Americo Instant Decision IUL (Video)

good morning everyone this is Beth riffs with Insurance Agency marketing Services I’m a life insurance sales director here at IMs and I am so excited today to have Joanna with us from Americo I love this product um I love everything about Americo from their staff which is great um very uh Midwest company um uh old school life insurance values it’s a all around just a great company so um I will do the normal intro for uh for IMs I know that I’ve got some newbies here registered on the phone and um I’ve got some um veteran agents with us too um it’s going to be an exciting topic for everybody but I do want to let the people that um haven’t done business with us or are new to IMS um to tell you what we’re all about and um maybe give you some refresher information to if you’re familiar with IMS um if you are a new producer with Imes we want to get you started um with production with us um as quickly as possible so that you can see everything that IMS does to get business from um pre resale to submission all the way through the underwriting process and then um getting paid so on annuity business if you hit the level 100,000 in the first six months all the way up to a million dollars of annuity production you can see that there’s different prizes that you can win you can cash out at any time so if you get to the 100,000 level in the first six months and you want to go ahead and take that prize just let any of your sales directors know and we will get that done for you if you want to wait um and um accumulate um to higher levels um we certainly can do that two with life insurance what that means is $110,000 on that first level of Target and then the million dooll level for the annuities would equate to a 100,000 of Target Premium with life insurance or you a combination of both um so we we add them together um that business that you write with us in the first six months we also get referrals from our agents because of our back office support and everything that you get with IMS and we our business is like yours a referral if um you like somebody and you refer them to us that is all around a great thing um just like writing business if you you uh if an a client refers somebody that is the best thing that you can get so we um we want to thank you with a bonus for uh referring an agent and as soon as they’re contracted we would give you the $50 bonus in addition to that you’re going to make money um off of them on an ongoing basis for every um you know for Target Premium it’s going to be0 5% that you get it in a commission single premium life is 007 your index annuity is.2 Z that is not a haircut off the top Street commissions that the referral will get it doesn’t affect your commissions um it’s out of im’s pocket just to thank you for your continued support uh marketing is a huge element to anyone that’s an independent advisor and we want to be a partner with you on that so uh we have a marketing reimbursement program and for every 100,000 of single premium life that’s $200 in your marketing reimbursement uh life insurance 10,000 of Target is going to earn you $200 and every 100,000 of index annuity premium will earn you a $100 of marketing dollars um we have a wonderful creative team that has tons of options and marketing whether it’s business business cards um designing a website uh advertisement um there’s different marketing programs from seminars um to just anything you can think of depending on what type of business that you’re wanting to Target that those marketing dollars can be used for uh we provide everything as far as back office support uh you have 100% access to our website if you haven’t registered before go to Imes inc.com um if you just type in IMS you might see the dog food um website so it’s IMS iamc.com uh that’s going to give you access on the life insurance side to um quote engines finding forms finding underwriting information uh we offer all the case design that you could need on the annuity site as well as the life insurance side um by talking to our life and annuity marketers uh to design the case from pre-screening and which carrier should be the would be the best and the best way to design the case um whether it’s finding the right product um our life directors and our annuity directors can help you with anything that you need case design wise forms at your fingertips off our website um we support you from it says submission to commission but it’s way more than that because we’re we support you on the pre-sale and coaching on how you present that sale to getting it submitted following it all the way through the new business cycle um our case managers do a wonderful job and have a very high placement ratio because of the handholding that we do or um during the process of going through underr and then making sure that you’re getting paid in a timely fashion quickly um and then on and beyond that is um especially with life insurance there can be a lot of service work maybe changing beneficiaries or owners or changing a death benefit um option we can help you with everything on the back end too uh I mentioned the life and annuity quotes that you can do on the website you’re talking to to very experienced marketers on both the life and the annuity side with expertise and um coaching and paperless Contracting which is a huge way especially with all the um a lot of the states being just in time there are a lot of carriers that we can do the Contracting and the application the same day to make that a quick process also um like I mentioned there’s IM in what um.com make sure you register for that um you’re going to get the life tool which has term and G quotes it also has a final expense quote we’re going to talk later today with Joanna again with their final expense product that is on the final expense um quoting engine the sales resource library is huge um I I find something new in there every day that you can read on how to buy work how do I Market to charitable