Do You Actually Know Your Insurance Products? | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast | Ep. 319

Hey everyone. Welcome to Seven Figure Annuity. Sales Coach I or sales or whatever. We wouldn't call it seven figures something. So if you guys are watching the YouTube, you can see I got my haircut really short. So I have the Samson symptoms where I've lost all my powers. So good luck on this one. And then you're a bit tongue tied. My co host, Wheezy. You know Wheezy is still on. Still has not gotten his voice back, which is. Well, he kind of has, but it's more. More than I would like. But he still talks too much. He's just sounds like a little wheezy guy, you know?

Oh, yeah, it was. And last week was especially weird. It was, it was basically gone all week.

Peter Brady, you going through.

I don't know what that is.

Peter Brady. Oh my gosh. How do you not know? Oh, man. What is this show called? Marcia? Peter Brady, Brady Bunch. Hello. Oh my gosh.

I have no, I've never watched the Brady Bunch.

You're not missing anything. Yeah.

At the time it actually was a thing. It was like a really big thing. And so, yeah, it's one of those shows that was huge in the 70s which you weren't even thought of yet, but actually you weren't even thought of in the 90s. What's cool going on?

It's crazy actually.

You're still not thought of right now. What are you doing?

Okay, Caleb, what do we got going? Because. Oh, man. As you know, last week I had a huge week and this week looks like it's going to be all right. I mean, but next week's panning up to be a good one too. So it's, it's the money's er, people. The, the, the business is going and the market is, is a little crazy right now.

Yeah, well, and that's, that's actually what I wanted to talk about was the great week you had last week following three weeks of slow, rough weeks.

Well, two weeks because one week I was out of town. So let's, let's be real. I'm not that good to word. And although people may beg to differ where they'll say you must have business just falling on your lap all the time. No. Yeah, I don't. And it also proves I don't have sub agents under me writing business for me too, because you know people. How do you do $1 million when you weren't even in the country?

You have sub agents, don't you? Yeah, I do. And it's like one of my pet peeves. In life is when someone goes up to say, I do 40 million a year, I'm number three in the company. It's like, no, you're not. You have people that sign your applications. You're on a split on everything. You have 10 agents under you. You did not do that.

But anyway, yeah, it's, it's pretty rare to find an individual producer who makes their calls, runs their appointments, does, does their case, design the presentations, apps. Pending business, like runs the business as if they're a new agent. Right. I mean, you look at new agents, they don't have admins, they don't have these downline agents that are doing a bunch of legwork for them. It's rare to find somebody that's doing all of that.

Yeah.

And still riding north of 20, 25, 30 million a year.

You and Jesse are some anomalies. Jesse still has a little bit of help there, you know.

From who.

Well, he's got heat.

Like, he does all his own apps.

That's true. Does he do his own. Does he do his own pending business?

Yeah, he does his pending business and generates his own leads.

Okay. Okay. He's got one up on me there.

That I will definitely now, the annuity production. 25 million a year, let's say. But he does, but he does Aum.

He does Aum too. But the generating his own leads, that's, that's a machine. How he built that, I just, I'm still in awe of that.

It's one of those things that long term, I think it pays dividends to agents who are willing to, to put in the legwork now. But the challenge is that you put in legwork now. It's opportunity cost now because the time that you're spending to build something for later is costing you what you can do right now. So that's the, that's the trade off. But for newer agents that aren't writing 30 million a year like you are, I think that, I think that it's a worthwhile endeavor for them to get into. If they're writing 5, 8 million a year and they've got time on their hands every week to be working through some of those lead generation, you know, processes, long term, it could pay dividends.

I agree. I mean, there's a side of me, I'm torn on that because. There's a side of me that. Because, man, I wish I would have built that a while ago, but there's some technology coming out right now. I'd say in the next year that I won't need to be in front of everything all the time. You'll see me like this, but it's not really me like this. And I can make my hair look like however I want it. I can make it any color I want it. I could put any shirt I want on. You know, it's like I'm telling you there's some crazy stuff going on where you will not be able to tell. It's you and me and we'll still be able to be witty back and forth, but you if it won't be us.

