Most of us who have sold or applied for life insurance understand the whole rate class thing. We all want to get preferred plus, the best rate class, but we aren’t all qualified to be approved that way. So the goal becomes a mission to get life insurance approved at the very best rate we can with the outcome being we spend less money. Our industry has a few dirty little secrets and one of them is that not all life insurance agents are heavily invested in finding you lower rates for the simple reason that, being paid on commission, they make less money. I’ll probably offend a few captive agents (only sell for one company) with this, but if you want to get life insurance at the best price and get it done on the first try, you need to use an independent impaired risk life insurance agent.

Yes, I would be one of those and I make this suggestion based on 15 years of getting declined life insurance clients approved, getting clients lower rates for the same insurance with highly rated companies and getting cases approved that other agents won’t even try to apply for. I would take all the credit for this success that keeps mounting up for my customers, but without two older guys influence in my life I don’t my clients would reap nearly the benefits they do. My Dad and God gave me the foundation of how to treat customers more than fairly and when you truly start treating life insurance sales like a mission to do the very best you can for each client, it really all comes together.

So, what about impaired risk life insurance and business life insurance make what I’ve said so completely relevant. It comes down to the amount of money to be given away or saved by businesses when they purchase life insurance for their CEO to cover a bank or investor requirement for loan collateral. It comes down to the amount of money given away or saved when business partners use life insurance to fund a buy/sell agreement and one or both partners has some health issues. It comes down to the amount of money given away or saved when a company buys life insurance on the key person in their company responsible for their success, but that person can’t seem to qualify for a rate that helps the company bottom line. The common thread here for those of us who are CEO’s and Presidents of companies is that we have a vested interest in getting the most bang for our company buck which means that it is worth our time to find the right attorney, accountant or life insurance agent that shares that interest.

Let me just throw out an example and see if this makes sense. The CEO of a large company approached me a few months ago and between his personal insurance and a key man policy he had $15 million in force on his life and it was at a standard rate with an annual premium of $120,000. The agent that sold him that policy assured him it was the best that could be done. He tried a few more agents and was starting to believe the first one when he got declined once and approved at more than $120,000 by another company. His attorney had read a few posts in this forum and had seen some information about success I’ve had with this CEO’s particular issue. I spent a month going over all of his medical records and reviewing the approvals and declines from the other companies. I talked to underwriters to see what they liked and didn’t like about the case and when I found interest I asked what it would take to persuade them that this was a preferred rate case. Long story short I was able to get an underwriter who at first said he wasn’t even sure standard was possible to go preferred because the client and I met each of his concerns with facts that correctly showed the client in a better light than other underwriters, including this one, had seen in the case on initial review.

Bottom line. We just put his new policies in force and he is paying $50,000 a year less. That saved his company, for instance, a manager’s salary. It made his bottom line happy because we freed up $50,000 not just this year but for years to come. Why is success in business and impaired risk life insurance important to you? Because our bottom line is what happens to your bottom line. If you have questions or believe you may be paying more for your business life insurance than you need to, or if you are considering purchasing or replacing business life insurance, call or email me directly. My name is Ed Hinerman. Let’s talk.