January 22, 2025 • 24 mins
Unlock the secrets of navigating life's big changes with insurance veteran Toni Stevens. With over two decades of expertise, Toni joins us to demystify the complexities of life and health insurance. Wondering how to secure your loved ones' future without viewing life insurance as an investment? Toni offers invaluable insights, especially during pivotal moments like divorce, the loss of a spouse, or the exciting venture of starting a new business. Toni's approach is grounded in truly understanding your individual needs, starting with a client needs assessment that ensures tailored, peace-of-mind solutions.
We tackle the essential aspects of life insurance, advising on the importance of individual policies beyond group coverage and the strategic advantages of early whole life policies. Toni also sheds light on often overlooked options like long-term care riders. We don't stop at life insurance; the episode rounds out with guidance on selecting the best health insurance by assessing both needs and affordability. Whether you're facing personal or professional transitions, Toni's wisdom will help you make the most informed decisions. Tune in and equip yourself with the knowledge to thrive and decide wisely.
To reach Toni Stevens:
toni@stevensinsurancegroup.com
Hi and welcome to Thrive and Decide. I’m your host Sarah Thress. This podcast is intended to help women who are going through a divorce, continplating divorce or have lost a spouse feel seen, heard, understood and not alone. All the beautiful souls who share on here are coming from a place of vulnerability and a common belief that sharing your story will help others. You will also hear from industry experts on what to do and not do while going through a divorce.
Sarah Thress
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi and welcome to this week's episode of Thrive
and Decide.
This week we have Toni Stevensof Stevens Insurance Group and I
wanted her to come on and talkabout insurance and how she can
help people because, obviously,during a life transition where
either you're going through adivorce, you've lost a spouse or
(00:23):
really anything, maybe you'vetransitioned into being an
entrepreneur, you know there'smany different reasons why you
would need, you know, someone tohelp you with your insurance
needs.
And so, uh, tony is amazing andshe was connected to me with
some other women, uh, that arewithin the group thrive and
(00:43):
decide, which you which, ifyou've listened at all, you know
that this group is set out toliterally help women that are
going through a divorce, goingthrough the loss of a spouse,
and just helping them to feelseen, heard, understood.
So I really wanted to have Tonicome on and talk about
insurance.
So, tony, thank you so much fortaking time out of your day to
(01:06):
talk to us.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to be a part ofthis and I'm excited to kind of
take the fear and the ugly outof the insurance name.
People hear the name insuranceor hear the word insurance.
You know it's not a goodfeeling.
They generally think of badthings.
And you know I'm I guess I'm alittle bit of a weirdo.
(01:28):
I find insurance fun.
Um, I find it exciting becauseinsurance inevitably helps us.
Um, and there's so much aboutthe industry.
Um, I am over 20 years in theindustry.
Steven's insurance group isover five years, but I'm over 20
years in the industry and I'veseen so much in these 20 years.
Um, and just to take the fearout and make people understand
(01:51):
and help people understand thatduring these big life
transitions which I've beenthrough personally myself, that
it's okay, insurance is here tohelp and, you know, working with
a team that knows what they'redoing, it's it's a good thing to
to be able to understand howthis all works.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, I love that.
So I know, whenever we firstmet um, we were talking about
like the insurance you cover,and you were like everything
except property and casualty.
So so, yeah, so obviouslyyou're not going to be doing the
um, the house and the car, butyou're everything else.
So I guess could you walk methrough what are all the
different um, you know thingsthat you, that you do cover.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Absolutely so.
When you think of the insuranceindustry, I like to think of it
as three bubbles.
Okay, first of all we havewhat's called the P and C bubble
.
That's property and casualty,like you mentioned, that's home
and that's auto.
Then you have the bubble thatis your, your financial bubble.
Those are the folks that aregoing to help you with your
401ks, some annuities, differentRoth, just that whole financial
(02:52):
world.
Then you have what's called thelife and health bubble, and
that's where I focus on, andthat life and health insurance
bubble is pretty big because itranges from every type of life
insurance product to disabilityinsurance, health insurance and
whether it's group or individual.
You know Medicare falls underthat bubble.
(03:13):
You know we get into thesupplemental world of insurance
the accident, the cancer plans,the critical illness, hospital
plans, dental vision.
So it's a very big, beautifulbubble.
Again, here's this excitementcoming out of me and that's what
I have focused on.
You know, all of these years,initially, in the beginning of
(03:33):
my career, it was mostly workingwith groups.
You know meeting with employersand meeting with, you know, the
decision makers of companies,mostly smaller, 200 lives and
under, but you know puttingplans in of companies, mostly
smaller, 200 lives and under,but, you know, putting plans in
place for all of their employees.
But as time has progressed, andespecially with Stevens
Insurance Group now, we focus alot on individuals.
(03:55):
So a lot of my partners willsend clients my way with the
most, you know, obscuresituations.
Hey, I have this person who isgoing through this, or they have
this going on or whatever.
Can you help?
And what I love about what I dois no day is ever the same and
we are able to take on so manydifferent cases and situations
(04:19):
and with all the partnershipsthat I have out there, I'm able
to find a solution for somebody,no matter what the situation is
.
