Sales & Marketing

The popularity of Index Universal Life products has stirred up the creative talents of many professional financial advisors, and nowhere has that creativity been more apparent than in the area of policy loan rescues.  This presents a significant opportunity to bring value to clients and generate a new sale, but it requires a high degree of expertise to navigate successfully.  This article will review rescue strategies so that you have a better idea of what works and what doesn't.  In addition, the Windsor case design team is fully conversant on the options and approaches that ca...

Last month we featured guest Bobby Samuelson and Windsor's Marc Schwartz in a conversation about "The World of Life Insurance – Version 2023." In the course of that discussion, Marc and Bobby both touched on the recent introduction of Variable UL products based on the success of Registered Index Accounts, with Bobby saying "I'm excited to see how this corner of the market develops over time. It's nothing but positive for distributors, agents and consumers." Today's blog, originally a podcast, brings together Marc, Jeff Driscoll of NFP, and moderator Kristin Williams, NFP's Senior VP of Strateg...

In May of 2019 we posted a conversation with Bobby Samuelson to Windsor's website that we ambitiously called, The World of Indexed Universal Life.  That blog has led all Windsor blogs in popularity right up to today.  Indexed UL has expanded beyond the boundaries of those early days to become a formidable product with wide appeal to financial professionals and to insurance-buying consumers.  And, because of its rapid growth in the marketplace, it has more than once caught the eye of insurance regulators. Today, Bobby Samuelson graciously joins us again for a conversation wi...

In June, 2019, Windsor's Marty Flaxman wrote one of our most popular blogs, "Today There's a $22 Million Lifetime Gift Tax Exclusion - Your Clients Can Use It or Lose It."    We asked Marty to revisit this post as we approach 2023, with only a few years left for you and your clients to take advantage of this singular opportunity.  The numbers have changed, mostly favorably.   But more important, time is running out.   A successful sale typically has three common elements:  It solves an important problem.  The solution itself is time-limited, meaning that if y...

"The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation . . . ." - Steve Jobs Gordon Richardson has life insurance in his blood.  He is a second-generation life insurance producer, learning from his father who has been a Windsor friend for decades.  For Gordon, life insurance has always been a key part of what he offers to clients and is integral to his business.  As "Life Insurance Awareness Month 2022" winds down, we asked Gordon to share a story about how practicing his profession provided security ...

  — Your clients are worried.  Life insurance can help. "The actor Paul Picerni was my grandfather," begins Windsor's Dan Picerni.  "I called him Papa.  He appeared in over five-hundred films and television productions.  With eight kids he couldn't afford not to work when the downtimes came, so he filled the lull by selling life insurance.  In the 1950s he bought three nice size life insurance policies to help take care of his family in the event of his death.  Fortunately, the income replacement was never needed, and he lived until 2012.  He continued p...

Early in 2022, Windsor began to see a new growing focus on cash accumulation sales.  While using life insurance to provide funds for future cash flow obligations, be it college tuition or supplemental retirement income, is nothing new, something had changed. In 2020, in an "under the radar" rule change, the §7702 interest rate — which sets limits on premiums, cash values and death benefits for life insurance policies to qualify as "life insurance contracts" for Federal income tax purposes — was revised.  The rates, which were last set in 1984, were 4% for the Cash Value Accumulation ...

After a two-year hiatus, the Association of Home Office Underwriters (AHOU) was held recently in person with over 900 attendees present.  Meeting participants included underwriting leadership from all major life carriers, reinsurance companies, exam/lab vendors, industry data/information providers and several technology companies among others.  It was terrific to be back in person at this meeting, networking with industry pros and peers, and gaining important insight and perspective on the current state of life underwriting. Over the past few years and accelerated by the pandemic, th...

"Complicated [permanent life insurance] products eat away at the purchasing power of your premium. In most situations, your financial planning will be better served by buying term life insurance and then investing outside of the insurance contract.1 "Do not let anybody tell you that your life insurance policy is a good way to build extra savings. Fall for that and you will end up wasting thousands of dollars over the life of the policy.2 As life insurance professionals, we know that sentiments like those above are nothing new.  And in response, Windsor's recent Blog — Life Insurance and R...

You've met with your clients and their financial advisors on a few occasions and discussed the clients' financial planning and insurance objectives. Things are going well.  The insurance plan and product you are proposing meet the clients' needs exceptionally well, and provide the financial stability they are seeking.  But then you hear it.  The clients want to think about it some more.  When queried, your clients indicate that maybe they will look at this again, but are not sure when that will be. We have all heard it many times before, and know that procrastination and th...

