Three steps to increase your LTCI business
By nwjro
Many people have a difficult time personalizing how the need for long-term care could affect their lives. As their advisor, it's critical for you to make it personal. Explore the impact a long-term care event may have on your clients' families, finances and lifestyles and tap into the emotions revealed. It is this emotional connection that will make the difference, and help motivate them to purchase the coverage.
Make the LTC Connection
Chances are, your clients are planning on living long and healthy lives. While it's important to support that belief, it's also reasonable to suggest that the longer one lives, the greater the likelihood of needing some type of care. Helping your clients recognize this point is the first step in protecting their future.
Engage your clients in a dialogue about their retirement, their legacy objectives, their personal experiences with long-term care and how their lifestyles may change during the retirement years. Discuss how they might envision themselves receiving care as they age - and help them make a personal connection with the issue by identifying their primary concerns:
* Are they concerned about becoming a burden to their children? * Do they wish to protect their retirement assets? Is long-term care part of their income planning for retirement? * Does your client want to make sure that his or her spouse is protected? (According to the MetLife Employee Benefit Trends study, people are even more concerned about their spouse's long-term care needs than their own.)
Regardless of the motivation for considering long-term care insurance, clients will better connect with you - and the product - when working together on a personal level.
Engage Family Members
Long-term care is typically a family affair, so be sure to engage all family members in the conversation.
Many individuals may not consider the impact needing care may have on their families - this is when education and an honest dialogue are particularly valuable. Family members will do their best to provide care to loved ones, but few understand the emotional and psychological toll caregiving can take. Professional care provides an alternative, and can be used to complement a family caregiver's efforts. It's important for your clients to understand that long-term care insurance can help provide valuable professional care that can alleviate the strain on all parties, while allowing families to spend more quality time together.
To help your clients understand the impact, ask them to share a personal experience with long-term care - many people have witnessed first-hand how a long-term care event can affect a family. If your client doesn't have an experience to share, be prepared with a story of your own. Focus on whether the person who needed care ever anticipated that he or she would need that care. Inevitably, LTCI becomes more than a product when you experience the devastating effects that a health event requiring LTC services can have on a family - it becomes a personal investment in a cause.
Understand the Cost of Care
The cost of long-term care is a key conversation point in helping your clients quantify the financial impact a long-term care experience may have on their retirement portfolios. The cost of these services has continued to rise each year; as a result, helping your client develop a strategy to handle the potentially significant costs of long-term care services will help protect their retirement savings, their lifestyle and the lifestyles of those closest to them. Your clients may wish to discuss the cost of care in their area. The MetLife Mature Market Institute® provides these average costs by geographic location, in addition to a number of other useful research reports. These reports can be found on www.maturemarketinstitute.com.
By engaging your clients in these discussions, and educating them about LTCI, you are helping them avoid the emotional and physical stress that often results from a general misunderstanding of this product. There are two primary ways to pay for the expenses associated with needing long-term care: retirement funds or long-term care insurance. Explain to your clients how long-term care insurance can help prevent the need to use significant amounts of their retirement funds for long-term care expenses and emphasize how not having a plan may affect what is important to your clients, such as lifestyle, loved ones, retirement portfolios and other important commitments.
Finally, it's important to have these discussions today, while coverage is generally more affordable for your clients. MetLife's LTC IQ Survey reveals that only 18% of people are aware that age is the primary factor in determining the cost of long-term care insurance. Driving home that point may be a good way to help younger clients understand the importance of purchasing coverage early.
Client for Life
LTCI should be considered an essential part of planning for a secure retirement. Consistent communication with your client after the sale will increase the chance that the policy will be understood and valued.
Use this opportunity to become an advocate for your client and their family, helping to protect them for years to come. After all, there is no greater comfort than knowing you have prepared your clients for the unexpected.
Make the LTC Connection
Chances are, your clients are planning on living long and healthy lives. While it's important to support that belief, it's also reasonable to suggest that the longer one lives, the greater the likelihood of needing some type of care. Helping your clients recognize this point is the first step in protecting their future.
Engage your clients in a dialogue about their retirement, their legacy objectives, their personal experiences with long-term care and how their lifestyles may change during the retirement years. Discuss how they might envision themselves receiving care as they age - and help them make a personal connection with the issue by identifying their primary concerns:
* Are they concerned about becoming a burden to their children? * Do they wish to protect their retirement assets? Is long-term care part of their income planning for retirement? * Does your client want to make sure that his or her spouse is protected? (According to the MetLife Employee Benefit Trends study, people are even more concerned about their spouse's long-term care needs than their own.)
Regardless of the motivation for considering long-term care insurance, clients will better connect with you - and the product - when working together on a personal level.
Engage Family Members
Long-term care is typically a family affair, so be sure to engage all family members in the conversation.
Many individuals may not consider the impact needing care may have on their families - this is when education and an honest dialogue are particularly valuable. Family members will do their best to provide care to loved ones, but few understand the emotional and psychological toll caregiving can take. Professional care provides an alternative, and can be used to complement a family caregiver's efforts. It's important for your clients to understand that long-term care insurance can help provide valuable professional care that can alleviate the strain on all parties, while allowing families to spend more quality time together.
To help your clients understand the impact, ask them to share a personal experience with long-term care - many people have witnessed first-hand how a long-term care event can affect a family. If your client doesn't have an experience to share, be prepared with a story of your own. Focus on whether the person who needed care ever anticipated that he or she would need that care. Inevitably, LTCI becomes more than a product when you experience the devastating effects that a health event requiring LTC services can have on a family - it becomes a personal investment in a cause.
Understand the Cost of Care
The cost of long-term care is a key conversation point in helping your clients quantify the financial impact a long-term care experience may have on their retirement portfolios. The cost of these services has continued to rise each year; as a result, helping your client develop a strategy to handle the potentially significant costs of long-term care services will help protect their retirement savings, their lifestyle and the lifestyles of those closest to them. Your clients may wish to discuss the cost of care in their area. The MetLife Mature Market Institute® provides these average costs by geographic location, in addition to a number of other useful research reports. These reports can be found on www.maturemarketinstitute.com.
By engaging your clients in these discussions, and educating them about LTCI, you are helping them avoid the emotional and physical stress that often results from a general misunderstanding of this product. There are two primary ways to pay for the expenses associated with needing long-term care: retirement funds or long-term care insurance. Explain to your clients how long-term care insurance can help prevent the need to use significant amounts of their retirement funds for long-term care expenses and emphasize how not having a plan may affect what is important to your clients, such as lifestyle, loved ones, retirement portfolios and other important commitments.
Finally, it's important to have these discussions today, while coverage is generally more affordable for your clients. MetLife's LTC IQ Survey reveals that only 18% of people are aware that age is the primary factor in determining the cost of long-term care insurance. Driving home that point may be a good way to help younger clients understand the importance of purchasing coverage early.
Client for Life
LTCI should be considered an essential part of planning for a secure retirement. Consistent communication with your client after the sale will increase the chance that the policy will be understood and valued.
Use this opportunity to become an advocate for your client and their family, helping to protect them for years to come. After all, there is no greater comfort than knowing you have prepared your clients for the unexpected.