There's a solution in thisindustry.
But those are the three bubblesthat are in my brain.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I love that and I love the visual of the bubble of
the different things and Iappreciate you kind of breaking
that down and letting us knowwhich things that you focus on
in those bubbles.
So I know you used to work withgroups, which I think you
probably still I do, yes, I suredo.
Yeah, you still work withgroups, Perfect.
(04:52):
But if someone individually waslike man, my situation's
changing or I'm leavingcorporate America and I'm going
to go be an entrepreneur, I needto have insurance, all of that
stuff, what is your process Like?
Does someone reach out to you?
Do they have to fill out anapplication?
Like you know?
Just walk us through what youdo.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You know it's pretty simple.
They reach out to me and Iwelcome that all day long.
They reach out to me andexplain their situation and we
kind of talk through some thingsand I do just like with anybody
.
I do an assessment.
I have a client needs analysisform that I have them fill out.
It tells me their personalinformation.
Are they worried about theirpaycheck?
(05:33):
I like to find out what kind ofgroup benefits they have in
place now.
What are they losing?
Are any of them portable?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Can they?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
take them with them.
Most people don't understand alot of the plans they have in
place at a group, with theexception of health insurance
and dental vision, but they havesupplemental in place.
A lot of them are portable, sojust a complete assessment of
what is going on in their world.
What do they want?
What are they looking for?
What is their health situationlike?
(05:59):
Do we have, you know,circumstances on things that we
need to really look for and toprotect them?
You know?
Are they going through adivorce?
You know, there's just so manythings.
It's a complete needsassessment.
But they reach out to me, westart the process.
I think what's really importantto point out right away is
there is no cost to work with meas a broker.
(06:19):
I think that's very important.
We are here to consult, toguide, we assist in the writing
of any business they decide topartake on.
We are paid directly from thecarriers, so there's no broker
fees, anything of that nature,and I get asked that a lot, so I
think it's important tounderstand that we like to do
the legwork yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Well, and I I love that you pointed that out,
because, uh, I get asked that alot too.
You know, like as a realtor,like what, you know, what is
your fee for me to sit down andtalk with you?
And I'm like nothing, like Iwill just talk to you, um, but
yeah, so I love that you, youknow, mentioned that.
And then I know that wheneverpeople because I went through
(07:01):
this, whenever I went through mydivorce I realized that the
life insurance I had at myemployer once I switched, I
thought, oh well, I'll just keeppaying into that and didn't
realize that there were otheroptions.
Thank God for my financialadvisor being like, hey, sarah,
that actually is not the best.
(07:21):
Here's what we can do and whatI thought I was getting great
coverage for.
I want to say at the time itwas like $250,000 and I was
paying like $75 a month orsomething.
And I was like, oh, this is sogreat.
And then he was like, sarah, Ican get you a million dollars
and it's, you know, $50 a month.
And I was like, oh, oh, okay,well, yeah, I want that because
(07:44):
I want to be able to take careof my child, you know, if
something was to happen to me.
So I'd love for you to kind ofwalk us through what is the
difference in life insurancethat, like you get through your
employer, versus you know,having something separate.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Absolutely Well, the beautiful thing in life
insurance is one of thoseproducts that I love so much,
because there are so manyoptions out there for life
insurance, the differentproducts, the different types
and I'll touch on those in aminute but the riders and
everything you can include it's.
It's such a versatile product.
What we want to be careful ofis with group life insurance is
you know, it's great, you get toa place of employment and
(08:24):
you've got this insurance andit's great and it's payroll
deductive or whatever.
But what most people realize isit's not portable.
And if it is portable, it's aconversion and they're going to
conversion.
They're going to convert it.
At your new age, your rates aregoing to be way different than
what you're paying now.
I can't tell you how manysituations where I've had people
(08:44):
come to me.
They've lost their job.
They've been there for 25 years.
They forgot, you know they theyhad this life insurance but
they can't take it with them.
They had nothing on the outsideand so now they have nothing.
And guess what?
Now they have health conditions.
Now they're much older.
A couple of my very dearfriends bought life insurance
(09:08):
when they were younger and theybought a term policy, and we'll
get into this in a minute.
But they bought a term policyand they let it expire and now
they can't afford to haveanother one just because it's so
expensive and they've gothealth conditions.
So there's different thingsthat we can look into for that.
But I think the big thing aboutgroup is understanding that
(09:30):
it's not going to be a portablesituation and if it is, you can
convert it and it's going to bevery expensive.
When we talk about lifeinsurance, there are three basic
types of life insurance andagain, these are all available
outside of a group situation.
So many wonderful companies, somany wonderful products.
We have term insurance.
Term insurance is a deathbenefit.
It's going to do what you wanta life insurance product to do.
(09:53):
When you pass away, you pick a$100,000 benefit, it's going to
pay your beneficiary that$100,000.
Done.
There's no building of cashvalue.
There's none of that other funstuff that can happen, but term
insurance is very affordable.
