Benefits of running your own life insurance illustrations
- You'll have 24/7 access
- You'll have access to a variety of premium
- It's simple
- You can have instant spreadsheets
- It's a "green" option
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on 6/20/16 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehension.
Are you still stuck in the life insurance illustration "dark ages?"
You shouldn’t be.
There are significant benefits to using your life insurance General Agency’s technology to run your illustrations and tossing your olds ways out the window.
A brief history of getting your life insurance quotes
In the beginning...
Back in the day, when I first started in the insurance business, there was no such thing as an illustration.
Instead, all producers had rate books that contained the price per thousand for any particular product a company was selling. Once the amount of the life insurance was known, we would do a calculation and you would simply tell your client the price.
The only real place the price was ever put into writing for the client was in the policy itself.
The first upgrade
The next major breakthrough for pricing life insurance for the client occurred when the carriers started publishing rate cards.
Instead of having to lug around a thick and heavy rate book, you could carry the small cards, which would give you the price per thousand for each insurance product.
But this really didn’t change the fact that not much was put on paper as far as what was presented to the client.
The next development
And then the life insurance world got complicated.
With the onset of different types of whole life and then universal life, the possible combinations for pricing became simply too vast to include in a book or on a rate card.
Hope for true advancement
Introducing….pricing by computer!
With the onset of computerization and increased digital options, you could get quotes from your General Agent in the form of a printed illustration – and kill a lot of trees – to cover every possibility.
This seemed like a good idea for everybody, except perhaps, the tree huggers.
Paper was not only used at an alarming rate, but when it reached the client, it showed far too many scenarios, adding just one more reason for the client to feel overwhelmed by the process of purchasing life insurance.
The life insurance producer at a disadvantage
The use of these illustrations seemed very convenient at the time, but what happened was life insurance producer lost the ability to have an instinct for what insurance would cost in certain situations.
Everyone who sold life insurance became highly dependent on the computerized illustrations being run for them.
Each time a life insurance producer engaged a potential client, the producer immediately wanted to know what kind of premiums would be offered.
This contributed to the sense that the producer needed these numbers immediately, and if they didn’t get them NOW, it led to further dissatisfaction.
Turning things around – for producers AND clients
The good news?
As obtaining life insurance quotes became more widespread because of technology, the ability for producers to run their own illustrations became very easy to do via the internet.
Unfortunately, old habits die hard, and most insurance producers simply continue to ask for illustrations from their General Agent for their client meetings. Yep, that’s convenient, but there are many drawbacks to depending on someone else for illustrations.
Today, almost every General Agent has a website that allows you to run your own term illustrations (and many producers use this easy method). It offers many benefits, which far outweigh the old method, such as:
24/7 access
Illustrations can be run any time day or night. All you have to do is sit down in front of a computer, or in some cases, use your mobile device!
Access to a variety of premiums
Since there are so many variables in obtaining a quote today, you can run as many different scenarios to get familiar with the spectrum of premiums for any given client.
It’s simple
Once the premiums are determined, you can present numbers rather than pages to your client, reducing the amount of information have to wade through to make a decision.
Instant spreadsheets
If you’re not sure the duration of life insurance your client may be interested in, you can run comparison programs and present them on one piece of paper.
Go green
Finally, instant quoting tools allow you to do all of the work on the computer screen, saving reams of paper. Tree huggers unite!
You CAN run your own illustrations
The days of solely depending on someone else to run quotes are gone.
If you haven’t already tried running your own life insurance illustrations, go to your General Agent’s website and give it a try to see how easy it really is.
It will change the way you prepare for your life insurance sales presentations.
