What is the value of a life insurance General Agency with an underwriter?
- They do preliminary assessments.
- They act as advocates.
- They're experienced.
A good life insurance General Agency should help you make sales, not hinder them. But if a brokerage GA doesn’t have an underwriter on staff, you could be losing cases – and ultimately money.
The value of a GA with a life insurance underwriter
When you have access to a General Agency’s underwriter, you’ll boost your sales.
Here’s why.
A good underwriter has industry experience that can make all the difference when there are challenging financial or medical concerns.
A seasoned underwriter would likely have been trained by one or more life insurance carriers, but he or she will also understand how different carriers might treat a certain risk from the experience of working independently.
They know the ins and outs of each carrier’s underwriting style, their preferences, their likes and dislikes for certain risks.
And this knowledge can make or break a sale.
Get a leg up on the competition
By working with a life insurance brokerage General Agency who provides an underwriter resource, you’ll definitely have an edge over your competition.
Here's how.
1. Doing preliminary assessments
When you discuss a challenging life insurance case with a brokerage General Agency, that’s when utilizing an underwriter can make a big difference in the odds of eventually placing that case.
For example, if your prospect is 48 years old, has Type 2 diabetes, is a former smoker and has survived prostate cancer several years ago, this tricky case would require special insights.
A qualified life insurance underwriter can help determine if the prospect is insurable, and if so, how to properly classify the risk in order to accurately quote it. There are subjective factors to this type of case that a good underwriter would know from experience.
With the right information, an underwriter would be able to estimate the likely classification as well as what life insurance carriers might favor the type of risk.
2. Acting as an advocate
Once a life insurance application is underwritten by a carrier, the final decision may not be as favorable as initially thought – due to unforeseen medical or financial issues.
In these cases, having an underwriter available to review a carrier decision can provide a number of benefits. As an advocate, the underwriter would be able to impart her opinion as to whether the offer is reasonable or should be challenged.
A good underwriter would know if there could be alternative carriers that might see the risk more favorably.
Basically, an underwriter would be able to provide a second opinion.
3. Putting experience to work
In certain situations, like when you're writing a large case, it’s extremely important to have access to an underwriter.
For example, if you have a client worth $20 million and you need a $10 million policy, the underwriter can help successfully navigate the case. This would include assessing the client's risk using an informal approach, such as reviewing basic client personal, medical and health histories, and perhaps client medical records.
Then, the underwriter can provide an authoritative assessment or preview of the case so you know its status early on in the process. As a result, you’ll be that much closer to successfully writing any life insurance case and boost your sales.
Choose a General Agency with an underwriter
There are a lot of factors that will influence your success if you’re selling life insurance. Working with a brokerage General Agency that provides value services, like an underwriter, is just one – but it’s an important one.
The insight and experience you get from working with the right brokerage General Agency is necessary for you to grow your life insurance sales and your business.
How do you think your life insurance sales could benefit from having access to an underwriter?