This is the kind of insurancewhere, yeah, at the age of 50,
you can get a million dollars incoverage and it's not going to
(10:14):
cost you a whole lot.
Yeah, the caution with terminsurance is it is going to
expire at some point.
Maybe it's a 10 year term, a 20or a 30 year term.
So we need to be cognizant ofyour age and how long you want
to have that policy.
So with life insurance it'skind of cool because you can
have 20 different life insurancepolicies from different
(10:35):
carriers.
So it's.
It's the product where you'regoing to want to have the most
coverage depending where you arein your life.
At my age right now, I am soover covered on life insurance.
My son is a lucky little guy.
When I pass away, I am worthmore dead than I am alive,
unfortunately, but I have peaceof mind knowing that he will be
(10:55):
able to pay off all of my stuffand have a nice cushion to do
what he wants to do with.
Everybody has a differentpurpose for life insurance.
My purpose was to pay stuff offand leave something for my son
because my parents unfortunately, that's not the case in their
situation.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
That generation.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
It was a different situation when they were looking
into life insurance back in theday, and it's just not the same
now.
So, but anyways.
So term insurance, all right.
The next one is what we calluniversal life insurance.
So this is where it gets alittle bit more interesting.
The rates are going to be alittle bit more expensive.
With universal.
It is going to play with somecash value opportunities.
(11:37):
So you know your policy isgoing to work for you and build
a little bit of money that youcan pull out at the age of 65.
And you know you'll still haveyour death benefit.
The universal life insurance isprobably the riskier of the
life insurance that's out there,because you do have changes
that can happen to your ratesand your death benefit.
(11:58):
So it's things that you do needto pay attention to with those
types of policies.
But again, those are policiesthat are going to last until
you're 80, 90 years old.
They have some different agegroups depending on what carrier
we go with.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Right.
So it's nice when you cancombine the different policies
together.
We'll talk about that in aminute.
It's nice when you can combinethe different policies together.
We'll talk about that in aminute.
The third bubble or the thirdtype of life insurance is your
group whole life.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
This is my favorite.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah, now it is more expensive, but you have great
stability and you have deathbenefit stability and it's going
to last until you're 121 yearsold, whole life.
All right, wow, it's going tobuild cash value that you can
pull out penalty free at age 65.
So again, you're building alittle bit of a fund.
Yeah, you know, by no means I'dlike to state this, by no means
(12:48):
.
Life insurance policies shouldnot be used as investment tools.
Many people are like I want alife policy that's going to be
my retirement policy.
That's not how they work.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
No.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
You know, it's great when you can get a policy that
is going to build some cashvalue, because that's always
nice.
But the point of a lifeinsurance policy is to provide
your loved ones with a deathbenefit and not leave them with
your debt.
That's the purpose of it, andto have money to bury you
however you want to do that.
The average burial today canrange anywhere, depending on
(13:21):
what you want to do anywherefrom five to 20 grand.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
It's crazy.
So it's not a cheap situationand you know, every I kid you,
not every week I have a client.
Well, why do I want to get alife insurance policy?
And I'm going to be dead, sowho cares?
It's like, okay, so you want tostick your, stick your loved
(13:45):
ones with an expense, right?
No, that they shouldn't, youknow, yeah, so it's.
It's kind of crazy thementality that people have with
life insurance policy.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
But what is nice about them?
Like I said before, you know,we taught we started with a
group and that's great, butthere are so many individuals
and I always tell everybody ifyou have a group policy, that's
awesome, get something on theoutside, because if you lose
that job or if you're on aspouse's coverage and you are
getting divorced, guess what?
(14:11):
They're going to take you offof that policy.
Right, you need to have yourown policy, right?
Um?
And there are just so manyopportunities and you know, like
I said, we do a full assessment.
We talk about budget, we talkabout you know what is your goal
.
Is your goal just to have thatdeath benefit?
That's great.
Is your goal to be like me, alittle psycho, because I'm an
insurance professional and I'minsurance poor, believe it or
(14:31):
not?
Um, to to provide your familywith funds after you pass,
knowing that they have money?
You know, you know there's justso many different needs out
there, but those are the threekind of buckets of life
insurance.
Um, you know, and it's, it'sbeautiful.
Yeah, I personally, it's sofunny I have.
Um, long-term care was always abig concern in this industry.
(14:53):
It was the one policy I didn'thave and and I purchased a life
insurance policy for myself afew years ago with a long-term
care rider on it, you know.
I have one child Somethinghappens to me, I don't want him
having the burden of taking careof me and if I need to go into
a home you know this is a planthat's going to pay $8,000 a
(15:15):
month until the death benefit'sgone Wow To take care of my
facility cost and if I never gointo a facility.
Guess what?
It's just additional lifeinsurance.
You can never have too much.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, I love that, and I love that there is even a
writer available for that, somany different writers out there
.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
It's a lot of fun.
And again, that comes tofiguring out what are the needs.
What do you want in a lifeinsurance policy?
You know I talk about, I love,you know writing whole life.
You better believe anybodythat's in their early and 20,
early twenties or thirties, thatis the product that I'm going
to highly encourage because, asyou know, life insurance is a
(15:56):
product.
