Situation Critical: Consider Critical Illness Insurance now!

Critical Illness Insurance sure seems to be the orphaned waif of the planning process. It's out there in the cold - lonely and ignored. If it were tangible, surely it would reside on the Island of Misfit Toys.

Why is that? Here is a coverage that is a wonderful complement to so many planning opportunities and yet, nary a quote is requested from this office. The sheer mention of it being available turns a seasoned professional to putty, stammering in drone-step, "but I..." "but I..." "but I..." in trying to find reasons not to make his or her clients aware of this option.

What is it? It pays a CASH benefit to a client who's been diagnosed with cancer, heart attack, stroke, etc. Do you know anyone who's been diagnosed with cancer, had a heart attack or a stroke?

Why would someone want cash upon, say, a cancer diagnosis? Well, let's count the ways:

• to pay health care coinsurances, deductilbes or holes (think health insurance covers every last nickel of care? Ask someone with a cancer or heart claim and find out).




• to offset living expenses during recovery. Especially good for those who are underinsured for DI




• to provide "waiver of premium" for a DI policy's elimination period.




• to provide coverage for those who can't get a typical DI plan because of occupation.




• to pay for mortgage or other debt payments.

Want to learn more about it? Please let me know. Don't leave CI on the outiside of the planning process - bring it inside where it's warm and where your clients can benefit from its provisions.

Linked Benefit Life Insurance

Linked benefit life policies have been niche products for a number of years now. Historically, the dominant structure has been single pay in nature. Recently, due to some regulatory changes, the accelerated death benefit design is becoming more and more a part of "regular" permanent life policies, i.e. annual pay designs.

While this has the potential to put a crimp in LTCI sales, I like this phenomenon. Is it a absolute substitute for long term care insurance? Probably not. But there are a significant amount of consumers who've defined - rightly or wrongly - that they're just not going to buy LTCI. But I'd think a linked benefit design would be a product they'd at least consider.

Think about this: if the Great God of Insurance swept in with an edict that all life policies that exist would now have an added endorsement allowing for the death benefit to be accessed to help fund a long term care stay, would it help? I think it might put a dent in the long term care funding crisis.

I suppose this is one of those issues that can be looked at in many different ways, but regardles, the genie is out of the accelerated death benefit bottle. It will be interesting to see the long term (pun intended) affect on planning.

My First Professional Blog Post Ever.

Amazing, isn't it? Where communication has gone in the last 20 years? When I started in the business, there was no internet. Faxes didn't even exist! Now I'm laying the groundwork to blog my Tweets, Tweet my blog and other things that would have sounded almost silly when I began my climb up the mountain.

In some fashion, Blogs are a bit of "back to the future". Back in '88, in my formative years the art of the business letter was still in full bloom. I look back on some of those documents and they're really quite beautiful. My late father-in-law, Mac McCalmont, the patriarch of the firm, was by no means a master of the English language. He'd tell you that himself. But the way he put a letter together was marvelous.

I have one I love to refer to - sent to a subordinate in the eastern part of the state. Basically, it was a "pre-termination" letter. The guy wasn't pulling his weight. The searing, courteous way that the gentleman was put on alert was at once concise and eloquent, yet damning and visceral.

Nowadays, we're reduced to communication via fleeting emails. Flimsy fragments of shallow prose. Our business communications are hollow shells of what once was taken for granted.

Maybe Blogs will change that a bit. Granted, they're a means to a totally different end, but, hey - you've got to put sentences together for a blog post!

This blog is my New Year's resolution. At the risk of sounding conceited I think I do have a lot to share. Hopefully, I'll be able to impart some of my experiences to you, to help you ponder, and grow your practice.