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August 04, 2002 at 08:00 PM
The Feds have moved onto our turf–and we agents have to protect it. Yes, the federal government is promoting a new long term care insurance plan to current and retired federal employees, both civilian and military, and their families.
In total, a whopping 13 million Americans are eligible, and theyre being bombarded with direct mail urging them to sign up. Thousands of enrollment meetings will be held in 2002.
You could say this is bad news–a real threat. Agents cant sell the federal plan, which undoubtedly will attract customers we could have written.
But its bad news only if you lie down and figure you “cant fight the government.” Actually, this is the biggest opportunity for selling LTCI.
Millions of Americans will for the first time learn about the costs of long-term care and the need for insurance protection. Since the first job of any insurance salesperson is to educate and create the need, the program is doing a lot of our spadework.
To turn this threat into a great opportunity we must get before our clients and prospects and let them know we offer LTCI–and that they really ought to do some comparison shopping before they go ahead and buy the federal plan blindly. It would be a real shame if your clients buy the federal offering when they could have gotten a better plan from you–but didnt ask because they didnt know that you offer LTCI.
While the federal plan is competitive, it isnt an invincible juggernaut. Agents can usually find a better plan in the private market.
If you havent yet segregated your clients by age, do it now–obviously, you dont want to waste phone calls or letters trying to sell LTCI to clients in their 20s. However, dont make the mistake of thinking that LTCI is only for the elderly. While people aged 60 to 74 are your prime market, baby boomers are increasingly more concerned about long term care–both for themselves and their parents. I recommend contacting all clients who are in their mid-40s or older.
