any direct mail needs some type of phrase or "hook statement/s" to gain interest. I have been considering investing a few hundered into a DM campaign myself, but I am torn about excatly how I want to market myself.

Whats everyones experience doing direct mail marketing:
1. Retirement Planning
2. Financial Planning
3. IRA/401k rollovers
4. state a current interest rate thats tax deffered
5. "save taxes and increase return on your CDs"
Or something similar to one of these themes...
Any of these themes work better than another for you in hte past???

[cwittusen]

Originally Posted by insuranceexec

Have you talked to your upline? First place to start.

How much do you know about annuities? The reason I ask is that you would like for us to give you 5 reasons why to roll a 401K, etc, etc into a FIA.

If you knew how annuities worked; you would realize that every situation is different and requires fact finding and suitablility reviews.

What was your prior profession?

when you say, talk to my upline, what are you referring to? I'm independent and I got appointments with Allianz, Aviva, and RBC, are you suggesting that I talk to my "pip's" at those carriers?

I think I have a very good understanding for how annuities work, and I understand that annuities provide tax-deferred benefits vs. bank cd's that has tax consequences every year on growth. Additionally, a FIA has protection on principal and could grow higher than a mutual fund (or not) but wouldn't lose the principal and with annual reset it makes it a very interesting product.

My previous profession has been in building businesses, improving businesses; I have for the past 4 years worked with most insurance companies in US to get them going with claim's software so I have had my head into these companies for 4 years but it has not been in knowing more about their product but more in how to staff and how to handle claim volume, preventive care, etc.

/Chris

[HarryRenard]

Scagnt83-- the only success i've ever had with Dm for annuities was from Probate based themes thats the direction i would lean towards, that is of course if you have something to offer them on the topic.
My only other suggestion would be up $$$'s, I personally don't think a few hundred dollars would be enough to give you a good sampleing.
But either way good luck with it.

[fina]

I think folks would have a good incentive rolling over their 401k;s from work with the economy right now, as a matter of fact thats what im doing in my cold calling

[bhoward]

You can also set up camp in some churches. Talk to the pastor/priest about having a talk to the older groups in the congregation on final expense/annuities, etc. Do it is a INFORMATION type setting-you being the expert and there to answer questions and help them understand it all better. Then leave a card with each of them so they can contact you personnally for further information...

[DHK]

Originally Posted by cwittusen

Finally, does anyone have any good suggestions on why someone would roll their 401k, IRA to a FIA? I'm looking for 5 good arguments to use.

compared to what?

Here are some reasons:
1) 10% liquidity available each year (compared to CDs)

2) Principal fully insured by a legal reserve insurance company

3) Potentially higher return over CDs

4) Ladder different annuities to "dollar cost average" into the mortality tables and get a higher payout over time as you annuitize different contracts. (Harder to explain, but the concept is there)

5) If you annuitize at age 70.5, you will never have to worry about missing your RMD from your IRA.

6) You can own your own pension, instead of your (former) employer (if the pension can be rolled over in a lump sum) and have greater control.

7) The "sleep-at-night" factor is much better with an annuity than other ways to fund your IRA.

8) You can quit paying broker fees, statement fees, transaction fees, managed account fees, mutual fund loads & 12b1 fees... all designed to ERODE you of your wealth to other financial sharks REGARDLESS of whether you have a positive return or not!

9) In some economies, it is far more important to secure the return OF your money instead of being greedy for the highest return ON your money. (Such as this one.) If you had your money invested in October, 2007, what would your portfolio be worth WHILE you were taking money out and the shares were low? How well could your portfolio recover? (If it was down 50% in 2007, it would take a 100% return the NEXT YEAR to be back to the same level.)

10) Insurance company actuaries are behind the investments of the general account of insurance companies. That means they're investing with a 40+ year time horizon, not just the next 3 months (like your broker might be doing).

Just a start for you.

[cwittusen]

Originally Posted by DHK

compared to what?

Here are some reasons:
1) 10% liquidity available each year (compared to CDs)

2) Principal fully insured by a legal reserve insurance company

3) Potentially higher return over CDs

4) Ladder different annuities to "dollar cost average" into the mortality tables and get a higher payout over time as you annuitize different contracts. (Harder to explain, but the concept is there)

5) If you annuitize at age 70.5, you will never have to worry about missing your RMD from your IRA.

6) You can own your own pension, instead of your (former) employer (if the pension can be rolled over in a lump sum) and have greater control.

7) The "sleep-at-night" factor is much better with an annuity than other ways to fund your IRA.

8) You can quit paying broker fees, statement fees, transaction fees, managed account fees, mutual fund loads & 12b1 fees... all designed to ERODE you of your wealth to other financial sharks REGARDLESS of whether you have a positive return or not!

9) In some economies, it is far more important to secure the return OF your money instead of being greedy for the highest return ON your money. (Such as this one.) If you had your money invested in October, 2007, what would your portfolio be worth WHILE you were taking money out and the shares were low? How well could your portfolio recover? (If it was down 50% in 2007, it would take a 100% return the NEXT YEAR to be back to the same level.)

10) Insurance company actuaries are behind the investments of the general account of insurance companies. That means they're investing with a 40+ year time horizon, not just the next 3 months (like your broker might be doing).

Just a start for you.

DHK:
That was some excellent arguments, thank you.

/Chris