Selling to seniors can be a bit of a challenge.I’ve found that by putting my recommendations aside at the initial client meeting and instead just listening, I’m much more likely to gain the client’s trust and ultimately, their business.
When I begin working with my older prospects, I attempt to quantify an analysis of “necessary” capital and then determine if there is any “excess” capital in the client’s portfolio.It is important to do this before embarking upon any strategies that may put my prospective client into an illiquid position.After establishing guidelines, I then assist my senior clients in exploring long-term strategies such as traditional estate planning, charitable planning techniques as well as an intelligent investment process.Again our objective in every case is to first determine my potential client’s personal lifetime cash flow needs are met before addressing multi generational issues.
Thus, the most important goal when advising senior clients is to help them stay focused on the fact that it takes a significant amount of capital to provide a lifetime of inflation adjusted income.Please share your techniques for effectively working with senior clients or participate in our quick poll.
Jeff Libby Wednesday, April 19, 2006Regarding the comment from March 7th...The new Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 signed into law by President Bush on 2/8/2006 implemented a sweeping overhaul of Medicaid eligibility. The greatest change is associated with the start of the look-back penalty period. Under the new law the penalty period will not begin to run until the Medicaid applicant otherwise qualifies BUT for the implementation of a transfer penalty. NOW the penalty will not start until the applicant is residing in a nursing home AND depletes his assets to qualifying levels.
As the look-back period has increased from three to five years, will your clients know what transfers they made five years ago...or know they will be in a nursing home five years into the future? Transfer of assets for penalty purposes will include any gifting during the five year look-back period prior to applyig for Medicaid inclusing: gifting to children; gifts to churches or synagogues; gifts to charities; gifts to 529 plans; and the list goes on.
The full enumeration of changes results in significant impact on Medicaid planning limiting the ability of many to qualify in the future for Medicaid. You may want to share this with your clients to have them re-think their intent to simply go onto Medicaid...
READER COMMENTS
Frank from the UK Thursday, April 6, 2006Regarding the chap who wrote on March 7th, move on!
Find a couple who do worry about the future. Time wasted trying to change their minds could be spent finding new prospects. Do not waste any time on a couple who do not want to buy something they cannot see a need for. If they regret being on Medicaid later, then they made that decision.
READER COMMENTS
J. Blake Taylor, CFP,ChFC Tuesday, April 4, 2006Comments related to Selling to Seniors:
My mentor, John Savage always said: "People don't buy insurance, people buy people." He followed up by stating: Knowledge of the product 5%, knowledge of people 95%. I have tried to keep these statements in mind when dealing with my affluent mature adult relationships. Underlying these statements is the premise that we have continued to build our entire corporate foundation upon. "Serve, not be served."
When we can gain a deep trust and rapport with our clients on a personal and professional level and when we engage them in processes that clearly exhibit to them at an inner level that our entire purpose is all about them and not about us, we will succeed. We create trust and rapport by listening, by liking and trusting them first and by becoming masters by the questions we ask. He who asks the best questions and listens best (and most) generally wins.
I have also found when we strive for simplicity and clarity above all else we greatly improve the probability of the desired results. This is one of the reasons for which I make use of a whiteboard as a part of my standard procedure. At the end of our meeting we capture the image with a digital camera and the color photo becomes a permanent part of the client file. We then dictate the highlights of the meeting using a service called Copytalk. All of our meetings are also recorded with the clients permission. In this way we listen, we speak, we create a visual, and we archive every element of the meeting. This goes a long way toward reducing misunderstandings during and after our client meetings.
As we review these tapes from time to time it is insightful to recognize that we don't always hear what was said, (or even what we thought was said) the first time around. This also becomes a great tool prior to our next appointment as we mentally prepare and rehearse which greatly improves our ultimate success.
READER COMMENTS
Bill Upson Monday, March 13, 2006The book I wrote, Long Term Care, Alternatives and Solutions, addresses this and many other issues related to this problem. Most seniors have no idea what living under government edict truly means, especially in a nursing setting in the last years of their lives. For many it is humiliating and depressing although they do get to be friends with 3-4 other roommates, not of their chosing. A visit to a facility corrects this thinking for many, and is powerful for us as providers of coverage. I find that life with LTC policies provide great multiple solutions for LTC care, but also for providing death benefits for the survivor, so their life end can be comfortable. Hope this helps.
READER COMMENTS
Tuesday, March 7, 2006I have a couple in their early 60's of modest means who have no children. They have no heirs. They have balked at long term care insurance because they don't mind spending their assets an qualifying for Medicaid.
Does anyone have an answer to that?
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