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October 30, 2018 16 mins

Top broker Chet Marko shares his take on the critical illness market, who needs coverage and how to win their business. Chet has been in the industry 25 years and is a broker and owner of Texas Family Health Plans and Smart Choice Benefits.

FOR PRODUCER USE ONLY. NOT FOR USE WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC.
Assurity is a marketing name for the mutual holding company Assurity Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Those subsidiaries include but are not limited to: Assurity Life Insurance Company and Assurity Life Insurance Company of New York. Insurance products and services are offered by Assurity Life Insurance Company in all states except New York. In New York, insurance products and services are offered by Assurity Life Insurance Company of New York, Albany, New York. Product availability, features and rates may vary by state.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hello and welcome to assurities podcast tips from the
insurance pros.
In this series we talk withsales pros as they share ideas
and insights that you can usetoday.
I'm your host Matt, and today wecontinue our series on critical
illness insurance.
I'm here with Chet Marco, ahealth insurance broker and
owner of Texas family healthplans and smart choice benefits.

(00:27):
Welcome Chet.
It's great to have you here withus today.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Thank you.
I'm excited to be here.
I love the surety.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, Chad, can you tell us a little bit about your
background and your company?

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Well, I've been in the business for about 25 years.
Uh, been one of the top agents,uh, with just about everybody.
I've been associated with loopone time.
I was, uh, the top agent in thenation.
Um, an assurity has always beena big part of my portfolio, so
I'm excited to give my tips oncritical illness.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Well, we're excited to hear them.
So in your opinion, how haverecent changes in health care
and healthcare law impactedcritical illness sales?

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Um, I think it's had a huge impact.
You know, back before Obamacare,we sold a tremendous amount of
critical illness and you know, Ihad about a hundred agents and
when Obamacare hit and we wentall the way up to the open
enrollment, not even knowing ifwe were going to get paid for
selling health insurance.

(01:27):
A lot agents ran for the hills.
And with the way thatobamacare's been skyrocketing
and everything like that, it'sless, a lot less room to add
critical illness.
So one of the exciting things iskind of as we've watched kind of
Obamacare spiral out of controland you know, in the throws of

(01:48):
dying, uh, there's been a riseof, of Christian sharing or
health share that has broughtthe premiums back way down and
offered us a chance to reallybegin to sell critical illness
again.
And it's been an exciting thing.
So, you know, kind of with theopening to that or even people

(02:08):
that can't afford healthinsurance at all, you know, uh,
we have some clients that arejust using critical illness, you
know, is their healthcarebecause that's all they can
afford.
So critical illnesses back andwe're excited about it.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
How do you go about approaching prospective clients
about the need for criticalillness?

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Well, my market, what I found is that there's a
tremendous need for criticalillness with a lot of people
don't take into account thesesmall business owners or people
that are single, you know,couples dependent upon each
other's incomes over people, uh,afraid about digging into their

(02:49):
retirement funds.
You know, like with singles, youknow, one of the questions I
asked them, as I said, if you godown with something major, who's
going to take care of you andyou see this kind of panic look
come over their face, you know,like they haven't even thought
of that question or it's a feardown deep inside business owners

(03:09):
have the same fears.
You know, one of the questions Iask business owners is I said,
hey, if you went down for sixmonths to a year, what would
happen to your family?
What would happen to yourbusiness?
Not just shut up.
I just listened.
They realize, and you've kind ofbrought it to the forefront that

(03:30):
if they go down, you know, theycan quickly end up in
bankruptcy.
You know, you have couples outthere that are majorly dependent
upon each other's income.
So if one of them went down, theother one wouldn't be able to
pay all the bills.
Older people, you know, theyhave the same problem too.
Most of them are living more orless paycheck to paycheck and

(03:53):
what money they have put away.
They don't want it all blownwith one illness right before
they hit retirement.
So when you bring these thingsup to people, they immediately
understand that they have needand critical illness is a way to
give them tax free income and itwill keep them afloat if they go

(04:14):
down.
You know, a lot of people thatgo down with the stroke or a
heart attack, you know, I justrecently went through something
like this with my dad.
You know, it takes some time torecover from those illnesses.
You know, they're not killing usthe way that they killed our
grandparents, but they will putyou down for a period of time.

(04:35):
You know, my dad had a heartattack and it's taken him almost
six months to recover a, mypastor had a stroke and you
know, it takes a while torecover from the damage from a
stroke and people are survivingthese things.
But if they don't have any moneyto pay their bills, even though
their health insurance iscovering all the medical

(04:57):
expenses, you know, they're inas still is desperate a
situation with no money.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
What are some common objections that you run into
when trying to sell criticalillness insurance?
And how have you learned to bestdeal with these objections?

