Is It Your Job to Encourage Clients to Stay Healthy?

I see articles and press releases about it all the time – there’s a greater need for awareness about preventive care and healthy lifestyles. And it’s true. Not only will utilizing preventive care help your clients make the most of the insurance they’re already paying for, having routine doctor’s visits and living a healthy lifestyle will also help keep their premiums low. Everyone knows that sick people are more expensive to insure. But if they’re healthy, they’re easier to insure, less of a risk, and therefore their costs will stay down. It should be simple, right?

But whose job is it to tell clients about the importance of healthy living? Part of that job certainly falls on the doctor. During preventive care visits, physicians can tell patients whether or not they’re getting enough exercise and eating the right foods. They can encourage the patient to schedule a follow-up appointment immediately so that the patient doesn’t forget. They can urge everyone they see to come in whenever they feel sick or spot a suspicious mole or bump.

And part of the job definitely falls to the consumer themselves. They need to get off the couch and onto the treadmill. They should remember to choose a salad instead of a hamburger sometimes. And if they have a conflict with their annual check-up, they need to remember to reschedule.

But agents absolutely have a role in all of this as well. You are the financial advisors. You are the link between healthy living and saving money. Only you can show prospects and current clients that there is actually monetary value in staying healthy. If you work with individual clients, encourage them to make the most of their health plan by visiting the doctor for as many preventive care visits as they can. If they live longer, they may also get more out of their annuities or other policies that they purchased through you.