You want to find the right life insurance product at the right price for your client. But with so many variables, how can you be confident in your recommendation?
Researching and comparing products eats up time, and taking clients through underwriting only to find a last-minute obstacle can devour more time and, even worse, potentially hurt the client relationship.
Here's how to find a life insurance product that leads to high client satisfaction, while also streamlining the process, so you can close more sales and grow your business.
1. Understand Client Needs
If asking “what is the best life product for my client” is your first question, you may be setting yourself up for the very problems you’re trying to avoid.
Rather, the first question with life insurance should be: what is the client need?
Asking questions to discover clients’ needs will direct you to the right product, instead of shoehorning a client into a specific product that might not be wanted, pass underwriting or be suitable.
When you start by understanding the client need, their answers will help lead you to the right life insurance product for that particular client.
How to Uncover a Client’s Life Insurance Needs
Conduct a thorough needs analysis. What are your client’s financial goals? Do they need term or permanent coverage? Many insurance carriers offer “Fact Finders” to help you conduct a needs analysis. Senior Market Sales® (SMS) also has resources on MySMS to help uncover client needs.
Assess their health and lifestyle, as these can impact underwriting and pricing.
2. Utilize Carrier-Agnostic Comparison Tools
Once you identify the specific type of life insurance for a client, how do you compare different carriers’ products without spending hours researching each individually to narrow down your recommendation?
Use technology to compare products across multiple carriers to help you identify products that match your client’s needs and budget without bias. By utilizing carrier-agnostic tools, not only do you save valuable time but you also explore more options, increasing your chances of finding the policy best suited for their particular needs and budget.
3. Approach Underwriting Strategically
What’s best for the client is the product that meets their needs, has favorable underwriting, offers the best long-term value, and is backed by a reliable provider at a competitive price. Underwriting, however, is rife with pitfalls for both the advisor and the client.
How do you avoid submitting cases that will get declined? How do you speed up underwriting without messing it up?
Approach the underwriting step in the life insurance sales process with careful consideration. Use these smart tips and strategies to prevent the unpleasant client experiences of lengthy underwriting or higher-than-expected underwriting offers, and to save yourself valuable time and the headaches of lost sales and lost clients:
Look for carriers that offer accelerated underwriting for life insurance to reduce the hassle and time required for approval.
Consider carriers that offer automated underwriting for life insurance, which also streamlines the process, offering quicker decisions and reducing the likelihood of delays.
Use a pre-underwriting checklist.
Gather all necessary client information upfront, including health history and lifestyle details, to avoid surprises during underwriting.
Educate clients about potential underwriting requirements, such as medical exams or additional documentation.
Leverage expertise.
The Life Team at SMS offers expert underwriting guidance, helping you navigate complex cases and find solutions for challenging scenarios.
SMS also has a proprietary reinsurance arrangement that allows us to send a case to one underwriter and get an offer from eight or nine different companies.
The SMS Life Team can informally shop with more than 20 different carriers.
Let SMS Alleviate Your Life Insurance Sales Pain Points
The SMS Life Team is dedicated to helping advisors like you succeed. With more than a century of combined experience, we’ll help you:
Navigate life insurance case complexities with confidence
Tailor solutions to fit your client’s unique needs
Simplify getting life insurance cases placed, from start to finish
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