Jeff Peterson: Begin income protection conversations

Truluma President and CEO Jeff Peterson discusses how producers can work the need for income protection into conversations with current and prospective clients.

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.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
[inaudible].

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hello and welcome to assurities podcast tips from the
insurance pros.
In this series we talk withinsurance pros as they share
ideas and insights that you canuse today.
I'm your host Matt and I'mexcited to bring you a new topic
for this month.
Disability income insurance.
Assurity has been a leader inincome protection for decades,

(00:26):
dating back to 1890.
We're committed to the marketand to your sales success.
That's why we're excited to havedisability insurance expert of
more than 18 years.
Jeff Peterson with us today.
Jeff is the president and CEO oftrue Luma.
He'll be sharing hisconsiderable experience leading
a successful brokerage focusedon DUI.

(00:47):
Welcome, Jeff, it's great tohave you here with us today.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Matt, thanks for having me and thanks for
providing the a platform to talkabout income protection.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Absolutely.
It's an important topic.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about your background and
company?

Speaker 3 (01:03):
I've been in the insurance business since 1991
started as a queer agent withConnecticut Mutual and was in
personal production for about 11or 12 years.
Um, well in personal production.
Did a lot of work in thedisability space and through a
series of circumstances foundmyself in a position to move

(01:26):
into a wholesaling at type ofrole, which I did when we formed
true Luma and now act as a onestop DIY shop for advisors.
So to help them find theappropriate income protection
products for their clients.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Fantastic.
So how do you go about educatingproducers on how to approach
perspective clients about theneed for income protection?

Speaker 3 (01:50):
We do a lot of web based training, small group
training sessions, individualmeetings with advisors to talk
to them about their business andtheir clientele to see how they
can incorporate the AI into theconversations that they're
having with with clients.
But it is interesting because aswe meet with advisors that have

(02:10):
conversations about incomeprotection, what we find is that
most of them are actuallycurrently having conversations
about income protection,although they may not realize it
.
They're talking to clients aboutlife insurance and while life
insurance has many uses, at theend of the day, the majority of
people purchase life insuranceto replace their income should
they die or pass awayprematurely.

(02:33):
The problem is is that this onlycovers half of the income risk
clients are exposed to greaterrisk as we all are aware of is
the financial aid emotionaldevastation that is caused by a
disability.
So once advisors see at theentire income protection
picture, it's typically only asmall or a few small tweaks they

(02:53):
need to make to theconversations that they're
having with clients to connectthe life and Dei or disability
insurance together to create acomprehensive income protection
program.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Sometimes producers focus on doctors, lawyers, and
other professionals fordisability income insurance.
Can you talk about the need forincome protection that's out
there for everyone, not justwhite collar groups?

Speaker 3 (03:16):
You know, I think it's important for anybody and
everyone who relies on theirthere on their income.
There was a recent study done byCareerBuilder that found that
78% of full time workers livepaycheck to paycheck.
And I think that's fascinatingabout this is that it includes
individuals that are earning sixfigure incomes and other survey

(03:37):
by go banking rate to shows thatonly 23% of respondents with
incomes over$150,000 per yearhad less than a thousand dollars
in the emergency reserve fund.
So that, but the point is isregardless of what someone does
or how much they earn and wouldbe putting in a very difficult
financial situation, uh, shouldan injury or illness prevent

(03:59):
them from working.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Sure.
Now, no matter what you say,there's always going to be
objections.
Do you think that the objectionsto disability insurance have
changed over the years and howdo you help producers address
objections when trying to selldisability income insurance?
Yes.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
You know, I sold my first disability policy over 20
years ago and the objections bysaw them are the same as the
objections we see now.
There really hasn't been much ofa change.
The most common objection thatwe tend to see is that of price
or cost.
And there are some tools thatadvisors can use to combat this.

(04:37):
I think getting a budget fromclients is very important
because it allows the advisor todesign a program that is
affordable for the client.
We always use percentage ofincome when talking about cost
or premium.
So you know the typical incomereplacement type of plan is
going to run somewhere betweenone and 3% of an individual's

(04:59):
annual earnings.
And then also a, it's veryhelpful if advisors can compare
the monthly premium to you, theannual benefit or the total
potential benefit that a policymay pay out.
So comparing that smaller numberto the much larger number that
the insured may receive.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
We hope you're enjoying the podcast so far.
We'll be right back after this.