Unfortunately, as we age itgets more expensive.
Yes, so somebody that's intheir fifties and sixties, that
comes to me.
I'm not putting them on a wholelife, it's not affordable.
We're going to go with a term,something that's affordable.
But if they come to me in theirtwenties and thirties, oh you
better believe I'm going to pushthat whole life and someday
they'll think of me when they'rein their fifties and they have
(16:19):
this 50,000 whole life.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
That's still doing its thing, still building cash
value.
It's going to last them forever.
You know they don't have toworry about it, yeah, so.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
So it's great, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
No, and I think that's so smart and I really
appreciate you kind of breakingdown the different you know
types of it, because it is kindof confusing.
You know, especially, youclearly are very passionate
about this, which I love and uh,but not all of us are, and so
nobody is.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
if you're not in the industry, you're not.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Well, yes, and if we're not like passionate about
it, you know it's probablyharder for us to understand and
we're not going to take the time.
So I think it's so great thatyou have that passion and you
also are able to explain that topeople in like layman's terms
so that we all can understandAbsolutely.
Yeah.
So then, um, with healthinsurance, is it just kind of
(17:12):
the same way?
Uh, you would look at them, Um,you know, if they're an
individual coming to you, youwould look at their needs and
then kind of price out what'sgoing to fit.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
It is the same way.
And that's another thing is,you know, with health insurance,
there are options out there.
It's very scary and I was inthis situation myself, you know,
um, before losing corporategroup health insurance.
And then you know, going out onmy own again and I'm like, oh
my gosh, you know what do I do?
I'm going to stay on that Cobraforever, because it was safe,
(17:44):
because it was still the samehealth insurance and I was
paying a ridiculous amount ofmoney.
Oh yeah, but I did it becauseit was safe and I was introduced
to a broker partner who is avery dear friend of mine and
strong broker partner to me tothis day, who was just like Tony
gosh.
You know, there are short-termmedical plans out there that
people can go on.
(18:05):
Or, you know, if they havehealth conditions, it's okay.
We look at marketplace.
Marketplace should not beconsidered this scary beast.
Um, there are great plans onmarketplace and it's beautiful
because if you have apre-existing condition, guess
what?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
You're covered with health insurance.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And a lot of times.
First of all, it's going to beless expensive than what COBRA
is going to be.
So, again, my job with anyclient is to take the fear out
of insurance and say, ok, whatdo we have going on, we're going
to look at all of our options.
Um, because we have options,yeah, um, and it's.
(18:46):
It's a good thing.
And it's taken me years myselfto go through things personally
to understand that it's okay.
Going from that transition fromgroup to to the broker world,
the individual world 1099, the1099 world right.
It's.
It's okay, we have thoseoptions out there.
But, yeah, to answer yourquestion.
It is the same process.
We assess, we figure out what'sgoing on.
(19:08):
I have a simple question sheetthat gives me the answers to
things so I can figure out.
Okay, this is going to be abetter plan for you or this.
But what I typically like to dois I like to show both options
of short-term medical versusmarketplace and I like to let
people make the decision onwhat's going to make them
comfortable.
Do they want a plan that maybecosts a?
(19:28):
little bit more but is moreco-pay focused?
Or do they want a plan wherethey can just pay that
deductible and, once it's done,everything's covered?
So again, I try to break it aseasy as possible.
Yes, I try to break it as easyas possible.
Yes, yeah, I try to make it fun.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, no, I think that's uh.
Hopefully that has come throughto everyone else, because to me
, uh, I can tell that you enjoyit and you know when someone
enjoys what they're doing,especially whenever it comes to
insurance, which most people,you know, just are like their
eyes glaze over, you know, whenyou start talking about
insurance.
So I love that you have thatpassion and you have that.
(20:04):
You know that servant heartwhere you really want to just
educate people.
You want to give them all theoptions and then they get to
make their decisions Right.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
That is our goal, for sure, and the same comes with
Medicare too.
You know, for my senior clientsthat are out there.
You know we don't want toforget that.
Seniors, you know and I hateusing the word senior because I
don't like to think that people65 are senior, right, you know,
it's still so young and vibrant,um, so much life to them.
But you know they are goingthrough divorces now.
Um, you know all the kids areout of the house or you know
(20:34):
people change.
You know these life changesthat we go through, um, but you
know I have a big market offolks that are over 60 that are
going through these changes andyou know getting ready to hop on
Medicare.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Medicare is another very scary term.
It's a very confusing thing.
This is the time of year whenthey're seeing all these
commercials on TV and it's soconfusing and it is so fun to be
able to take them and say, okay, here's the deal.
You got part A and part B,which is Medicare, and you got
basically two options after that.
So let's break down this optionand this option and you tell me
(21:08):
what you're more comfortablewith, and then we're going to
hone in on that option.
So it's fun to dissect.
Yeah, you will dissect theinsurance world once you figure
out what the needs are.
But definitely we don't want toleave out our seniors because,
again, they're going throughlife changes as well.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, absolutely, I love it.