um for charitable giving um calculators all sorts of stuff there um that we mentioned the term quoter um you can have uh forms at your fingertips on our website industry links uh there’s going to be annuity grids long-term care product grids as well uh we are in a world where eapp Solutions has really taken off especially after covid and I should mention that Americo is actually one of the leaders in the industry and getting those types of processes done for us not for us personally but just um the industry in general which um makes submitting business a lot easier a lot less mistakes underwriting goes a lot faster if you’re doing e applications Etc on the annuity side we are using Luma um and Luma does a lot of things um application submission is one of them but there’s also ways to compare a rate and also manage business that has been paid by using the Luma platform Fire Light was what we used before we had Luma um we have them still because there’s a few life insurance carriers that are on fire light the majority of our e application process um is through I pipeline uh and we do have an iGo e app solution um uh icon under products and then life insurance you’ll see the iGo e app Solutions uh icon there that you can um do the E application process and for Medicare we use Sunfire um the few companies that are on fire light um National Western is probably the most used um FNG and allance are on there too like I said most of them are through I Pipeline and there’s a few carriers that we have to go to their website and I know Joanna is going to talk to you about the easiest way that we can do that with um with Amero um I mentioned the creative Services um we have you know everything from branding on the agent solution side uh digital Solutions and also TurnKey Solutions as far as brochures handouts um different marketing programs that are completely designed um for you to jump right in and use the tools for that uh the one really awesome thing that we provide and it’s a free service with our Creative Marketing sister uh Services is a compliment marketing analysis if you’re new to IM or if you um have been with us for a while and haven’t done this or maybe you need an update I would definitely suggest talking to what um either your annuity marketer or your life insurance marketer they will ask you the questions about what’s important to your business where do you see it going um all these things and then they analyze things like your Facebook your link in your website um where you’re spending money now and come up with different solutions that are going to help you get to your bottom line goal um so if you haven’t uh done that before or you want to um please do reach out for to us for that because that’s a great way to get some clarity about where your marketing efforts are going I’m Wealth Management just um rounds out the whole package for IMs as far as what we offer of course we have life long-term care disability we’ve got the Medicare cover the annuities all of that um a lot of agents are deciding to get into wealth management which is a great way to get a steady um uh steady revenue revenue stream into your um business you know selling life insurance sometimes we can have and valleys on that depending on how long the underwriting process we’re talking with Amero today to help fix and level some of that out by adding in products like Americo offers but IMS wealth management is a great way to do that um it retains clients and it also just strengthens your relationship anything that you can add on if you’re a primarily just an annuity person it’s always a good idea to make sure you’re offering other products your retention rate with that client significantly goes up when you can add another line of service even if that isn’t your main expertise or Focus um so IMS wealth management is a way to do that um if you’re new never done anything like that we can handhold you on that there’s ways to get into this part of the business that is not terribly hard and if you are already managing wealth um I know that if you talk with IMS wealth management you’re going to be super impressed um that that team there has got it going on it’s um great stuff um life and annuity academies we run three or four of those a year uh the we’re kind of wrapping up for this year we have one at the end of September um there might be a few spots left for that if you’re interested I would reach out to one of your directors on that and then be watching out for 2025 dates um that we have but that’s a great way to rub elbows with other agents Across the Nation that we invite in um I know as an independent advisor you can feel all on your own sometimes uh IMS tries to help with that by having a friendly staff to work with and a quick um call pickup and all of those things but there’s nothing like talking to other producers and see what’s working for them in the business um to help create different opportunities for yourself in addition to talking with um top leaders in the industry um and companies to talk about Advanced sales and all of that um when it comes to products and for annuities and life insurance uh we run a trip um I would say every year but we actually have an 18th qualifying period which is is really cool um every other place that I’ve ever known it’s a 12 month qualification period uh this is we always have something really fantastic and I think um different than other imos or even carriers offer with the places we um pick so Quebec City is it um next year August 3rd through the 8th you’ve got plenty of time to write sales from you know I guess now if we start business today that’s a 12- month qualifying period and um so I would definitely um talk with your directors and see what we can do to get you on that trip we would love to have you there uh to have stay in uh connection with us um please um look at our Facebook and our Linked In and with that I am going to introduce Joanna I again very very excited about this Co um topic uh