Over the thirty years or so I have been working in sales, I have seen sales gurus come and go. Their advice sometimes has merit, sometimes it simply does not. Some are genuinely interested in helping others in sales learn what it is people want and need. Others just like the sound of their own voice.

One of the worse pieces of self-proclaimed wisdom is the strong idea that a sales person should never become “an unpaid consultant”.

I could not disagree more. Here is why:

Product – no matter what it is – insurance, financial services, legal aid, plumbing, carpentry … well, you get the idea, no matter what it is – it’s just a commodity.

Customers form their strongest relationships with people who give the most value. In today’s selling environment, what you sell — be it a product or service — is, in itself, the least valuable thing that you offer. In fact, it is probably viewed by most buyers as a commodity
But good advice is something people do not get from very many people. Good advice trumps whatever the product is by a 1,000 percent!

So ask me any question about insurance. I am here to help, even if I don’t have something that will be useful to you. The worst case scenario is I will point you in the right direction. And if I can help you, I will give you the choices you need to make a good decision you will be happy with for a long time.

It’s not uncommon for people to have the view that insurance is like the lottery … a big gamble.

For a person who has never filed a claim, I guess I understand them having this view. However, I want to examine this conclusion for just a moment.

According to information posted on the Internet:

The odds of winning the California Super Lotto Jackpot are 1 in 18 million! Other lotteries may have slightly better “odds”, such as 1 in 15 million! (Feel better now?)  Here is another way of looking at it:  If one person purchases 50 Lotto tickets each week, they will win the jackpot about once every 5,000 years.

How do those odds compare to the odds of an insurance claim being filed?  For instance, what about the chances of ever needing disability income?

If you are currently 25 years of age, there is a 1 in 44 chance you will be disabled and unable to work at some point in your life.  This statistic increases with age, so that, when you are 55 years of age, the chances have increased to 1 in 27!

Similarly, what about the chances of  needing some type of in-home or facility care (non-hospital) when a person gets older?  To answer this, I will quote from the respected, Wall Street Journal, which stated

… a couple turning 65 has a 75% chance that one of them will need long term care.

This high risk can also affect the entire family where the children are at risk of a negative inheritance, also according to the Wall Street Journal.

Along these same lines, The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys did a study and compared the risk of needing long term care with the risk of other financially devastating risks, such as a major auto accident, or a fire in a person’s home. According to that study, the rates of risk were:

• Automobile accident 1 out of 240 [0.4%]
• Fire damaging your home 1 out of 1,200 [0.08%]
• Needing long term care assistance 1 out of 2 [50%]

Of course the chance of dying is 1 in 1 [100%].

The biggest difference between the two “products” is – the lottery appeals to peoples desires, while properly selected insurance provides “Real Solutions for Real Risks”.  Sometimes the real reason we do not make decisions about insurance coverage, is that we “know” we can’t afford all the types of insurance we could buy, so we just kind of dismiss them all.

I am here to help you.

I will never pressure you to buy this or buy that. I will provide you objective and well-researched information to tailor the product to your need and circumstances.  This is true whether you’ve bought insurance in the past, or if you’ve put off buying insurance. I will help youget the best value for your hard earned dollars.

What is the cost of the insurance? Obviously this depends on you and your needs, but one thing I will assure you: it’s a lot less than buying lottery tickets!

Just ask … I can help! Call me at 209-390-1163 and I will show you the best way for you.

A recent experience got me to thinking…

Our local grocery store is owned and managed by a nice family. The family has been in the community for over 100 years. Apparently they rely a great deal on their delivery people to “decide” what they will carry in their grocery store. I do not know why they choose to do this, but, convenience aside … I think they make a mistake by allowing others to decide what products they will carry.

Why do I say this?

Here’s an example:  My family enjoys a particular brand of Chocolate Chip ice cream.  Apparently we are not the only ones, as it is usually the first flavor to sell out at the local market.  Now, the way I see it – “supply and demand” dictates that if a product “sells out” consistently – you might want to stock more of it and less of some other flavor that doesn’t sell as well.

Not at our local market.  At our local market when the demand increased for this particular item – the ice cream delivery person simply stopped stocking it. This makes his job easier I guess.  So now, when he delivers his stock, there is not as much he needs to unload.  I can only surmise that the delivery man must be a simple wage-earner.

Now I assume my local market earns money on each item sold. But I have noticed that they follow this same logic with other popular items they sell.  If it sells well, evidently in order to not have to stock quite so often, they just don’t carry it any more.   I guess your store shelves remain filled this way, you require less personnel for stocking, and the quiet, easy going manner in which you’ve always operated remains uninterrupted.  More time for fishing that way.

