DIAM was started as an effort to educate insurance advisors and consumers about the need for disability insurance.  I'm sure you've seen numerous emails from the insurance industry promoting DIAM. 

As always the most useful links for promoting and educating about disability insurance can be found in our Links to DI Resources section just to the left and are available all year.  Please take a moment to browse through these links; the information is always updated and is very relevant in regards to educating about disabilities and disability insurance.

After attending this year's Ameritas DI Forum in Mobile Alabama; the one thing that stood out amongst all the premier DI sales people was one thing.  They ALL educated the client on the need for disability insurance protection before they even presented a quote or spoke about price.  If the client isn't convinced that they are at risk of a disability they will never spend the money on the coverage.  Some clients will need a great deal of educating about the risk while others will need very little.  It's the advisors job to know when the client is convinced of the need and then move on to the product and pricing presentation.

I will spend the next few newsletters going over the various educating techniques and sales techniques that are being used by this elite group of DI producers.  

I was looking over some notes from a seminar put on by one of my mentors, Ken Wylie.  This seminar was 7 years ago and in my notes I had written that in 1985 we sold 17 million individual DI policies and that the number had actually dropped to 11 million sold in 2005.  While it has increased some in the last few years it is nowhere near what it had been 27 years ago. 

 

As a more recent follow up to this seminar, there was a recent survey taken of financial advisors.  83% of them responded that they did not feel that their clients perceived a need for income protection.

 

When the clients were asked:  83% of them said that they did believe they had a need for income protection.

 

Do you see the disconnect here?  Perhaps if we put aside our perceptions and simply asked our clients about their need for income protection we would find a willing participate in the solutions we offer.  You might say to me, can it be that simple just ask?  Let me share with you just one broker of mine who for several years sold $3,000 to $5,000 of new DI premium.  I challenged him to just ask and he made a commitment to me to ask every client he met with what they were doing to protect their income.  His DI sales went to $50,000 a year and stayed there just because he asked.  He did nothing else differently just made it part of every client interview and fact finder. 

 

Did you know there are 400,000 physicians in the U.S. and that 82% of them own individual disability?  On the other hand there are 75 million other workers and only 1% of them own individual disability.  Seems like there might be a market out there for your professional solutions.

 

Two other tips from Ken Wylie:

1. Never show the premium until you have shown the total potential benefit at its capitalized value and when you show the premium  always show monthly mode.
2. Never tell people this is a "good idea" and you should buy.  Instead ask, "Can you think of any reason that you should not purchase this protection?"