they have one of the leading cap rates in the industry uh they have uh instant decision this is especially important in the fourth quarter when um when underwriting processes can slow down maybe with other carriers and you’re trying to get to the you know end of December and getting paid business I fully believe that this is something that you should incorporate in your business um strategy um so with that I will turn it over to Joanna well thank you and good morning everybody I’m gonna share my screen [Music] here so this morning so we’ll do final expense uh this afternoon but this morning we’re going to talk about our instant decision iul um we love this product you know we iul we had it a while back and it just it wasn’t as popular so we took it away and then iuls really piqued a lot of interest with a lot of clients again and we saw a need for an instant decision and we were able to really get that up and out and running um you know very very quickly um you know like like you mentioned earlier um we have been around over a hundred years this is actually our building I am sitting in the penthouse up on the very top floor right now staring out the window um we are familyowned the marman family lives here in Kansas City um we you know we’re one of the largest privately held insurance companies in the country um and we are the first carrier to um come out with instant decision um we kind of do in everything which is wonderful um you know you can potentially submit a policy today and get paid for it tomorrow even we pay out quickly um if you guys participate in the uir bonus this is something that we do twice a year um it runs through November 30th currently uh once you earn 50,000 you first credits um you are entered in to potentially receive an uncapped cash bonus of at least 5,000 um you’re we do have some qualifying metrics though that you have to meet you have to have a six- Monon persistency of 82% or better 12 month of 70% or better and a premium applied ratio of 70% or better um so that’s always a nice thing that we do as well so with ILS you know what’s what’s the what’s so great about what’s the big idea those of you don’t know um this can be permanent protection um the way I sort of phrase it when I’m talking with a client is it’s the it’s the concept of a term but if you continue to make your premium payments and you don’t with make too many withdrawals then the policy can be a whole life policy um so it’s sort of like a term that grows a cash value um it can replace some income it has some living benefits and again this is another instant decision product so when I say that what I mean is we um there’s no medical exams there’s no blood work or saliva um but they do have medical questions and we really are proud of our process when you get into our agent tools site and you go and you run a quote um you get your illustration which you could email to the client if they want to look over it and think about it and then even if they don’t you want to close the deal right away as Brokers we always that’s always the goal um but you go straight into the application okay as soon as you get into the application you’re we are running an identification verification and this is really important for you guys because I’m an ex broker so I know how frustrating it is when like maybe the client accidentally transpires a um two numbers in their social security number we’ve all had that or you accidentally you don’t hear them right and maybe you put a wrong birth date year and then it’s frustrating because then you’re getting emails that are like please verify the date of birth or they s in a picture of their social security cart hey you know clients don’t want to do that and as Brokers we’ve moved on we’re let’s let’s keep going um and so that’s right off the bat that we’re running identification verification um and it is checking like name social address date of birth um and it won’t let you get into the application without verifying that and you’ll be told if something is incorrect it’ll say that they can’t verify the identity and honestly nine times out of 10 is either the social or the date of birth so if you ever get that in an application just repeat everything back to the client and make sure that you entered everything in correctly then you move in to the application and it’s health questions um our IL underwriting requirements are the same as our term products so it is a little more strict than a final expense final expense is a little more lenient but with iul insurances you’re talking about the potential hundreds of thousands of dollars um and you go in we have a signature process which I’ll touch base on here in a little bit super fast super easy I mean you can pick either a text or an email they get a six-digit code they give it to you and that’s in place of their signature you move on um you get through the health questions you get an underwriting decision at the end of it if they’re going to be approved or not and you submit the policy and it’s you’re done I mean it’s that easy it’s so fast um and again instant decision I so it’s permanent coverage like I said as long as the cash value is sufficient to cover the cost of insurance and expense charges so as long as they continue to make their premium payment and they don’t take too many withdrawals or loans against the policy they will have this it’ll be a whole life they’ll have it forever now we can issue new policies on an instant decision from 18 to 75 which is also a little different because like our terms are uh start at age 20 so this is an instant decision product that we’re ble to offer to even a younger group it’s a minimum face amount of 50,000 and maximum of 450,000 again no medical exams they do ask health questions and I will tell you in the beginning of the application even we do initial underwriting and if you guys haven’t written us then what that is is We Run The Millan report which is their medical history and consumer reporting and that