So see, what's crazy, what's crazy to me about that is the convolution of truth that takes place.

Yeah.

It's like we're already in a truth crisis I think in the nation where, oh, you see anything online anywhere and you don't know if it's right or if it's wrong.

It's kind of like going to your marketer about a new product, right?

Yeah.

It'S like, yeah, we don't know is this product really do what you say it's going to do or is it completely different or do I have to find out later? Like I had, I had, I won't go into the company, but this was bad, man. I had an illustration sent to me and I should have known better. I should have, I should have looked at it. But no, because I actually wouldn't have known that it wasn't right because we couldn't run our own illustrations. So there's a product that was changing and I had to get an illustration ran for this product that I couldn't run an illustration anymore. So I got it and it was off. It had a wrong bonus and a wrong roll up rate and it cost my client $4,000 a year. Fortunately, she understood and we worked it out because I, you know, she goes, this illustration isn't valid anymore. And I'm like, no, it's not. But he said, here is the good thing because this product was designed to have a good death benefit and a good income payout. So fortunately it passed more onto the death benefit, which actually worked out very well. But I was just like, I got the illustration was wrong. And oh man, that's one of my pet peeves in life is because I need to make sure everything's perfect. Like when I go to a client, I want to know that product is perfect. And this is probably what we should just end up talking about today is the truth. How do you know it's real? You know, we'll hit, we'll hit market Next week. But when you think about it, when you listen to what an insurance company says about a product, do not take it as gospel. You have to read the brochures yourself. Even Paul in the Bible says, check everything that's being told to you. If you have an elder telling you something, vet it with the Bible. We got to do the same thing with products too. If somebody says this is the payout percentage, this is roll up rate, this has a, We've heard this a lot. Is the long term care benefit. How in the beginning they used to tell you that the long term care benefits a five year product. No, if that account value goes away, that product is that that benefit stops. Another thing that was real crazy was you, you know, the monthly, the monthly point to point. So let's say the monthly point to point had a 2.5% cap. Okay. So how they were explaining it back in the day is you could reach that cap, let's say 10, 10 months. But if the index fell month 11 and 12, it doesn't matter, it would hit zero. Now you know that's not true.

Right.

So the implication was you got up to 2.5% but you would never lose anything. Well, we know how the monthly cap works is if you have 10 months of 2 and a half quarter or 2 and a half percent gain, you have 12 and a half percent gain. But if the market loses 15% the last two months of the year, you don't get any crediting.

Well, if you have, if you have 10 months of two and a half of hitting that two and a half percent.

Sorry, that's 22, 22, 22, 25. Yes. Not count on my math right now. Oh my gosh, I got to run a.

Today to your point, if the index falls.

Yeah.

15% in that last month or two or whatever it is, then you're at 10. So you, you, you on those monthly caps, those monthly sums some people call where you're literally summing each month up to whatever that cap is. You do take the whole negative every month, but you only get a portion of the upside every month.

But it was not explained that way in the beginning. Yeah, and it's crazy from a marketer and the insurance company person.

Now those. Yeah, I've done some deep analytics on that strategy before. The, the monthly cap options. And they can perform and outperform. I mean they, but it requires the right market conditions. You need a lot of months hitting that cap and the negative months to be really, really smart.

Exactly.

So it's kind of a Gamble.

But I guess it really goes into is, you know, you need to read the product brochures, you need to read the illustrations, you need to read the applications. Because one of the most embarrassing things I've heard someone do is when you tell a client it does something the way it does, but they find out differently in the product brochure or differently in the illustration, they, they most likely. And they shouldn't use you. Yep. I mean you've got to be straightforward with these people and you gotta let them know this is exactly how that works and make sure you know your.

