MOTIVATIONAL MOMENTS
(a collection of thoughts from the best of the best in NAIFA)
Compiled, edited and researched by:
Michael A. Aun, FIC, LUTCF, CSP, CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame
President, NAIFA-Central Florida
My good friend and one of my many mentors, Van Mueller observed, “If you steal from one other person, it is theft. If you steal from many, it is called research!”
Follows some of the latest and greatest research I have been able to find. Special thanks to Knights of Columbus Field Agent Daniel Biggs, LUTCF, FICF, a Board Member and Past President of NAIFA Miami-Dade for sharing this with me to pass along to you.
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WHAT is important to you (about money, from financial perspective, or other)? WHY is THIS important to you? What is your PLAN? (Let them tell you)
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“If you continue to do the same things you’ve done for the next 5 years as you’ve done for the last 5 years, will you be where you want to be?”
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R.O.I. = Reliability of Income (not return on investment)
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Would you be interested in “winning by not losing”?
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LONG TERM CARE
A retirement plan is not complete if you don’t (or unless you) have a plan to pay for the care that you need. What is your plan?
Do you want your family to be the physical, hands-on providers of your care, or do you want them to simply oversee your care?
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DISCUSSING HYBRID LTC/LIFE POLICIES
What did you eat for lunch? (They reply with a combination of things). Why don’t you just throw your entire lunch in a blender; blend it up; and drink it? (Yuck!) Then, why do you want to do the same thing with your insurance? You need to obtain protection for what it is intended to protect (your life and long-term care separately)
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IRA’s
Would you rather pay taxes on the seed, or pay taxes on the harvest?
It’s not about the math. It’s about the consequences of a decision!
Most investments ask for a dollar and promise a few cents; life insurance asks for a few cents and promises a dollar. Investments take principal and return interest. Life insurance takes the interest and promises to pay the principal when it is needed most.
Tom Hegna
When explaining “Sequence of Returns Risk” – When you’re saving, you are dollar-cost averaging. When you’re in retirement, you are dollar-cost ravaging.
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Ben Feldman’s Power Phrases
“Doing something costs something. Doing nothing costs something and, quite often, doing nothing costs a lot more.”
“Every man has problems that only life insurance can solve. In the young man’s case, the problem is to create cash. For the older man, to conserve it.”
“If people understood what life insurance does, we would not need salesmen to sell it. People would come knocking on the door. But they don’t understand.”
“You’ll have the same problems when I walk out, as you had when I walked in…unless you let me take your problems with me.”
Mr. Prospect, I would like you to consider buying life insurance not because you might die, but because your wife and children must go on living.
Mr. Prospect, you say life insurance is a lousy investment. Do you think RENTING is a good investment? (Response: NO). But it does give you a place to live . . . right? (Response: YES)
Mr. Prospect, life insurance can guarantee your family will ALWAYS have a place to live.
Mr. Prospect, you say you cannot afford mortgage insurance. Tell me, do you carry homeowner’s insurance? (Response: YES… the loan company requires it.) Would you carry it if they didn’t? (Response: YES – if I had a fire and the place burned down, I’d still owe the mortgage. Mr. Prospect, you may not be aware of this, but the chances of you dying before your mortgage is paid off is 15 times greater than the chances of your home burning down, – and your family will ALSO STILL OWE THE MORTGAGE.
Mr. Prospect, when you hear of a person deserting their family, you think that person is a mighty poor type of citizen. Leaving a family through death is obviously not a person’s fault, but the financial outcome to the family is no brighter than if he or she had just walked out.
Mr. Prospect, suppose that you didn’t get paid this week or next week, or for several months? How would you get along? Could your family manage any better if your salary NEVER came in again?
Mr. Prospect, you say that the cost of living makes it impossible for you to buy more life insurance. Will the cost be any less for your family when they don’t have your income to use?
Mr. Prospect, life insurance costs money, yes! LACK of life insurance costs even more. Lack of it could cost your family their home and your children a fair start in life.
Mr. Prospect, you speak of life insurance as a luxury. Do you consider food, clothing, and shelter luxuries? . . . They are what life insurance provides.
Mr. Prospect, do you protect yourself for the possibilities and neglect the certainties? There is only one fire for so many fire insurance policies, but there is ONE death for EVERY life insurance policy.
Mr. Prospect, you say that it takes a minimum of $1,000 a week to run your household. Therefore, when you say NO to this policy, you are saying YES to the proposition that your spouse will be able to find $1,000 a week somehow after you are gone.