goes back or I’m sorry that’s their um prescription and consumer reporting and it goes back seven years okay that’s the milliman report so prescription seven years we also are running their Mi mibb is their actual medical history it is doctor’s visits doctor’s notes diagnoses referrals to um Specialists and that goes back forever so um those are running right off the bat as well and you will get stopped in the application if they’re going to get declined so it’s amazing because I know I’ve spent an hour before depending on the client just getting through the application itself now they’re not designed to take that long and sometimes you can really control your sale and get through it a lot faster but sometimes you have those clients you know you’re building a rapport and you genuinely enjoy and you’re chatting and you’re carrying on and it just takes a little longer and that’s okay um but the last thing I want to do is spend an hour with a client just to get declined um especially because we all know as Brokers you’ve sat there and and you really sold this product and you believe in it and you um you know it’s the best product and then they get to client you’re like oh let me switch over to this one this one’s great too so you know it it prevents you from putting yourself in that position um now you can do loans and withdrawals are available from the cash value and there are some living benefit writers that are just built into the policy at no additional cost so we’re not charging an extra dollar or two per those living benefits those break down to critical chronic and terminal illness uh I’m sure most of you are familiar with what those are but just to kind of touch Bas your critical illness is when um a qualifying event happen so these these are like your major medical events so um a stroke a heart attack uh you get a cancer diagnosis things like that chronic illness is when a person is unable to perform at least two activities of daily living due to loss of functional capacity or they require supervision to protect him or herself um due to severe cognitive uh impairment then your terminal illness um I’m sure you’re all familiar it’s you know if a doctor gives you a terminal diagnosis and they expect 12 months or less before you pass away that’s that um terminal illness and these are determined you guys by the doctor and then they send in that um medical report and we can process that um that claim now the best way to explain how an i works if you’re unfamiliar the way I talk about it with my clients or even with agents when you’re new to ILS is think of it as a bucket you have a money bucket right so you’ve got money going in and money coming out so money going in is the premium payments from the owner and the credited interest from the insurer so that interest is coming from the S&P 500 and depending on how the market does is going to determine their um their interest now I will tell you one of the great things that we do is if the market crashes and it’s not growing then they there’s less risk for our clients so we will not reduce their cash value it just won’t make any money but when the market does well they’re making money so that’s it’s less of a gamble because we’re not reducing anything at any point when money comes out it is like if the client takes a policy loan or a withdrawal and then um the cash value like the the money that goes in does get reduced a little bit just by like the cost of insurance and administrative charges as you know all of us every single day that we live uh our risk increases so cost of insurance does you know it it’s there it increases over time so as an example if we took a 40-year-old male who was a non-smoker wanted a $250,000 policy his monthly premium would be $157 71 cents when you do the illustration when you do the application it will say this is guaranteed not to last before year 31 so what that means is as long as they pay their premiums and again they’re not taking too much um cash value out their policy is guaranteed to stay in place with their full death benefit for 31 years so we have two different um index interest accounts so um you have your point too with cap and then you have your pointto point with participation rate that has no cap and that’s actually the default option in the application because you have option A and option b um and what’s really it’s it’s funny because a lot of times people are like oh which one’s better in all reality what we have seen is that both of them ultimately kind of end up with the same amount of cash value by the end of the the 31 years um but the way it breaks down to sort of explain to those of you who aren’t familiar with an iul um let’s say they did the participation rate like I said that’s the default option and they make their premiums and let’s say the S&P 500 and this is just for the sake of this conversation you guys the S&P 500 goes up 50% well they’re going to get 86% of that 56% or 50% sorry guys so they really have the ability to make quite a bit but if let’s say the S&P went down 10% they’re gonna make we’re not going to reduce anything but they’re not going to make anything so there’s no gamble um this is what the illustration looks like and this is kind of what I was saying like you’re going to see that the um it says the insurance coverage will CE at age 71 or 77 again that is simply stating as long like as long as the market doesn’t crash for the next 31 years straight which has never happened and they leave enough cash value in the policy to cover the cost of insurance it’s not going to last now they can let’s say the market crashed right and it crashed for 31 straight years then that means based on their option that they chose they’re going to have the policy till 71 or 77 but the reality is we’ve never seen the S&P crash for 31 consecutive years so that’s not a problem don’t let your clients be alarmed when they see that this is the sign illustration that when you do the application um you’re getting a