Zurich Australia’s Z2A (Zurich to Advisers) Spring edition contains an excellent article entitled Death Cover Selling Secrets.
The message from the article, written by Zurich’s Operations Manager, Life Risk, Chris Rutherford, is that advisers need to take their clients on a journey that will enable them to understand and ‘own’ the issues surrounding their insurance needs and those of their family and business.
The article takes advisers through a series of steps that will assist them create a meaningful awareness within the mind of their client of the need for a contingency plan if the worst should happen.
… scare tactics tend to be counterproductive
Mr Rutherford says that “…scare tactics tend to be counterproductive”, with a better approach towards helping create this awareness within clients including:
- Using the fact finder as a good starting point:
- Identify client’s current goals/aspirations
- Identify current assets/liabilities
- Identify how client generates income
- Helping clients recognise the economic realities that would follow the death/disability of the main breadwinner
Mr Rutherford shares with advisers three valuable insights about how then to position the life insurance proposition to prospective clients:
- “The most meaningful statistic”, referring to the 100% impact on a client’s family if anything should happen to them
- “The true worth of insurance”, which sets out the three shocks in the event of death:
- Emotional
- Financial
- Reorganisational
- “Debunking a common myth”, dealing with the myth surrounding the relative value of low-priced accident only insurance
The second point about the true worth of insurance is an especially useful way to help clients appreciate what are often the three shocks associated with the death of a loved one, particularly for those clients who have not had that experience.
Mr Rutherford points out that the true worth of life insurance can be seen in its elimination of the financial shocks and its reduction of the reorganisational shocks following the death of a loved one.
While many advisers may already embrace a number of the methods and attitudes covered in the article, it offers a blueprint for any adviser to assist them guide their prospective clients down the insurance path.
The complete article can be accessed by clicking the following link: Death Cover Selling Secrets
