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October 17, 2007 |
E- Newsletter Volume 1, Number 4 |
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In This Issue · Working Together For a Common Cause! NAIFA-California
Monday, May 19, 2008 Tuesday, May 20, 2008 |
Working Together For a Common Cause!
By Dennis P. Sunderman, CSA
Investments
- Insurers have invested 25.2 Billion in municipal bonds, which support
state and local public works projects and programs around the state. Taxes
- According to the Governors’ Budget, insurance companies will
pay over 2.3 billion in premium taxes on 102.4 billion in taxable premiums in
2007-2008, the fourth largest source of General Fund revenue. Employment
- The insurance industry provided jobs to almost 300,000 Californians
in 2005, at an annual payroll of 14.4 billion. Life
Insurance Coverage - The total value of individual, group and
credit life insurance policies is more than 2.5 trillion. Property
and Casualty Insurance Coverage - In 2005, California property
and casualty companies collected 64.4 billion in direct premium but paid 58.3
billion in claims losses and expenses including taxes, licenses, dividends
and fees. I was pleased to learn what a significant impact
our industry has on the economy of our state and to realize what a critical
role the agent plays in the connection between the carrier and the
consumer. It is hard to imagine
that consumers have any idea how important our industry is to the state
economy! And we should not be
certain that our legislators know the statistics either. We are missing an opportunity in our
communications with the California Legislature and the Department of
Insurance by not communicating the positive benefits we provide to consumers
and the state. It becomes evident based on the amount of
proposed bills, legislative and DOI hearings, that
we are a frequent target of criticism, and that there are threats to limit
our ability to serve consumers. One area that continues to be of concern involves
the inappropriate use of annuities in the senior market place, and the
unethical behavior of agents. I
am certain that you are as offended as any legislator, when you hear a horror
story about anyone who has been a victim of financial elder abuse. I certainly am. But rather than making assumptions
about agents in general, why not take a closer look. Where was the annuity sold? Was it in a bank or by a stock
broker? LIMRA
indicates that the majority of annuities are sold in banks and not by
independent agents. Was a large
annuity a part of a comprehensive financial plan to provide the guaranteed
component of a balanced and diversified portfolio? If the senior did not have mental
capacity, did the adult child approve and execute the plan with a Durable
Power of Attorney for the benefit of his mother/father? Granted, stories about consumers who purchased
products with high and long surrender charges are hard to take. But when was the last time an agent
designed or approved a product for sale in The fact is that there are multiple players
involved for the protection of seniors, and they all need to act
responsibly. Carriers need to
design products that do not have high and long surrender charges. The Department of Insurance needs to enforce
existing rules to remove agents who are not compliant. Agents need to adhere to the highest
standards of ethical conduct and always put the customer first. We need to work together for a common
cause, the protection of seniors. EXCITING
NEWS!!! NEW
Annual Meeting and Day on the Hill Format Mark your calendars for: “A New Beginning” Monday, May 19, 2008,
Annual Meeting
Embassy Suites Sacramento, CA National
Membership Day (NMD) Wow, it's hard to believe that National
Membership Day, (NMD), Thursday October 25, is
only one week away. The National Membership Team has provided
you all the tools, resources, and support you need and want to
have a successful day in one place on the NMD web
site http://www.naifa.org/leaders/membership/membershipday.cfm.
Here you will find several useful tools and resources; Such as telephone
scripts, membership applications, and advocacy brochures. Please
take a moment to review all the tools and resources that are
available to you. Also please
note that our State Membership Chair Marc Bregman will be hosting a National
Membership Day conference call Monday, October 22nd at 9:30
am. You are invited to join the
conference call by dialing 1 (888) 387-8686 then 4432788#. Let’s make this the most successful
national membership day ever! Strength
in Numbers is more than a slogan’, it’s a
reality! The more members we
have, the greater the influence we have with the legislators who draft bills
and the Department of Insurance which enforces regulations. Thank you for your membership and
service!
Year-end
Click on the link and get the
details from the Monthly Legislative
Update! http://www.naifacalifornia.org/Advocacy/PDFdocs/LegUpdates/2007/Legislative%20Update%2010-07.pdf
By Michael K. Fiamingo, LUTCF We
are now in our 4th edition of the electronic newsletter which provides timely
information to all of our membership at the click of the mouse on your
computer. These advances could
not be possible without the efforts of John O. Todd III, NAIFA-California Vice
President and Carol Nicolaysen, Director of Finance and Communications. This
has helped to launch our state into a timely, cost effective means of
communicating with our membership.