Product really well a hundred percent. And that right there is why I have such issue with agents using third party softwares and illustrations to try to close deals. There are softwares out there where quite literally the way that they're designed to be used is as a sales tool. And you're putting that in front of a client and it's completely third party and there's room for human error. And you're telling a client that this product functions this way. And I've seen them be wrong. And that's coming from somebody who we in retirement realize financial, we provide a third party annuity comparison, you know, calculator, whatever you want to call it, software to our agents. But we always say use that as a baseline. Go back to the carrier portals and get an actual illustration. Don't use a third party illustration as the basis for the recommendation of the sale.

Well, and I personally would never go to an appointment with a third party illustration. I will only use illustrations from the actual carrier website.

That's the only type of illustration I ever use. And the only time I ever call me marketer to do an illustration is if I don't have the capability of producing that illustration anymore. And that's where, that's where the problem came in is because there's no way I could have vetted that because I can't. Look, I can't produce that illustration.

Think about it. Yeah. Well, no, and think, but think about the third, the whole like concept of a third party illustration from a legal standpoint. The policy that is being purchased by the client is a legally binding contract between them and the insurance company and being sold by the agent.

Yeah.

And yet we're going to take a scenario where those are the three legally involved parties and pull in this third, this fourth entity that is not legally involved in the thing at all. And we're going to take their information and put that in front of a client that's going to make a decision about a legally binding argument or agreement that that third party software company isn't even involved in.

So that means that's an insurance company wouldn't be responsible for it.

No. If an agent, if an agent uses a third, the agent should be, in my opinion, and I believe the third.

Party software would probably be liable, but they're not involved.

They're just putting information out there. They have all kinds of disclaimers in there as well that probably wipe them of any kind of real liability. They should be held liable for the misinformation. But I think ultimately it comes back to the agent. And the insurance company is not going to honor what a third party software system puts.

Never.

That's use it as a baseline, but not as a sales tool.

So the moral of this episode is, number one, never get information without making sure yourself it's true. Yep. So whether it's an insurance company, whether it's a marketer, make sure what they're saying is true. Number two, read through your product brochures, your illustrations, your applications, make sure it backs up what the illustration says. Now, I've never seen a conflict between an application, a product brochure, or an illustration when they all came from the insurance company. And of course, number three is always, always, always use illustrations from the actual company website. Don't rely on a third party. Don't rely on anybody else. Definitely do not do an Excel sheet. You know, I use an Excel sheet that you created for income. But that's because I actually, when I do that, I have each illustration that, that backs up the number that's on that actual income plan. And I leave those illustrations with the clients. And that's honestly, that's how I get a lot of my big deals. Like this one I just had, it was like just under 2 million. It was an income laddering plan and literally providing income for her no matter how long she lives. And it worked out perfectly because every little point I had where we were activating another income source, I had the illustration that backed that up. Yep.

Well, the beauty of those income plans is that it takes the whole picture and sums it up on one sheet for sure. Whereas you might have three different annuity policies showing income on one sheet. You look at the illustration and Those illustrations are 12, 15, 20 pages long.

Yep. And that's actually what she liked about it, is she, she was the numbers person. He was not. So she liked that if she passed away, he has one sheet of paper, he can actually look at everything.

So.

Yep. Well, it ended up taking a little twist, but I think it's really good because we know what we say is our word, and we need to stick to it and back it up with actual documentation from the insurance company.

Yeah. And I'll say this last thing, as I always.

Of course you will.

It will impact the confidence that you speak with when you know the information you're conveying is correct. When you know you're right, you speak with more conviction and more confidence than if you're like, I'm not real sure. It's like. And that comes through in the conversation 100%.

That's why I always tell people, don't have your marketer run illustrations. Once you understand how it works, don't have your marketer do that. You do that because that way you know exactly how that software works. Not only because you have the confidence in what you're presenting, but if the numbers change, you can literally right there in the appointment going, and do the illustration the way do you need to and not fumble around.

That's right.

So, okay. Well, that was an easy one. I hope this helps you guys. You have a great day. And, of course, happy selling.