Well, thank you so much fortaking time out of your day to
come on and explain all of this,and thank you for your passion
for insurance and, you know, foreverything that you do for
people, so I really appreciatethat, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Thank you again for this.
This is wonderful.
I appreciate the time.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Of course, and as usual I will um, I'll put in the
show notes, um, yourinformation and, um, that way,
if people you know want to reachout to you, they're listening
to this and they're like, oh mygosh, like I need Tony in my
life which you do, by the way, Iwould love to be a part of your
life so I'll put all of thatinformation in the show notes
and then, that way, people canreach out to you.
(22:05):
Great, thank you so much.
Yeah, absolutely Thank you, andwe will see you next time on
Thrive and Decide.
Hi and welcome to this week's episode of Thrive
and Decide.
This week we have Toni Stevensof Stevens Insurance Group and I
wanted her to come on and talkabout insurance and how she can
help people because, obviously,during a life transition where
either you're going through adivorce, you've lost a spouse or
(00:23):
really anything, maybe you'vetransitioned into being an
entrepreneur, you know there'smany different reasons why you
would need, you know, someone tohelp you with your insurance
needs.
And so, uh, tony is amazing andshe was connected to me with
some other women, uh, that arewithin the group thrive and
(00:43):
decide, which you which, ifyou've listened at all, you know
that this group is set out toliterally help women that are
going through a divorce, goingthrough the loss of a spouse,
and just helping them to feelseen, heard, understood.
So I really wanted to have Tonicome on and talk about
insurance.
So, tony, thank you so much fortaking time out of your day to
(01:06):
talk to us.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to be a part ofthis and I'm excited to kind of
take the fear and the ugly outof the insurance name.
People hear the name insuranceor hear the word insurance.
You know it's not a goodfeeling.
They generally think of badthings.
And you know I'm I guess I'm alittle bit of a weirdo.
(01:28):
I find insurance fun.
Um, I find it exciting becauseinsurance inevitably helps us.
Um, and there's so much aboutthe industry.
Um, I am over 20 years in theindustry.
Steven's insurance group isover five years, but I'm over 20
years in the industry and I'veseen so much in these 20 years.
Um, and just to take the fearout and make people understand
(01:51):
and help people understand thatduring these big life
transitions which I've beenthrough personally myself, that
it's okay, insurance is here tohelp and, you know, working with
a team that knows what they'redoing, it's it's a good thing to
to be able to understand howthis all works.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, I love that.
So I know, whenever we firstmet um, we were talking about
like the insurance you cover,and you were like everything
except property and casualty.
So so, yeah, so obviouslyyou're not going to be doing the
um, the house and the car, butyou're everything else.
So I guess could you walk methrough what are all the
different um, you know thingsthat you, that you do cover.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Absolutely so.
When you think of the insuranceindustry, I like to think of it
as three bubbles.
Okay, first of all we havewhat's called the P and C bubble
.
That's property and casualty,like you mentioned, that's home
and that's auto.
Then you have the bubble thatis your, your financial bubble.
Those are the folks that aregoing to help you with your
401ks, some annuities, differentRoth, just that whole financial
(02:52):
world.
Then you have what's called thelife and health bubble, and
that's where I focus on, andthat life and health insurance
bubble is pretty big because itranges from every type of life
insurance product to disabilityinsurance, health insurance and
whether it's group or individual.
You know Medicare falls underthat bubble.
(03:13):
You know we get into thesupplemental world of insurance
the accident, the cancer plans,the critical illness, hospital
plans, dental vision.
So it's a very big, beautifulbubble.
Again, here's this excitementcoming out of me and that's what
I have focused on.
You know, all of these years,initially, in the beginning of
(03:33):
my career, it was mostly workingwith groups.
You know meeting with employersand meeting with, you know, the
decision makers of companies,mostly smaller, 200 lives and
under, but you know puttingplans in of companies, mostly
smaller, 200 lives and under,but, you know, putting plans in
place for all of their employees.
But as time has progressed, andespecially with Stevens
Insurance Group now, we focus alot on individuals.
(03:55):
So a lot of my partners willsend clients my way with the
most, you know, obscuresituations.
Hey, I have this person who isgoing through this, or they have
this going on or whatever.
Can you help?
And what I love about what I dois no day is ever the same and
we are able to take on so manydifferent cases and situations
(04:19):
and with all the partnershipsthat I have out there, I'm able
to find a solution for somebody,no matter what the situation is
.
There's a solution in thisindustry.
But those are the three bubblesthat are in my brain.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I love that and I love the visual of the bubble of
the different things and Iappreciate you kind of breaking
that down and letting us knowwhich things that you focus on
in those bubbles.
So I know you used to work withgroups, which I think you
probably still I do, yes, I suredo.
Yeah, you still work withgroups, Perfect.
(04:52):
But if someone individually waslike man, my situation's
changing or I'm leavingcorporate America and I'm going
to go be an entrepreneur, I needto have insurance, all of that
stuff, what is your process Like?
Does someone reach out to you?
Do they have to fill out anapplication?
Like you know?
