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July 19, 2001 at 08:00 PM
Heres a Way To Put `Life Back Into Life Insurance
By
While Americans have many different opinions and viewpoints, there is one issue that we all seem to agree upon: We will beat the odds of dying a premature death.
Face it, life insurance sales are often so difficult because individuals refuse to accept the fact that they are going to die anytime soon. Like procrastination, humans have a natural desire to avoid unpleasant thoughts like death.
As you will see, producers can redirect this type of thinking if they know what to do. Well look at some ideas on how to do that here. But first, well recap the prevailing attitudes.
If you really have a passion for the insurance business, you already know that as a country, we are vastly underinsured for life insurance. According to a recent survey by LIMRA International, Windsor, Conn., 38% of United States households believe they are underinsured.
But if you ask individuals under age 60 when they expect to die, most, if not all, will say, “In my 80s or early 90s!”
For those above age 60, the prediction may even extend beyond that.
This is certainly understandable, given that average life expectancy has increased dramatically in the U.S. over the past 100 years and that new mortality tables are expected to be unveiled in the next couple of years that will extend life maturities well past age 100. Some futurists are even predicting that children born today could easily live beyond age 100.
However, those are broad-based trends. The job of the insurance professional is to help clients understand todays reasonable expectations and the data that is relevant to the clients own projected mortality.