text signature okay so this is in place of a wet signature and it is all integrated into the application process for us so it is still compliant okay um they don’t have to get a policy packet let sign it and send it back we have it set up to be compliant that text signature does cover the signature now benefits of your cash value growth is of course loans they can um be taken from the cash surrender value can be repaid while the policy is in forc um otherwise they just get taken from the death benefit when the insured passes away and then the remainder would go to the beneficiary um they can do withdrawals this is how some people actually kind of replace some income eventually is they’ll do like a monthly withdrawal or an annual withdrawal um and that can be taken and then those are not repaid so then you also at some point with an i so the rule is your cash value cannot actually supersede the face amount the coverage amount the death benefit so because it continues to grow eventually it could grow to be equal or more than the face amount so that’s where you could choose to eliminate your premium payments and that cash value could pay your premium and you’d have the policy and not be making payments on it anymore um or it could uh it well it could reduce it or eliminate it sorry that’s how I should say it so that’s a really nice option as well now you guys might want to write these down and agent so our our agent tools that I’ve referred to if you go to tools. americ agent.com that is the actual tool site where you can run your illustrations your quotes and go straight into the application but we have a demo site as well and that demo site is wonderful now I want to warn you when you are doing a application with us do not ever put your own phone number or your own email in like if you have a client and they’re like I can’t open I don’t see the code I’ve got the text and I don’t the six-digit code do not put your own phone number in there I am warning you that is not compliant compliance will catch it and it will be a big problem for you if you are in agent tools like the demo you can so that you could like practice and familiar yourself familiarize yourself with the application go ahead and put your own phone number in there because that’s a practice and that’s not actually running mid or mement it acts like it is so that it simul Ates the experience of the application but you’re not actually submitting anything if you look in the background you can kind of see this red banner under where it says Americo on that computer screen that’s how you know you’re in the demo site if you see that red banner and just to really point out that information in the demo site does not transfer over to the actual application so if you don’t realize that you’re in the demo site and you submit an application you will have to rewrite it into agent tools um because that information does not transfer over it is the easiest process it is so just sort of like blatantly in yourf face steps one two three it’s so simple just read the application exactly how it’s written you’ll become client that way and the questions are basically knockout questions for the most part like if they answer yes um if they answer yes to the questions then that’s when you’re looking at potentially getting declined not and I’m not saying it’s a end all be all like it does ask about diabetes if they have type two diabetes if it’s under control and they weren’t diagnosed under the age of 30 and they haven’t been diagnosed in the last six months there’s just additional questions that you answer now I will say I’ve never seen like if they have diabetes um in addition to some additional problems like I’ve never seen diabetes and hypertension get through at the if they have both um but just having diabetes is not going to be a decline you guys uh you can submit everything directly to America our site runs from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM based on the time zone that your clients is in so you have access to this when we know you guys like that agent hustle that agent life you’re working when the client can make the appointment so it’s available to you all the time again text and email signature options and you use the same username and password for the agent portal that you use for agent tools so that you’re not having to remember even more passwords I know when I was a broker I had an Excel spreadsheet on my desktop of all my password and all of my writing IDs with all of the providers that I worked with because there were just too many um we have a i micro site that is for you guys too if you want to get in there and kind of fumble around in there there’s so much information it’s americo.com there are more training videos there’s sales tools like um reference Flyers and there’s client brochures and all kinds of marketing materials all kinds of stuff you can get into really specific product information and you don’t have to have a agent ID with us yet to get into the micrite or to agent Cafe agent Cafe is phenomenal that is where you can actually get onto agent Cafe and again you don’t have to have a user ID um you can see all of our products and start kind of weeding through all of those and um taking a look at that again even through agent Cafe you can get to agent tools if you are already contracted with us to start writing policies um you can even order marketing materials from there and we’ll send them out to you I mean there’s just a ton a ton a ton of information um and that’s agent cafe.com and then if you guys are already contracted with us um we have an incredible agent Services team so there’s about 35 people down there right now there is an 8800 number that you can call if you’re needing help like right away and that team I mean we have M I used to be on agent Services before I came up to the executive floor and it is um I mean there’s some people that are in licensing there’s some that are in commissions there’s some that are sales