Here at mpmyers.com – we do not reason this way. We are here to serve you, our client. This means we are willing to work for you.  We sell you – not what is easiest for us – rather what our clients want and we work very hard to obtain exactly what you need. We take that very seriously, and we have for 30 years.

Next time you have an insurance need – call me. If I don’t have it, or can’t get it, I will likely be able to direct you someplace where you can get it. I won’t try to sell you Rocky Road – when what you want is Chocolate Chip.

My recent post about our personal experience involving Cathi’s aunt’s funeral and the need for final expense was one I especially wanted to write. No one wants to go to a funeral, but death is inevitable and not planning for it is a mistake that only the survivors pay the cost (both emotionally and materially). Fortunately, Cathi’s aunt was an especially practical woman and had things well in hand.

The need for this type of planning simply cannot be overemphazized and its so easy to do! I feel good about being able to help people with this.

Cathi found this blog about the same thing today. They say, when it rains it pours. To have to deal with one family member is tough, not to mention the amount this man is having to deal with, all within weeks of each other. But he does a very nice job pointing out why this type of planning is so very important.

My services are free. The planning instrument is free. Funding can come either from your own sources or through final expense plans or annuities – both of which I handle. (And yes, I am paid from the companies involved).

Can I help you with this?

My wife and I just got back from a trip to her home town.  Her aunt passed away, so we attended the funeral.   My wife’s aunt had things well arranged ahead of time, and so things went very smoothly for the family with arranging for the funeral.

The family was free to concentrate on the things that mattered, remembering her, re-strengthening family ties and visiting with loved ones who were able to make the journey “home” to pay their last respects.  All of the business of funeral planning had been taken care of in advance.

Pre-planning and writing down one’s wishes only makes sense. And one does not need to be “old” to do this.  As it says in the book of Ecclesiastes:  “Time and unforeseen occurrence befalls us all.”  So, it is prudent to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Do you have a Memorial Guide?  I feel so strongly about their importance, that much of what I offer with regards to completing one, I offer without charge (free).

 If a person’s circumstances change, they can update their Memorial Guide as the need exists. It literally only takes a few minutes to make a change.

Some people might say, “Oh, I have that in my will.”

While I highly recommend having a will, it is often the case that a will is not read until sometime after the funeral. One of the benefits of having a Memorial Guide prepared is that it provides your survivors information as to where your will is located as well as other important matters. (If you do not have a will, I can get you a discount on having one made. It costs less than one hundred dollars).

Your Memorial Guide also provides information as to how you are funding your last arrangements. This could be money you have that is set aside for this purpose or you may have funeral insurance* – a form of life insurance that is designed to provide funds quickly.  All of this important information is contained within your Memorial Guide.

*Funeral insurance is low cost and often available even in situations where traditional life insurance may not be possible.  Ask me about it, and I will be happy to tailor a plan to your specific needs.

I’m here to help you with this. I offer the Memorial Guide and advice free to all who ask for it. Give me a call or email me and I will provide you with your free Memorial Guide.

When people think of life insurance, many think of the time when they are raising their children, and this is a very good reason to purchase life insurance. When young, a reasonably large amount of insurance may be purchased for $25 to $40 per month. Nothing equals this for value in protecting one’s family.

However, life insurance has many uses, and at times what is a type of life insurance is thought of differently. Here are just five areas where life insurance may be utilized to accomplish a persons goal …

1. To assure a mortgage is paid, even if one dies prematurely. Various riders may also protect one’s income while sick or disabled in some way.
2. To provide funds for the children’s education and/or their future insurability (they will have insurance even if they later developed some sickness). The best part is, this is at a very low cost. It is not uncommon for Grandparents to fund this as a gift to their grandchildren.
3. To provide money to satisfy estate issues, in cases where a person has a large estate.
4. To provide funds for a buy-out in a partnership (should one partner die, leaving heirs as the new “partners”).
5. And not to be overlooked is the excellent job that life insurance provides in funding a person’s last wishes. Such things as funeral and health insurance deductibles and other expenses that can mount up when a person is ill. This type of “life insurance” can in many cases be issued even when others cannot. And the best part is, these types of “life insurance” do not get hung up in the claims process. They are designed for this purpose.

There are many other reasons to purchase life insurance. The important thing to know is that “life insurance” is a general term that includes many different products. What is good for one situation may not be good for another. I can help you with education on this, so that you will make a choice you will be happy about later.

