Nothing is more stirring than the swell of the Indiana Jones theme music as Harrison Ford comes to the rescue just in the nick of time. The locations are exotic, the heroine beautiful and our hero handsome and rugged.
In adventure movies, the characters in need of rescue usually have no idea how to escape their predicaments. Sadly, the same may be true in real life. How many of your working clients know that disability income insurance can help them escape the financial predicament of an interrupted income due to a disability? Disability insurance may not be as glamorous as Indiana Jones but it can certainly be the hero for a client facing a disability.
Shifting trends for employer-sponsored disability plans
Defined benefit retirement plans have essentially disappeared. Employer-sponsored disability insurance may be following a similar trend. Today, only about one-fourth of working Americans have access to group disability products through their employers. More than half of the employers that currently include disability insurance in the benefit package are considering a move to voluntary coverage in the future, according to research from Prudential Insurance Company of America. The market for individual disability insurance continues to grow.
Telling the income protection insurance story
Attracting clients to disability income insurance is challenging. Too many of us think of disability as something that rarely happens and when it does, it happens to someone else. Yet the Social Security Administration predicts that 25% of working 20 year olds will experience a disability during their working years.
Millennials, the largest growing segment of workers, seem to understand the financial vulnerability of an interrupted paycheck but they don’t understand the financial products available to ease the situation. They need your expertise to tell the income protection insurance story.
LIMRA studies suggest that the complexity of disability insurance prevents consumers from making the decision to buy even among consumers who researched the product on the Internet. Most disability buyers did so only after a face-to-face conversation with their financial professionals that included a needs analysis.
The needs analysis can be an effective tool to position income protection insurance as the financial hero. Paint the picture of the client who is prepared for the financial uncertainty of a disabling illness or injury because of the decision to purchase income protection insurance. Telling the rescue story is much more effective than telling a tale of disaster.
Check out the DIS article, Words that work: Part II as you prepare for your client meeting. Your DIS representative will provide quotes and product information to complete your presentation. Contact us today.