support So if you’re having trouble with the agent portal they can help you with that um they’re an excellent team I will say agent doservices americo.com is a fantastic option as well if you’re not needing like an immediate answer um they can check your policy status check your commissions all that stuff you can send that to the email as well they do respond same day it’s usually Within hour or two as long as you have sent your email before 3M central time um and they are phenomenal so utilize those that’s an excellent Resource as well and now I mean I kind of like to just kind of go through and then I want to open it up to questions and I can revisit and go back to different slides if you want but I love the interacting and the questions so I want to open up the floor for that can you hear me yeah Joanna okay um one question is if we if someone could get the PowerPoint today um that you did today um sent over um H to because he had to hop off early um oh and then another question is if you can make additional deposits um so I um I believe the way the illustration software works is that you’re solving to make sure it goes through maturity I’m guessing they’re asking if you can overfund the product okay so yes you do have to wait till after your first year though and you can start changing how much you pay into it but yes you can and that’s actually something we’ve been taking a look at as well once some of the feedback we’ve heard from Agents because we really like to hear from you guys to be honest with you that’s how we continue to get better is Agents have said I’d like to have a way to quote in the actual like illustration so let’s say that $250,000 was $151 but what if they want to pay2 200 a month and still have the $250,000 you know so that’s something we’re we’re looking into and looking at developing but as of right now yes they can overfund but they do have to wait uh for that first 12 months do you know what the loan options are if somebody does like um do are there preferred loans are there variable loans index loans well that honestly there’s more there’s several options that’s going to be more of a conversation to ask with like a policyholder service because it’s going to be so specific to the client and it’s so hard to predict that because because let’s say you write an 18-year-old and their payment is like 20 something dollars a month I mean they’re not going to grow you’re really not growing that cash value really like significantly till about 20 years into a 30-year policy anyway so it gets really customizable and that’s really a question per client with policy holder Services once they’re ready to do that um let’s see what else I was gonna ask you I think that’s it um I’m not seeing any more questions on the on oh wait a minute does the illustration provide the mech amount and if Mech is exceeded does the client lose their tax benefit uh I’m gonna I’m yeah I mean I’m gonna guess that that is we’re trying not trying not to Mech the policy um but company has to warn you if something is going to be a modified endowment contract uh it illustrations Market everywhere like this is Mech status if something had been a Mech and then um all mechs no matter what if they exceed that amount then they lose um they the cash value just basically gets treated like an annuity so if you’re under 59 a. half that’s the 10% penalty and money goes out of the policy um last in first out instead of first in first out um I think that’s it um do you have anything else that you wanted to add Joanna no I mean I’m so excited to be here and and to see you guys again and I appreciate you having me on here again and you say you have one who wants the slideshow I don’t if it’ll go through my email so i’ just have him get on the agent Cafe and click on iul and he can go to the training video from there oh perfect that that’s better um so that’s great I’m always afraid when you get into those slideshows they may not email over right sometimes things are too big for my email well again thank every everybody that attended today I think this is a huge topic that we need to be talking about I’m old school on the life insurance I grew up in the business I’m the fourth generation of life insurance Professionals in my family and I love Amero so much because it has that feel to it it has that like you know grounding of life insurance and uh the family ownership all of that um is very attractive at least to me I you know I grew up with grandparents and parents that took me into to meet Underwriters directly and that’s type of thing so this this is as close to what you’re going to get from any company I feel like with Amero um talk with any of the sales directors the commissions are really nice um for instant decision um this if you’re new into iul and um uh this is a great product to get started with um almost every single company they’ll come up with fancy different indices and things like that that have bonuses multipliers all that kind of stuff um almost everybody eventually transitions back to allocating into the S&P 500 anyway one form of it so um that I love the Indy options that we have here with Americo so um this is a great way to close out the quart last quarter of the year so I’d get real excited with this one um and again thank you Joanna so much I really appreciate it and and everybody for um attending with us today absolutely and I will see you this or well see you I’ll talk with you this afternoon again yes if you um are still listening the final expense portfolio is Rock Solid it’s very awesome too um a lot of people sell final expense for the cheapest option but when claims time comes around a lot of people wish they wouldn’t have picked the cheapest option so um I’m excited um I’m not saying Americo is not the cheapest or anything like that but there’s definitely other value ads as far as final expense and directing it towards Americo absolutely thank you and will talk to you in a few hours all right sounds good bye bye