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Well, you know, I think one of the biggest
objections is money.
You know, just the having theextra money because health
insurance is become such anexpensive thing.
Some people object to any extramoney other than the health care
.
And then the other thing ispeople just thinking they're
young and bulletproof.
You know, when, when you creepinto your mid forties and

(05:33):
fifties you know, a lot ofpeople have had a frame go down,
people in their twenties andthirties you know, all their
friends.
That's never happened.
So sometimes with the youngpeople I have a hard time and
then the other objection ismoney.
And so, you know, I've learnedto kind of let people sleep and
one of the ways I've learned todo that is I have a couple

(05:55):
stories, always meet with thehusband and wife, but I'm
sitting in front of them andI'll say, I'll just ask them.
I said, what would happen if youwent down for six months to a
year?
And I just shut up and you seehim, you know, kind of stewing
and the wife gets a panic lookon her face and the husband, you

(06:15):
know, he starts Kinda stewingand I asked him again, I said,
what would happen?
Would y'all be able tofinancially make it if you went
down for six months and 95% ofthe time they say, man, it would
put a world of hurt.
I'd have to sell trucks, I'dhave to sell assets, I'd have to
do this.
And I look at him, I go, well wecan fix that.

(06:38):
I can give you something thatupon first diagnosis of these 14
or 13 items, whatever it is, youwould get a check for 50 grand
and you seem kind of get excitedabout that.
I have a, another thing that Ido, my background is I'm a
pastor and so there's thisChristian book called his needs,

(06:58):
her needs.
And on one side it says on theman side it lists the top 10
needs of the man.
And on the woman's side it wasthe top 10 needs of the woman.
And so, you know, I said, havey'all ever heard of that book?
And maybe go, no, no, we'venever heard of it.
Then I looked straight at thehusband looking right in the

(07:21):
eyes and I said, do you knowwhat a woman's biggest need is?
And I showed up and then afterhe kind of stays for a couple
seconds, I jump in and say herbiggest need is security.
And then I look at the wife andI go, am I correct on that?
And every time they shake theirheads, almost like put the sad
look on her patients.

(07:43):
And I said, what your wife wantsto know is that if you do not
come home or you fell ill with amajor illness, that and her
babies are not going to be outon the street.
And then I turned back to thewife and my correct on that and
every time she shakes her headwith this sad look, you know

(08:04):
it's very important that for thesecurity of their family that
they have a product that's goingto take care of them if they go
down.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Do you have clients who are concerned about their
high deductible health plans andhow to cover that cost if a
critical illness happens?

Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yeah of course.
I mean, you know for the longesttime self employed people,
that's how they think.
You know, they want to pay aslittle as possible for their
health care.
So they, most of them want highdeductibles.
You know with Obamacare, bluecross just announced that their
max out of pocket on every planis$7,900 now.

(08:46):
So yeah, critical illness playsa part in gobbling up, you know,
that expense.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Can you share a story about a client had a need for
critical illness insurance andhow you helped to fill it?

Speaker 3 (08:59):
I've had several, and I haven't had a client yet that
got cancer, heart attack,stroke, coma, whatever it was
that wasn't extremely happy thatthey had that critical on this
product.
I have one guy that I went inand he had terrible insurance

(09:20):
and I was able to change hishealth insurance and get him
onto a better health care, buthe had a wife that was disabled
and with that wife beingdisabled, the whole family was
totally dependent upon hisincome.
Six months after I sold the guy,he came down with a very bad

(09:42):
cancer and he later told me, hesaid, Chad, I don't know how I
would've made it or how myfamily would have survived
without that.
He said, you know, I had greathealth insurance, you've covered
all my medical needs, but I wasunable to work for a large
period of period of time andthat critical illness kept me
afloat and he was very thankful.

(10:04):
A very loyal client.
I had another client that got amalignant melanoma and this was
kind of a funny story.
You know, he filed on hiscritical illness and got a large
check for 50 grand.
And he called me up and he getsChet and I said, yeah.
And he says, uh, I just got acheck for 50 grand, can I, can I

(10:27):
actually deposit this?
Can I have it?
I just started laughing, youknow, it was like, sure it's
yours.
That's part of the benefit.
He was super excited.
But I promise you if you have aclient go down and they have to
use their critical illness,they'll be loyal to you forever
for selling them that.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
There you go.
So how has the a quickturnaround time for issuing
critical illness policies helpedyour business?