The overall efficiency of our organization could not be accomplished without
the dedication and talents of these individuals as well as the tremendous
contributions of Kay Nauta, Membership Services
Coordinator and David Dellinger, our Executive Vice President. We
also launched our first Podcast to our membership
with a legislative update due to the efforts of Mike Ables, Government
Relations Chair and Shari Mc Hugh, our Legislative Advocate. This is available at the
NAIFA-California website to view. With
the month of October quickly passing, the holidays are quickly approaching. If you should have a candidate for the
LILI program the deadline has now been extended to October 26th. This revised deadline is a great
opportunity to get in a candidate for consideration for the LILI class of
2008, which starts in January. By
now each local should have the monthly meeting schedule set and we would
suggest sharing that with your membership so they can have early notice for
any interesting speakers or topics scheduled in upcoming meetings. Any scheduled speaker changes can be updated
to reflect any changes to the schedule.
This is one method of growing attendance that some of our locals use
to peak interest, providing advance notice of meetings and topics. For
the rest of October, we should focus on our challenges to grow membership
with new members and retain current members. Your Membership Committee can be more
effective with a subcommittee for new membership and a subcommittee for
retention. This is especially
important in the coming year with the dues increase in January to implement
the NAIFA 21 goals. If you should
need any ideas or help to get your committee going you can contact Marc
Bregman, VP - Membership Chair or Trent Bryson, VP- Membership Co Chair. Looking
forward to next month our focus should be on PIC/PAC
and in December continuing education with scheduling Spring classes for LUTC, FSS, CLU, ChFC. One
last thought for this month is using the Membership Resource Guide as a
member benefits tool for your local association. This guide is available from NAIFA at
http://www.naifa.org in a brochure or electronic
format.
Monthly
Business Sales Idea
By Stephen M. Rice, CFP® CLU ChFC CAP™ Winners Keep Score and Score-Keepers Win! In my 26
years in the business, I have never made a “cold call.” It’s not that I would not make them; it was that I could not make them. People who know me would be surprised
to know that I have never been able to conquer my fear of the phone. I hate
making telephone calls. I always
have, and I probably always will.
And it’s not just the cold calls. I hate making most any kind of call
– even to existing clients or to “warm” prospects. So how
did I build my business?
Referrals! Very early in
my career, I learned the value of asking for, and obtaining, referrals. The way I learned was by building a
“Referral Ladder.”
What is a Referral Ladder?
Think of a tournament (like College Basketball’s “March
Madness”) that starts with 64 entrants, and works its way to one
winner. Now reverse the
chart. Start with 1, and the goal
is to build it to 64; only in this case, you are building your client base. It would
look something like this:
Make
sure you keep track of the commissions from each case. You can even add the date the person
became a client – which helps you track the efficiency of your process. When I
did my first Referral Ladder, I had been in the business about 3 months. I had run through most of my college
friends and family, and I was starting to run out of names of people to call. It was starting to worry me. I had not asked for referrals before,
and I did not know how people would respond to me asking for the names and
numbers of their friends and
family. I caught
a lucky break (although I did not think it was particularly lucky at the
time). One of my friends really liked
what I had to say about insurance, and wanted to buy some from me. I thought things were going really
well, until….. He was
uninsurable. “Now,
what,” I thought. Before I
could feel sorry for myself, my new non-client
gave me the answer. He said,
“I’m sorry you spent all that time with me, and now I can’t
do any business with you. How
‘bout if I introduce you to a few friends, and I’ll tell them how
great you are?” After I
picked my jaw up off the floor, I thanked him for his generosity, and said I
would be sure to take the same level of care for his friends that I had for
him. When I got back to the
office, I almost hit my head on the top of the door frame; I was floating so
high off the floor. I put
his name on a sheet of paper and tacked it on the wall over my desk. Within a few months, the one sheet of
paper was a bunch of sheets, all taped together and growing in a sideways
“V” shape. By the
time that Referral Ladder ended – not everyone gave me referrals or bought from me – I had over
40 new clients, and had made over $38,000. (Not an inconsequential sum in
1982!) All this
started from one guy, who could not even buy from me. I learned the value of referrals, and
of making those referrals count.
You don’t have to be a “Newbie” to benefit from this
concept, even experienced agents can benefit from this building and using a
Referral Ladder. |
