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January 02, 2014 at 01:48 PM
For Todd Stein, a difficult family experience led him to the field of long-term care planning. When he was 33, he watched his grandmother enter a nursing home with dementia. She would stay there for 13 years until age 102, surviving on Medicaid. When he was 40, he learned his father had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, which would take his life just five years later. “I knew I could help families not go through what we went through,” says Stein.
So with a passion and desire to help families understand the importance of long-term care and asset protection, Stein began his career at LTC Partners & Insurance Services, LLC, a national organization of long-term care insurance professionals representing many of the major carriers, where he currently writes policies.
But what makes Stein so successful in a segment of the insurance market with a product that is notoriously hard to sell? According to the producer himself, it’s due to the fact that he doesn’t actually sell. Stein says those who struggle with selling LTCI are trying too hard to sell it. Sounds counterintuitive, but in his case, it works.
“I don’t think it is so hard to sell if you stop trying to sell it,” Stein says. “I look at it as helping people make the best decision for themselves and their families. Some will buy, some won’t, but they’ll make a well-educated choice when I’m done talking with them.”
Stein also realizes that LTCI isn’t right for everyone. His job is to sift through and connect his client with the best solution for them, “which may even mean advising them not to get coverage at all,” he says.
Stein says LTCI is a needs-based sale. He helps navigate the client through the world of LTCI, asking them the right questions and letting them know the consequences of not having coverage. After this, they realize they, like most of us, do need coverage.
“Before I ever get to quotes, I ask them if they see a long-term care need as a real possibility that they face,” he says. “I then get agreement that if that need arose, it could be devastating financially and take away their independence, and if the premium is affordable, they agree that they are better off having a policy than not.”