Just walk us through what youdo.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You know it's pretty simple.
They reach out to me and Iwelcome that all day long.
They reach out to me andexplain their situation and we
kind of talk through some thingsand I do just like with anybody
.
I do an assessment.
I have a client needs analysisform that I have them fill out.
It tells me their personalinformation.
Are they worried about theirpaycheck?
(05:33):
I like to find out what kind ofgroup benefits they have in
place now.
What are they losing?
Are any of them portable?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Can they?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
take them with them.
Most people don't understand alot of the plans they have in
place at a group, with theexception of health insurance
and dental vision, but they havesupplemental in place.
A lot of them are portable, sojust a complete assessment of
what is going on in their world.
What do they want?
What are they looking for?
What is their health situationlike?
(05:59):
Do we have, you know,circumstances on things that we
need to really look for and toprotect them?
You know?
Are they going through adivorce?
You know, there's just so manythings.
It's a complete needsassessment.
But they reach out to me, westart the process.
I think what's really importantto point out right away is
there is no cost to work with meas a broker.
(06:19):
I think that's very important.
We are here to consult, toguide, we assist in the writing
of any business they decide topartake on.
We are paid directly from thecarriers, so there's no broker
fees, anything of that nature,and I get asked that a lot, so I
think it's important tounderstand that we like to do
the legwork yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Well, and I I love that you pointed that out,
because, uh, I get asked that alot too.
You know, like as a realtor,like what, you know, what is
your fee for me to sit down andtalk with you?
And I'm like nothing, like Iwill just talk to you, um, but
yeah, so I love that you, youknow, mentioned that.
And then I know that wheneverpeople because I went through
(07:01):
this, whenever I went through mydivorce I realized that the
life insurance I had at myemployer once I switched, I
thought, oh well, I'll just keeppaying into that and didn't
realize that there were otheroptions.
Thank God for my financialadvisor being like, hey, sarah,
that actually is not the best.
(07:21):
Here's what we can do and whatI thought I was getting great
coverage for.
I want to say at the time itwas like $250,000 and I was
paying like $75 a month orsomething.
And I was like, oh, this is sogreat.
And then he was like, sarah, Ican get you a million dollars
and it's, you know, $50 a month.
And I was like, oh, oh, okay,well, yeah, I want that because
(07:44):
I want to be able to take careof my child, you know, if
something was to happen to me.
So I'd love for you to kind ofwalk us through what is the
difference in life insurancethat, like you get through your
employer, versus you know,having something separate.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Absolutely Well, the beautiful thing in life
insurance is one of thoseproducts that I love so much,
because there are so manyoptions out there for life
insurance, the differentproducts, the different types
and I'll touch on those in aminute but the riders and
everything you can include it's.
It's such a versatile product.
What we want to be careful ofis with group life insurance is
you know, it's great, you get toa place of employment and
(08:24):
you've got this insurance andit's great and it's payroll
deductive or whatever.
But what most people realize isit's not portable.
And if it is portable, it's aconversion and they're going to
conversion.
They're going to convert it.
At your new age, your rates aregoing to be way different than
what you're paying now.
I can't tell you how manysituations where I've had people
(08:44):
come to me.
They've lost their job.
They've been there for 25 years.
They forgot, you know they theyhad this life insurance but
they can't take it with them.
They had nothing on the outsideand so now they have nothing.
And guess what?
Now they have health conditions.
Now they're much older.
A couple of my very dearfriends bought life insurance
(09:08):
when they were younger and theybought a term policy, and we'll
get into this in a minute.
But they bought a term policyand they let it expire and now
they can't afford to haveanother one just because it's so
expensive and they've gothealth conditions.
So there's different thingsthat we can look into for that.
But I think the big thing aboutgroup is understanding that
(09:30):
it's not going to be a portablesituation and if it is, you can
convert it and it's going to bevery expensive.
When we talk about lifeinsurance, there are three basic
types of life insurance andagain, these are all available
outside of a group situation.
So many wonderful companies, somany wonderful products.
We have term insurance.
Term insurance is a deathbenefit.
It's going to do what you wanta life insurance product to do.
(09:53):
When you pass away, you pick a$100,000 benefit, it's going to
pay your beneficiary that$100,000.
Done.
There's no building of cashvalue.
There's none of that other funstuff that can happen, but term
insurance is very affordable.
This is the kind of insurancewhere, yeah, at the age of 50,
you can get a million dollars incoverage and it's not going to
(10:14):
cost you a whole lot.
Yeah, the caution with terminsurance is it is going to
expire at some point.
Maybe it's a 10 year term, a 20or a 30 year term.
So we need to be cognizant ofyour age and how long you want
to have that policy.
So with life insurance it'skind of cool because you can
have 20 different life insurancepolicies from different
(10:35):
carriers.
So it's.
It's the product where you'regoing to want to have the most
coverage depending where you arein your life.
At my age right now, I am soover covered on life insurance.
My son is a lucky little guy.
When I pass away, I am worthmore dead than I am alive,
unfortunately, but I have peaceof mind knowing that he will be
(10:55):
able to pay off all of my stuffand have a nice cushion to do
what he wants to do with.