  If we had a nickel for every time a carrier suggested we spend more time showing life insurance as a supplemental retirement income strategy, we would have a ton of nickels.  After all, Windsor was started by Jerry Schwartz and Hal Brooks when Universal Life and Interest Sensitive Whole Life were first invented.  From that time on, we've been steadily promoting the unique advantages of life insurance, most recently in our June 2021 Blog on Life Insurance Retirement Plans (LIRP). But we have a stake in the game.  So when life insurance companies encourage us to emphasize t...

- by Jeff Driscoll, Vice-President, Product and Carrier Management, Partners Financial Let's start with good news.  Your clients and many life insurance carriers definitely need your expertise in selling and servicing Indexed Universal Life (IUL) products.   And now, with the growing trend of volatility control (VC) indexed accounts, your value is more than solidified.  The trade-off for your increased value is that more homework is required to understand and make the correct recommendations with these more complicated indices.  Before going any further, one could argue tha...

We're guessing that Roth IRAs probably don't show up on your radar these days.  What with the S&P, NASDAQ and the Dow ringing the bell on new records almost weekly, investment advisors focused on wealth creation might just pass right by a qualified plan option with income ceilings of about $200,000 and contribution limits of $6,000 to $7,000 (depending on age) annually, as of 2021. But Peter Thiel of PayPal fame might change your mind.  He simply used a Roth IRA to create a $5 billion tax-exempt fortune. Roth IRAs were created in 1997 to provide for a need not filled by other qua...

  Much has been written about the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and IRC section 7702, (§7702) where, effective January 1, 2021, minimum interest rates associated with the Cash Value Accumulation Test (CVAT) and the Guideline Premium Test (GPT) under the definition of life insurance have been lowered.  These adjustments created welcome changes for:  1) owners of insurance to put more money into cash accumulation plans of coverage without running afoul of definition of life insurance and Modified Endowment Contract (MEC) limits, and  2) carriers to get relief from o...

Here are some of Windsor's best conversation starters, marketing strategies and sales ideas that you can use right now and well into 2021! As advisors to our clients, we can start a conversation with 60-page product illustrations or we can focus on something simpler and closer to home:  Caring for our families by leveraging low interest rates, securing fully guaranteed life insurance benefits, supplementing retirement income, protecting valuable assets, saving money on taxes, and finding easier ways for clients to get the insurance they want and need.  Even in these difficult times, ...

- A Virtual Panel Discussion Featuring Experts in the Field of Life Reinsurance - DuWayne Kilbo, Moderator I'm extremely delighted to have available three distinguished speakers from the life reinsurance side of our business for Windsor's first Virtual Panel Discussion! With so much going on today as it pertains to COVID-19 and the evolution of the life insurance industry, this is an opportunity to hear from well-known and highly regarded reinsurance industry executives for their input and thoughts on various topics where they provide support and guidance to the industry.  Also, we will h...

​As advisors to your clients, you can start a conversation with 60-page product illustrations, or you can change the conversation to something simpler and closer to home:  Historically low interest rates.  Guaranteed life insurance benefits.  Cash on hand for unexpected circumstances.  Protection for valuable assets.  And easier ways for clients to get the insurance they want and need.  Even in these difficult times, we can do our best to stay calm and communicate clearly.  Here are some ideas from Windsor on how we can begin a conversation about what's impor...

COVID-19, in addition to being a terrible pandemic, has brought a halt to business as usual for most every industry imaginable.  And life underwriting has not been granted an exception.  Among other things, we have seen additional scrutiny placed on certain medical impairments, maximum age and rating limitations imposed, and a reduction in internal retention at some carriers. However, we are also seeing changes—positive changes—occur in underwriting.  Underwriting progress has been made using data sources to forgo exams and to get coverage approved quickly and non-invasively—whi...

Windsor, Life Happens and AIG Get Together for a Webinar You Don't Want to Miss!  On Demand Now!In today's social-distancing reality, staying connected and maintaining your trusted relationship with clients and centers of influence is more important than ever. But where can you find relevant content that is easy to use?  Windsor invites you to learn about the resources, marketing tools and competitive advantages offered by Life Happens and AIG that are literally at your fingertips, along with social media best practices that you can implement today!  

  Driven by new CSO tables and Principle Based Reserving (PBR), year-end 2019 ushered in a host of life insurance product changes. These changes impacted both a substantial number and a broad diversity of life insurance products and pricing — especially death benefit-oriented "permanent" plans of coverage, a market where many of us spend considerable time promoting and selling.  To assess what happened, we completed a survey of this market based upon the carriers Windsor represents.  While many of our observations were similar for single and joint life products, there were notab...