When Is The Job Finished?

I’ve said often enough to be considered redundant beyond reproach that a decline for life insurance is a good place to start. The thing about a decline is it flushes out all of the details that might have simply not been understood or forgotten by the client and makes it easy for a good impaired risk life insurance agent to put together a clear, concise request for quotes.

This logic often leads to an approval for the client for the life insurance they need for their family and to most agents and most clients that is the logical end to the job. The decline has been replaced by an approval. Job well done!!! But not finished. I consider my personal mission with every client to continue to work on the case year after year until we have finally run out of options for improvement. Just because we won the battle, for me and the clients I represent, the war is seeing how much we can cut the price of their life insurance before age overtakes us or until we have the best rate class locked in.

My job is made easier by the fact that most life insurance agents believe that a decline is a legitimate end to an application. Some even believe it is so unequivocally that they will tell people that they are not insurable and they might as well give up. I don’t believe it’s out of meanness, like if they can’t have the business they want the person to give up and not get it from someone else. It’s really just an ignorance of the industry they’re working in and a lack of knowledge about what really can be insured. Let’s be real. When I can get an approval for traditional, not guaranteed issue, life insurance for HIV positive and most agents will say it isn’t insurable at all, there’s an education deficit somewhere.

So, when we get an approval I always recommend putting it in force, but I stay in touch with clients and update their information annually, and if there is any room for improvement (as in they already got preferred plus rates), I shop it. On one case where I got the help of a pathologist to explain a specific kind of NHL (non Hodgkins Lymphoma) to the underwriters, we were able to get the client better rates five years in a row. His first approval was at standard table 8 and the last one was at preferred.

Bottom line. So, every year whether you know it or not, I am looking for a way to improve your situation. That could mean lower rates, more insurance for the same rates, a longer term for the same rates, or a combination of all three. If you have any questions or have been declined or approved and then ignored, call or email me directly. My name is Ed Hinerman. Let’s talk.