Everybody has a differentpurpose for life insurance.
My purpose was to pay stuff offand leave something for my son
because my parents unfortunately, that's not the case in their
situation.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
That generation.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
It was a different situation when they were looking
into life insurance back in theday, and it's just not the same
now.
So, but anyways.
So term insurance, all right.
The next one is what we calluniversal life insurance.
So this is where it gets alittle bit more interesting.
The rates are going to be alittle bit more expensive.
With universal.
It is going to play with somecash value opportunities.
(11:37):
So you know your policy isgoing to work for you and build
a little bit of money that youcan pull out at the age of 65.
And you know you'll still haveyour death benefit.
The universal life insurance isprobably the riskier of the
life insurance that's out there,because you do have changes
that can happen to your ratesand your death benefit.
(11:58):
So it's things that you do needto pay attention to with those
types of policies.
But again, those are policiesthat are going to last until
you're 80, 90 years old.
They have some different agegroups depending on what carrier
we go with.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Right.
So it's nice when you cancombine the different policies
together.
We'll talk about that in aminute.
It's nice when you can combinethe different policies together.
We'll talk about that in aminute.
The third bubble or the thirdtype of life insurance is your
group whole life.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
This is my favorite.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah, now it is more expensive, but you have great
stability and you have deathbenefit stability and it's going
to last until you're 121 yearsold, whole life.
All right, wow, it's going tobuild cash value that you can
pull out penalty free at age 65.
So again, you're building alittle bit of a fund.
Yeah, you know, by no means I'dlike to state this, by no means
(12:48):
.
Life insurance policies shouldnot be used as investment tools.
Many people are like I want alife policy that's going to be
my retirement policy.
That's not how they work.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
No.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
You know, it's great when you can get a policy that
is going to build some cashvalue, because that's always
nice.
But the point of a lifeinsurance policy is to provide
your loved ones with a deathbenefit and not leave them with
your debt.
That's the purpose of it, andto have money to bury you
however you want to do that.
The average burial today canrange anywhere, depending on
(13:21):
what you want to do anywherefrom five to 20 grand.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
It's crazy.
So it's not a cheap situationand you know, every I kid you,
not every week I have a client.
Well, why do I want to get alife insurance policy?
And I'm going to be dead, sowho cares?
It's like, okay, so you want tostick your, stick your loved
(13:45):
ones with an expense, right?
No, that they shouldn't, youknow, yeah, so it's.
It's kind of crazy thementality that people have with
life insurance policy.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
But what is nice about them?
Like I said before, you know,we taught we started with a
group and that's great, butthere are so many individuals
and I always tell everybody ifyou have a group policy, that's
awesome, get something on theoutside, because if you lose
that job or if you're on aspouse's coverage and you are
getting divorced, guess what?
(14:11):
They're going to take you offof that policy.
Right, you need to have yourown policy, right?
Um?
And there are just so manyopportunities and you know, like
I said, we do a full assessment.
We talk about budget, we talkabout you know what is your goal
.
Is your goal just to have thatdeath benefit?
That's great.
Is your goal to be like me, alittle psycho, because I'm an
insurance professional and I'minsurance poor, believe it or
(14:31):
not?
Um, to to provide your familywith funds after you pass,
knowing that they have money?
You know, you know there's justso many different needs out
there, but those are the threekind of buckets of life
insurance.
Um, you know, and it's, it'sbeautiful.
Yeah, I personally, it's sofunny I have.
Um, long-term care was always abig concern in this industry.
(14:53):
It was the one policy I didn'thave and and I purchased a life
insurance policy for myself afew years ago with a long-term
care rider on it, you know.
I have one child Somethinghappens to me, I don't want him
having the burden of taking careof me and if I need to go into
a home you know this is a planthat's going to pay $8,000 a
(15:15):
month until the death benefit'sgone Wow To take care of my
facility cost and if I never gointo a facility.
Guess what?
It's just additional lifeinsurance.
You can never have too much.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, I love that, and I love that there is even a
writer available for that, somany different writers out there
.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
It's a lot of fun.
And again, that comes tofiguring out what are the needs.
What do you want in a lifeinsurance policy?
You know I talk about, I love,you know writing whole life.
You better believe anybodythat's in their early and 20,
early twenties or thirties, thatis the product that I'm going
to highly encourage because, asyou know, life insurance is a
(15:56):
product.
Unfortunately, as we age itgets more expensive.
Yes, so somebody that's intheir fifties and sixties, that
comes to me.
I'm not putting them on a wholelife, it's not affordable.
We're going to go with a term,something that's affordable.
But if they come to me in theirtwenties and thirties, oh you
better believe I'm going to pushthat whole life and someday
they'll think of me when they'rein their fifties and they have
(16:19):
this 50,000 whole life.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
That's still doing its thing, still building cash
value.
It's going to last them forever.
You know they don't have toworry about it, yeah, so.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
So it's great, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
No, and I think that's so smart and I really
appreciate you kind of breakingdown the different you know
types of it, because it is kindof confusing.