Speaker 3 (10:54):
Well, you know, it's, it's nice.
50,000 and under is non bad andyou can move it through.
And I find that the less youhave to touch a client after you
make a sell, the better.
So the nonmedical quickturnaround, it's good for the
client and the fact that nobody,no vampire has to go to touch

(11:16):
him.
You know, cause it's hard to getpeople to get excited about
having blood withdrawn.
And then from the agent sideit's nice because apps that are
submitted through the app getquickly approved and you get
paid and you know, and whenyou're trying to hire new agents
quicker, you can get money inthese guys pockets makes a huge

(11:38):
difference.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
What's the one piece of advice that you would share
about how to sell more criticalillness insurance?

Speaker 3 (11:46):
You know, it's, it's a product that people don't
think of it as a staple kind oflike they would health
insurance, life insurance orauto insurance.
Oh a lot of times it's justhelping people understand why
they need it.
You know, one of the things thatI've learned is how many people
out there have very little intheir savings accounts and you

(12:10):
know, live almost paycheck topaycheck.
You know, one thing aboutObamacare, it showed me you have
to ask people's income.
So I know what these guys makeand most small business owners
and you know, make between 40and 70 grand.
Well that's not a whole lot ofmoney.

(12:31):
And if you go down and can'twork, you're going to be in
trouble in a hurry.
You know, my, my single peopleis a huge one.
I always asked him point blank,I said, who's going to take care
of you if you go down and eat,at least if you have critical
illness, you could hire somebodybut who can afford to take off
six months and take care of you.

(12:53):
And so when you ask people thesequestions and make them think
about it, it's almost likethey're silly not to do it.
I sell a tremendous amount ofcritical illness.
You know, I love it as aproduct.
You know, it's got greatrenewals.
People don't drop it.
You know, I've got policies thathave been on the books for years

(13:16):
and since people can keep it toage 75 it makes a big difference
on them hanging onto theproduct.
And you know, when I'm dealingwith my young people, I say,
listen, you will never be ableto buy this product as cheaply
as you can today and you willhave need.
It's just a matter of time.

(13:37):
So it would be smart to lock itin now while you're young and
the price is cheap instead ofwaiting until 55 when you really
need it and it's going to costyou a lot more.
And um, the nice thing is, isthat, you know, when we go in
with Christian sharing or healthsharing and stuff like that into

(13:59):
these clients' houses, you know,we're, we're saying eating them
50% on their health care and socritical illness as a way to
claw back some of that money ina way that benefits them.
You know, I think it's veryimportant that we show it and
you know, my close ratio with,you know, health care and uh,

(14:24):
critical illnesses, you'reprobably close to 95% because if
you lay it out correctly, whenyou go to close it or sit down
with these people to close thedeal.
And this cracks me up becausewhen I do that, his needs her
needs or I, you know, talkabout, you know, what would
happen to your business.
I can't tell you how many timesI've had the wife say, I don't

(14:48):
care what deductible you take onthat health.
I don't care what otherproducts, but she made sure that
critical illness is on therebecause that's going to keep us
safe.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Chat, I'd like to thank you for joining us today.
We appreciate you taking thetime to spend a few minutes with
us as we talk about theimportant role critical illness
insurance can play in people'slives.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
Thank you.
I appreciate being with y'all.
Thank you for uh, getting thisinformation out

Speaker 2 (15:15):
and to our listeners, thanks for tuning into
assurities podcast series tipsfrom the insurance pros.
Stay tuned for our next episodeto get more ideas on
successfully selling criticalillness insurance.
In the meantime, if you'd liketo learn more about assurities
critical illness product, headover to critical
outlook.assurity.com you canalso email

(15:39):
us@podcastatassurity.com andwe'll be happy to connect you
with one of our regional reps inyour area to take a deeper dive.
Thanks for listening.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
[inaudible]

Speaker 2 (15:52):
for producer use only not for use with the general
public, not for use in New York.
Assurity as a marketing name forthe Mutual Holding Company,
assurity group incorporated andits subsidiaries.
Those subsidiaries include butare not limited to a surety life
insurance company and it'salready life insurance company
of New York insurance productsand services are offered by a
surety life insurance company inall states except New York.
In New York, insurance productsand services are offered by a
surety life insurance company ofNew York, Albany, New York

(16:15):
product availability, featuresand rates may vary by state.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
[inaudible].
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