Planning for things we’d sooner avoid, is never a job anyone finds time to undertake. I personally do not like to file papers. Of course, I am awash in papers, and they don’t file themselves. So typically, I will let them pile up until I “dig in” and then I swear I’ll never do that again, again.

Is there anything we’d like to avoid more than death? I don’t think so. And so the idea of planning for one’s funeral, whereas intellectually we may think it a good idea, … we just have a hard time “finding the time”.

This is why I offer a simple way to do this. It can be done on paper, or on the internet (where it is filed for reference by any funeral home).  And its a free service … well “free” except for your time.

Why is this such a good idea to do this?

1. It frees ones family from making difficult decisions at a time of grief. And therefore, it generally saves money.
2. It uncovers “funding vehicles”. Either cash that is set aside, or life insurance. And where such is not available, it allows a person to plan … often at a very low cost … to fund this event and not create economic hardship at the same time as emotional distress.
3. And it will give you a sense of relief, once done, that is priceless.

Give me a call or email me and I will explain how simple it really is.

In the very simplest terms, final expense insurance is life insurance. Usually, but not always, it is Whole Life insurance. However, although technically what I just told you, it really is different. How so?

The paying of death benefits can take, in most states, up to six months. This does not mean it does take six months, but it may. The death claims I’ve handled have not taken this long. I once was able to get a million dollar death claim paid in a week, but I digress. The fact is it may take up to six months (and I have heard stories where it did) … and the reason you have final expense insurance is to … well take care of final expenses. It’s not like we can wait!

One advantage Final expense policies have over regular life insurance is that they are designed to pay quickly. Funeral homes know this and will often take an assignment of benefit, since they know they will not be waiting six months to receive payment for their services. For this reason (and as I get older and have had to deal with this issue personally) I recommend the purchase of a final expense policy. It is amazingly affordable.

In addition I recommend writing down one’s wishes. This can be done electronically where any funeral home can get the information or on a paper form. I offer both options, free, to my clients.

What can final expense insurance be used for and how much should a person have? Here is a partial list, cemetery plot, funeral home charges, cremation, casket, bills, clothing, opening and closing the grave, death certificates, newspaper announcements, bringing family far away (when they cannot afford it on their own), medical bills, short term living expenses for our surviving family members (until other money comes in) and many other expenses we often do not think about. We may have some of these things paid for, but others we may not. It’s easy to see that $5,000 would be on the low side, with many needs exceeding $10,000 – all money needed virtually immediately.

Final expense insurance is generally easier to qualify for than other types of insurance. I personally offer several choices – utilizing one company or another depending on a persons age and health.

The really good thing is that it takes generally less than an hour to get this necessary business dealt with, and thereby help our family immensely when our time arrives.

What can I do for you? I arrange for you what your desires are, and I provide accurate information for you to decide what you need. I’m here to help. Call me or email me and let me show you what is available for you.

With the aging of the “Baby Boomer” generation, some “facts” we came to take for granted need to be re-examined.

Many of us, myself included, were part of the generation of insurance agents who encouraged the purchase of (less expensive) term life insurance and “invest the difference”. People were spending a lot of money and only getting a small amount of insurance, when what they needed was a lot of insurance and a smaller premium. “Invest the difference” meant that – after getting adequate term life insurance – we would recommend that the “savings” in insurance premium be put in an IRA or some other type of annuity. This recommendation was made because life insurance is primarily to provide for dependents (replacing your income) and to handle your final expenses. Considering this primary reason for the insurance, term life insurance was usually the best option for most people.

Things have changed.

As people grow older, their needs change. They may or may not need as much  life insurance (i.e. the need to replace income lessens) and reasons for having life insurance also change.

Two facts to consider today:

1. Permanent (or what we call “whole life”) insurance has gotten less expensive – in some cases, considerably less expensive.
2. Term insurance is also less expensive and there are versions of it that return all of the premiums paid in at the end of the term (i.e. 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, etc).

For most people there is a continuing need for at least some type of life insurance, if for no other reason, to be able to cover final expenses.

Today, there are many fine choices in life insurance.

The only thing we have to do, is spend a few minutes considering what we consider most important and then implementing our plan. I can help you with the questions you need to ask yourself.  (Sometimes we already have all the answers – we just don’t know what the QUESTIONS are!)

Do yourself a favor, spend a few minutes and let me help you with this.

Call me or email me and let me show you how planning can be a lot less-expensive than just allowing things to happen.