Speaker 4 (05:25):
[inaudible]

Speaker 2 (05:25):
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Learn more andleaders.assurity.com forward
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Speaker 4 (05:42):
[inaudible]

Speaker 2 (05:44):
now, what tips do you provide producers to help them
get their DIY applicationsthrough underwriting?

Speaker 3 (05:49):
That's a great question.
Advisers if they could do somefield underwriting, it's
certainly very valuable and to acertain extent a bit of a loss
start.
What we find is that it not onlysaves time and effort during the
underwriting process that alsocan make placing policies
easier.
Should the underwriting decisioncome back with an exclusion or

(06:12):
some type of modificationbecause those can be discussed
up front so the client's awareof it and almost expecting it
when the policy comes back.
Always encourage advisors totake the time to complete the
application, answer all thequestions and provide detailed
again, say it's a lot of timeand headaches and then lastly,

(06:32):
get in the habit of asking fortax returns.
As the general rule of thumb.
I always ask for complete copiesof the last two years worth of
tax returns.
Sometimes it's not needed, butit's good to get in that habit.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Great.
What's one piece of advice thatyou would share about how to
sell more disability incomeinsurance?

Speaker 3 (06:53):
The key here is to ask, ask, ask, ask him and ask
again and ask everyone that youtalk to.
Most advisors just don't bringit up and that's why they don't
sell it.
So you don't have to have aPolish script or be an expert on
disability insurance.
But if you start askingquestions about income

(07:15):
replacement and what wouldhappen, can the event to an
illness or injury doors open anda lot of cases are swollen.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Well, let's go back to talking about prospective
clients.
How do you help producers talkto small business owners in
particular?

Speaker 3 (07:32):
The small business owners are unique obviously, and
they also have many needs.
There's certainly the need ofreplacing their income should
they become sick or hurt andable to run the business.
Sometimes business owners feelthat if they were not able to
work at the business itselfcontinues to run.

(07:53):
And one of the questions that Ioften will ask if we get that
response, um, you know, thebusiness runs itself, it doesn't
really need me.
It's all then why do you come inevery single day at six o'clock
in the morning and stick aroundhere until six o'clock at night?
It's a shot of reality.
And the fact is is that thebusiness runs because the
business owners, they're alsooverhead expense can be a nice

(08:15):
conversation to have with thesesmall business owners.
So should you not be able tocome in and run the business?
How are we going to keep thedoors open and with those
overhead expense policies thatcan cover the fixed expenses.
A lot of business owners likedthat concept.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
So aside from small business owners are white collar
markets.
Are there any other markets thatyou specifically like to focus
on?
You earlier mentioned the needfor everybody to look at
disability insurance.
Are there any niches that youlike to look for?

Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, we have advisors that work and all kinds
of different niches.
Doctors, dentists, theattorneys, you know, three them
are obvious ones.
Veterinarians, hygentistengineers.
We have worked with folks whowork primarily with contractors,

(09:07):
so it's really across the board.
But I think what it comes downto is you know, what type of
markets do advisors have andthen how can we go about
developing those markets andfinding, you know, those are the
key triggers that get peoplereally thinking about income
protection.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Well Jeff, thank you for joining us today.
We appreciate you taking thetime to talk about the important
role of disability incomeinsurance.
Thank you for giving me theplatform and to our listeners,
thanks for tuning intoassurities podcast series tips
from the insurance pros.
Stay tuned for our next episodeto get more ideas on

(09:46):
successfully selling disabilityincome insurance.
In the meantime, if you'd liketo learn more about assurities
disability income insuranceproduct, head over to assurity,
dii.com you can also [e-mail] and
we'll be happy to connect youwith one of our regional reps in
your area to take a deeper dive.

(10:07):
Thanks for listening.

Speaker 4 (10:11):
[inaudible]

Speaker 2 (10:11):
these are use only not for use with the general
public, not for use in New York.
Assurity has a marketing namefor the Mutual Holding Company,
assurity group Inc and itssubsidiaries.
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

(10:34):
product availability, featuresand rates may vary by state.

Speaker 4 (10:40):
[inaudible].