3 Types of Clients: Underachievers

In this week’s post we will be discussing how you can bring value to the second client type. Client type number 2: Drumroll please.... Folks that have life insurance but are not optimizing their policies. We call these folks the Underachievers.

We ask you to take a moment and think about a few of your most significant clients, ask yourself if you have done all that you could to support their life insurance needs as their most trusted advisor. TDC Life has built a business around championing professional advisors like you to make it EASY to help you bring smart ideas and solutions to your clients in this area.

Underachievers. 

The fact is, folks purchase life insurance as a onetime event, without a plan and without regular reviews. As a result, 80-90% of the life insurance policies TDC Life reviews are not properly maintained, managed, or monitored.

69% of all policies have not been reviewed in the past 5 years and 20% of those policies are likely to lapse in the next 3 to 7 years. 

Here are some examples of these clients:

• Clients With Old Life Insurance: Over many years these folks have purchased life insurance policies with certain goals and objectives in mind but now the situation has changed (often dramatically), but without corresponding updates to their life insurance, have implemented several different funding plans, ownership designations, loans, etc. This all leads to a suboptimal life insurance portfolio. 
• Company Owned Life Insurance: Companies will often buy life insurance to protect their key folks or build up cash value for a retirement benefit or as part of a buy sell agreement. However, as employees come and go from the company there is a collection of life insurance that accumulates and is not being managed strategically. See the previous blog post about folks that don’t need their life insurance anymore. 
• Charitable Organizations: Many of our not-for-profit clients have received donations of life insurance over the years. Yet these organizations don’t have the knowledge or staff to properly manage and monitor these gifts. Most of these folks want to do the right thing but simply don’t know where to turn for good advice. There is an advice gap in the philanthropic community related to life insurance.
• And many more...

Life insurance is an important asset in a portfolio. Just like other assets that a person owns, it needs management. To protect the client and maximize the return on their investment, proactive portfolio supervision is key. So, what to do if your client is a life insurance Underachiever? TDC life has 5 tracking points that we suggest folks use to quickly determine if their client’s policy is meeting targets or not. 

• Lapse Age
• Death Benefit
• Premium
• Credit Rate
• Carrier Financial Strength

Does your client know these details about their insurance? How do the current metrics for their policy compare to the original plan? How do their current needs compare to the policy’s current metrics?

A professional life insurance review can help answer these questions and many more. The Team at TDC has a proven process to make these reviews impactful, easy and with no disruption to existing relationships. With current policy statements and some basic client information we can provide a review to your client. No cost, risk, or expectation the client will do anything more with TDC Life! Our team can confirm your client is on the right track or uncover issues in a client’s portfolio, either way the client wins, and you look like a hero.

We hope that this profile has triggered a client situation in your mind where you can bring more value and deepen the relationship with minimal work on your part. Stay tuned for client type number 3!