You know, especially, youclearly are very passionate
about this, which I love and uh,but not all of us are, and so
nobody is.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
if you're not in the industry, you're not.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Well, yes, and if we're not like passionate about
it, you know it's probablyharder for us to understand and
we're not going to take the time.
So I think it's so great thatyou have that passion and you
also are able to explain that topeople in like layman's terms
so that we all can understandAbsolutely.
Yeah.
So then, um, with healthinsurance, is it just kind of
(17:12):
the same way?
Uh, you would look at them, Um,you know, if they're an
individual coming to you, youwould look at their needs and
then kind of price out what'sgoing to fit.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
It is the same way.
And that's another thing is,you know, with health insurance,
there are options out there.
It's very scary and I was inthis situation myself, you know,
um, before losing corporategroup health insurance.
And then you know, going out onmy own again and I'm like, oh
my gosh, you know what do I do?
I'm going to stay on that Cobraforever, because it was safe,
(17:44):
because it was still the samehealth insurance and I was
paying a ridiculous amount ofmoney.
Oh yeah, but I did it becauseit was safe and I was introduced
to a broker partner who is avery dear friend of mine and
strong broker partner to me tothis day, who was just like Tony
gosh.
You know, there are short-termmedical plans out there that
people can go on.
(18:05):
Or, you know, if they havehealth conditions, it's okay.
We look at marketplace.
Marketplace should not beconsidered this scary beast.
Um, there are great plans onmarketplace and it's beautiful
because if you have apre-existing condition, guess
what?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
You're covered with health insurance.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And a lot of times.
First of all, it's going to beless expensive than what COBRA
is going to be.
So, again, my job with anyclient is to take the fear out
of insurance and say, ok, whatdo we have going on, we're going
to look at all of our options.
Um, because we have options,yeah, um, and it's.
(18:46):
It's a good thing.
And it's taken me years myselfto go through things personally
to understand that it's okay.
Going from that transition fromgroup to to the broker world,
the individual world 1099, the1099 world right.
It's.
It's okay, we have thoseoptions out there.
But, yeah, to answer yourquestion.
It is the same process.
We assess, we figure out what'sgoing on.
(19:08):
I have a simple question sheetthat gives me the answers to
things so I can figure out.
Okay, this is going to be abetter plan for you or this.
But what I typically like to dois I like to show both options
of short-term medical versusmarketplace and I like to let
people make the decision onwhat's going to make them
comfortable.
Do they want a plan that maybecosts a?
(19:28):
little bit more but is moreco-pay focused?
Or do they want a plan wherethey can just pay that
deductible and, once it's done,everything's covered?
So again, I try to break it aseasy as possible.
Yes, I try to break it as easyas possible.
Yes, yeah, I try to make it fun.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, no, I think that's uh.
Hopefully that has come throughto everyone else, because to me
, uh, I can tell that you enjoyit and you know when someone
enjoys what they're doing,especially whenever it comes to
insurance, which most people,you know, just are like their
eyes glaze over, you know, whenyou start talking about
insurance.
So I love that you have thatpassion and you have that.
(20:04):
You know that servant heartwhere you really want to just
educate people.
You want to give them all theoptions and then they get to
make their decisions Right.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
That is our goal, for sure, and the same comes with
Medicare too.
You know, for my senior clientsthat are out there.
You know we don't want toforget that.
Seniors, you know and I hateusing the word senior because I
don't like to think that people65 are senior, right, you know,
it's still so young and vibrant,um, so much life to them.
But you know they are goingthrough divorces now.
Um, you know all the kids areout of the house or you know
(20:34):
people change.
You know these life changesthat we go through, um, but you
know I have a big market offolks that are over 60 that are
going through these changes andyou know getting ready to hop on
Medicare.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Medicare is another very scary term.
It's a very confusing thing.
This is the time of year whenthey're seeing all these
commercials on TV and it's soconfusing and it is so fun to be
able to take them and say, okay, here's the deal.
You got part A and part B,which is Medicare, and you got
basically two options after that.
So let's break down this optionand this option and you tell me
(21:08):
what you're more comfortablewith, and then we're going to
hone in on that option.
So it's fun to dissect.
Yeah, you will dissect theinsurance world once you figure
out what the needs are.
But definitely we don't want toleave out our seniors because,
again, they're going throughlife changes as well.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, absolutely, I love it.
Well, thank you so much fortaking time out of your day to
come on and explain all of this,and thank you for your passion
for insurance and, you know, foreverything that you do for
people, so I really appreciatethat, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Thank you again for this.
This is wonderful.
I appreciate the time.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Of course, and as usual I will um, I'll put in the
show notes, um, yourinformation and, um, that way,
if people you know want to reachout to you, they're listening
to this and they're like, oh mygosh, like I need Tony in my
life which you do, by the way, Iwould love to be a part of your
life so I'll put all of thatinformation in the show notes
and then, that way, people canreach out to you.
(22:05):
Great, thank you so much.
Yeah, absolutely Thank you, andwe will see you next time on
Thrive and Decide.
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