Mr. Prospect, other investments ask a dollar and promise a few cents; life insurance asks a few cents and promises a dollar. Investments other than life insurance take principal and return interest. Life insurance takes the interest and promises to pay the principal when it is needed most.
Mr. Prospect, if you think you’re having a hard time getting by on your salary, how well do you think your family will get by without it?
Mr. Prospect, if it’s worth 9 to 10 percent to live in a house now. Would it not be worth one percent more to be sure that your family can always live in it?
Mr. Prospect, a husband couldn’t write a more sincere love letter than an application for life insurance.
Mr. Prospect, whatever reason you may have for not starting this plan now, how ridiculous will it sound to your widow?
Mr. Prospect, your child may have a ‘right’ to a good education, but it’s going to take MONEY to exercise that right.
Mr. Prospect, if you save as much money in the next 20 years as you’ve saved in the past 20, would it be enough to take care of you for the rest of your life?
Mr. Prospect, every 17 minutes someone buys life insurance who will not live to pay the second premium.
Mr. Prospect, if you wouldn’t want to live the rest of your life on the face amount of your present insurance, why do you expect your family to?
Mr. Prospect, you would give your life for your children, why not insure it for them? Wives may not believe in life insurance, but widows always do.
Mr. Prospect, if you knew you were going to die tomorrow, you’d get the money to pay for this policy somewhere, wouldn’t you? How do you know you won’t die tomorrow? Said a fatherless boy graduating from college: He doesn’t remember his father, but thanks to life insurance his father certainly remembered him.
Mr. Prospect, when life insurance is really needed, it can’t be purchased at ANY price.
Mr. Prospect, by purchasing life insurance it enables you to immediately accomplish what would otherwise take a lifetime.
Mr. Prospect, the monthly checks will be signed by the insurance company, but your family will know that they are really from you.
Mr. Prospect, if after you die you really could look down from Heaven and watch your family grow, will you . . . or will you be too embarrassed to look?
Mr. Prospect, it is an inescapable fact. Most married women will someday be widows. The average age of a widow is 57.
Mr. Prospect, you have collision insurance on your car. Don’t you realize that if you have an accident, chances are that you’ll be behind the wheel at the time?
Mr. Prospect, life insurance is the only way that people can make their wills before they make their money.
Mr. Prospect, you’d give a dollar a day to keep an old person in dignity, wouldn’t you? Well, why not do it for yourself?
Mr. Prospect, death is quicker than inflation.
Mr. Prospect, if you die, the bank pays you what you saved. Life insurance pays you what you meant to save.
Mr. Prospect, how much would YOU charge for the right to all your future salary checks?
Mr. Prospect, you DO have a right to gamble with your future, but do you have the right to gamble with your family’s future?
Mr. Prospect, we have every reason to believe that you can qualify now for this additional life insurance, but we have no guarantee of your insurability in the future. By waiting you have nothing to gain and everything to lose.
Mr. Prospect, you don’t want CHEAP coverage. You want something better than cheap for your family, don’t you?
Mr. Prospect, you said that this plan doesn’t pay enough interest. I think we’re talking about two different things. You’re concerned about the interest on your money, while I’ve been discussing your family’s interest in your future income.
Mr. Prospect, do you have small children? The probability that someone your age will die in the next 10 years is 5%. How do you know YOU won’t be that one in 20?
Mr. Prospect, what you say is true. Money WON’T buy happiness. On the other hand, it won’t buy POVERTY either.
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A LETTER FROM A WIDOW
“THE WORD ‘FOREVER’ WAS ENGRAVED IN THE GOLD BAND I PLACED ON THE THIRD FINGER OF MY HUSBAND TOM’S LEFT HAND THE DAY WE WERE MARRIED . . . ‘TIL DEATH DO US PART WAS CLOSE TO THE TRUTH.”
“It is now four years since my husband’s death. In the interim, I have had opportunities to meet and talk with other widows, all of whom were candid about their finances. I learned that these widows fell into three distinct categories:
(1) Those who were able to maintain the same comfortable standard of living they had known when their husbands were alive.
(2) Those who found themselves even better off than before.
(3) Those who were struggling to make ends meet.
As different as the situations were, however, I saw a common thread. The financial status of each widow was in direct proportion to how much life insurance the husband had carried.
In the wake of my own badly shattered life, I have learned to pick up the pieces and to accept the fact that, despite of what has happened, life goes on.
Happily, I can say that the quality of my life falls well within my comfort zone, and for the most part this is because my husband lovingly planned for my life by wisely allowing his insurance agent to give him direction to that end.”
Sincerely,
A Widow
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