Agent Marketing & Sales Practices

MR. WATSON: Agent Marketing and Sales Practices

This next little part basically just says that you should be nice to your clients and look out for their needs.

• Selling to needs - Fact find & educate
• Suitability of products - can't sell an old man green bananas (he might not live to see them ripen)
• Full & accurate disclosure - tell all
• Documentation - write it all down
• Client services - follow-up

Buyer's Guide and Policy Summary

MR. WATSON: Buyer's guide . What do you think of that? What do you think a buyer’s guide tells everybody?

STUDENTS: What the guy bought.

MR. WATSON: Right. It's generic. It basically says, "What is life insurance, and why would I buy it?" Or, what is long term care or disability insurance and why would I buy it?" The "G" for "Guide" matches the "G" for "Generic". There are other aspects of the policy you need to know, too, and they are covered in the Policy Summary. "S" for "Summary" matches "S" for "Specific". The policy summary identifies the agent, the insurer, the policy, each rider, premiums, blah, blah, blah. The policy summary contains cost indexes that help consumers evaluate the suitability of the recommended product. The net payment cost comparison index gives the buyer an idea of the cost of the policy at some future time, compared to the death benefit. The surrender cost comparison index compares the cost of surrendering the policy and withdrawing the cash values at some future time.

MR. WATSON: When must you give them the buyer's guide and policy summary? Before they give you the money and the application. Make sure you know this.

STUDENT: Like a prospectus

MR. WATSON: Like a prospectus, very good.

 

National Association of Insurance Commissioners

MR. WATSON: The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (N.A.I.C.) -- what do you think makes up the National Association of Insurance Commissioners?

STUDENT: Insurance commissioners.

MR. WATSON: That's why we call it the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Can the National Association of Sheriffs arrest me?

STUDENTS: No.

MR. WATSON: The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, they don't have the power make laws, enforce laws, conduct investigations, to prosecute or arrest. What they do is get together and have a pow-wow. They have four main objectives, basically:

• To preserve state regulation,
• To protect interests of policy owners,
• To encourage uniformity in state insurance laws, to make sure one state's laws are similar to the other, and
• To assist in promoting efficiency, and protect the rights of policyholders.

MR. WATSON: They have annual or semi-annual meetings. All states have an insurance commissioner, whether elected or appointed. These commissioners get together to discuss and recommend various ideas so each state can adopt or decline the ideas. They came out with the Advertising Code . Most states adopted that. You will need to know it.