In a recent family trip to the Outer Banks, we visited the Wright Brothers museum at Kitty Hawk. At this historic sight, you stand where the first flight occurred. As a lover of history, you can’t help but feel in awe of the sight where one of the most important and impactful scientific advances of all time took place.
On the grounds, there is also a museum where you get to learn so much about these true pioneers. What an amazing story of ingenuity, vision and perseverance. While walking around and soaking it all in, I came across an exhibit that had illustrated a quote from Wilbur Wright. The quote read as follows…
“…it is not really necessary to look far into the future; we see enough already to be certain it will be magnificent. Only let us hurry and open the roads.”
As I’m reading this, the lightbulb goes off! If there were ever words that describe our business today, this is it. As I near thirty years in the industry, there has never been a more exciting time to be in the game.
There are more people than ever in need of a true life insurance professional. The Boomer generation will give us over 70 Million prospects to choose from over the next 15 years and their needs are unprecedented. Whether it’s the fear of outliving their retirement nest eggs, protecting against the threat of a major “cash draining” health event or simply wanting to leave a lasting legacy so they’re heirs can maintain a comfortable lifestyle, we have a wide range of products to assist them through these and other concerns.
With the changing U.S. demographic, The Foreign National space is another marketplace that is virtually untapped. There are a countless number of Resident Aliens with a unique set of planning needs. Considering that all of their worldwide assets are subject to U.S. Estate taxes, this is a huge opportunity. For non-resident Aliens, they only have a $60,000 exemption on assets held in the U.S. On any given day, look through the Wall Street Journal and you’ll come across articles that talk about how foreigners are buying up prime U.S. Real estate at an astounding rate, which supports the claim of the size of this market.
From a product standpoint, we have probably never been at a better point. We have at our disposal, the largest array of products, complete with features and benefits that I have never seen during my tenure in the life insurance business.
In addition to traditional death benefit sales, we now have a number of Living Benefits to choose from. The addition of Long Term Care, Chronic Illness and Longevity riders on Life Insurance products has changed the way we can sell.
These riders allow us to bring life insurance full circle. An insured can actually realize benefits from a life insurance policy during THEIR lifetimes. They can be used to address a number of planning needs such as providing Long Term Care needs at a guaranteed cost, protect retirement assets from an unexpected health event and possibly providing liquidity for business owners to facilitate a buyout of a sick partner. With the products we have at our disposal, these are just a few of the many planning possibilities we have to help our clients in today’s world.
So, let’s go back to Mr. Wright and what he had to do with Life Insurance. Sure, it’s possible that The Wright Brothers may have owned a life insurance policy or two. However, the words on that exhibit are inspirational when it comes to where we are today in our industry. The time now is “magnificent.” Never has there been a better time for us as insurance advisors to be in our industry. So let us hurry and open the roads because there truly has never been a better time.
Happy Selling!