8 great takeaways from NAILBA 33

At NAILBA 33, speakers and attendees exchanged information that is most pertinent to the insurance industry.

Among the topics covered were: New ways to serve clients and differentiate your firm; thinking differently about cash accumulation products; and social selling—how to prospect and generate leads with LinkedIn, just to name a few.

On the following pages, we’ve condensed the show to eight great takeaways that you can implement in your practice or commit to memory as you continue on your journey to serve clients. A missed message

I think that we as a financial services industry have done a marvelous job of talking about retirement as a critical need for the future. Unfortunately, we’ve missed the message for protection and that consumers in every generation know that they need more life insurance. As an industry we need to find ways to help the consuming public act on their beliefs.—Jim Kerley, president of LL Global Services and Chief Membership Officer of LIMRA, LOMA and LL Global.

Filling the advisor gap 

We need carriers, insurance organizations, marketing groups, and NAILBA members to find ways to encourage the younger generation to enter our most admirable profession. It must become a priority for all of us. Our country is grossly underinsured for life insurance, disability income, and long-term care. Advisors are now relying on our firms when they venture outside their comfort zone, and we have to be prepared to assist them in many ways the days of old did not bring.—NAILBA Chairman Barbara Crowley Keep it simple

There’s no way the consumer would say, “Oh, let’s devise the most complicated product and buy it from a guy who can’t explain it to me, that involves an accountant and an attorney and an actuarial person.” There is no way Mr. Consumer woke up one morning and said, “Give me that, give me a product that is so unforgiving that if I pay my premium 15 minutes late, it completely deteriorates the product.” We have to listen to these people and figure out how to develop what they’re actually looking for. This isn’t working that well, it’s time to change.—Michael Tessler, Brokerage Unlimited, Inc.

The generational advisor

We have many generations we are serving. We need to be more aware of what’s relevant to each type of consumer. What certain semantics should we use for certain situations? Maddock Douglas and LIMRA did a study on just that. All of us in the room have to educate ourselves a little better. It’s so important for us to be relevant and address each age group. We can’t sell the same way to the same people all the time.—Melinda Meyer, ValMark Securities, Inc.