0:04

Hello and welcome to assurities podcast

0:07

tips from the insurance pros. In

0:09

this series we talk with sales pros

0:11

as they share ideas and insights

0:13

that you can use today. I'm

0:15

your host Matt, and today we continue

0:17

our series on critical illness insurance.

0:20

I'm here with Chet Marco , a health insurance

0:23

broker and owner of Texas family health

0:25

plans and smart choice benefits. Welcome

0:28

Chet. It's great to have you here with us today.

0:31

Thank you. I'm excited to be here. I love

0:33

the surety .

0:34

Well, Chad , can you tell us a little bit about your

0:36

background and your company?

0:38

Well, I've been in the business for about 25

0:40

years. Uh, been one of the

0:42

top agents , uh , with just about

0:45

everybody. I've been associated with loop

0:47

one time. I was , uh , the top

0:49

agent in the nation. Um

0:52

, an assurity has always been a big part

0:54

of my portfolio, so I'm excited

0:56

to give my tips on critical illness.

0:58

Well, we're excited to hear them. So

1:00

in your opinion, how have recent changes

1:02

in health care and healthcare law impacted

1:05

critical illness sales?

1:07

Um, I think it's had a huge impact.

1:10

You know, back before Obamacare,

1:12

we sold a tremendous amount

1:14

of critical illness and

1:16

you know, I had about a hundred agents and

1:18

when Obamacare hit and we went all the

1:20

way up to the open enrollment,

1:23

not even knowing if we were going to get paid

1:25

for selling health insurance.

1:27

A lot agents ran for the hills.

1:30

And with the way that obamacare's

1:32

been skyrocketing and everything

1:34

like that, it's less, a

1:37

lot less room to add critical

1:39

illness. So one of the exciting

1:41

things is kind of as we've watched

1:43

kind of Obamacare spiral out of control

1:46

and you know, in the throws of dying

1:48

, uh, there's been a rise of

1:50

, of Christian sharing or health

1:53

share that has brought the premiums

1:55

back way down and offered

1:57

us a chance to really begin

2:00

to sell critical illness again.

2:02

And it's been an exciting thing. So,

2:04

you know, kind of with the opening

2:07

to that or even people that can't afford

2:09

health insurance at all, you know

2:11

, uh , we have some clients that are

2:13

just using critical illness, you know,

2:15

is their healthcare because that's all they can

2:17

afford. So critical

2:20

illnesses back and we're excited about it.

2:22

How do you go about approaching prospective

2:24

clients about the need for critical illness?

2:27

Well, my market,

2:30

what I found is that

2:33

there's a tremendous need for critical illness

2:35

with a lot of people don't take into account

2:37

these small business owners or people

2:40

that are single, you

2:42

know, couples dependent upon each other's

2:45

incomes over people , uh

2:47

, afraid about digging into their retirement

2:50

funds. You know, like with singles,

2:52

you know, one of the questions I asked them, as I

2:55

said, if you go down with something major,

2:57

who's going to take care of you and

2:59

you see this kind of panic look come over their

3:01

face, you know, like they haven't even thought

3:04

of that question or it's a

3:06

fear down deep inside business

3:09

owners have the same fears.

3:11

You know, one of the questions I ask

3:13

business owners is I said, hey,

3:16

if you went down for six months to

3:18

a year, what would happen to

3:20

your family? What would happen to your business? Not

3:22

just shut up. I just listened . They

3:26

realize , and you've kind of brought it to the forefront

3:29

that if they go down, you

3:32

know, they can quickly end up in bankruptcy.

3:35

You know, you have couples out there that

3:37

are majorly dependent upon

3:39

each other's income . So if one of them went

3:42

down, the other one wouldn't be

3:44

able to pay all the bills. Older

3:46

people, you know, they have the same

3:48

problem too. Most of them are

3:51

living more or less paycheck to paycheck and

3:53

what money they have put away. They don't want

3:55

it all blown with one

3:57

illness right before they hit retirement.

4:00

So when you bring these things

4:02

up to people, they immediately

4:04

understand that they have need

4:07

and critical illness is a way to

4:09

give them tax free income

4:12

and it will keep them afloat if they go down.

4:14

You know, a lot of people that

4:17

go down with the stroke or a heart

4:20

attack, you know, I just recently went through something

4:22

like this with my dad. You

4:24

know, it takes some time to recover

4:26

from those illnesses. You know, they're

4:28

not killing us the way that they killed

4:30

our grandparents, but they

4:33

will put you down for a period of time.

4:35

You know, my dad had a heart attack and

4:37

it's taken him almost six months to

4:39

recover a , my pastor had

4:42

a stroke and

4:44

you know, it takes a while to recover from the damage

4:47

from a stroke and people

4:49

are surviving these things. But

4:51

if they don't have any money to pay their bills,

4:53

even though their health insurance is covering

4:56

all the medical expenses, you know,

4:58

they're in as still is desperate

5:01

a situation with no money.

5:04

What are some common objections that you run into

5:06

when trying to sell critical illness insurance?

5:08

And how have you learned to best deal with

5:10

these objections?

5:12

Well, you know, I think one

5:14

of the biggest objections is money. You

5:16

know, just the having the extra

5:18

money because health insurance is become such

5:20

an expensive thing. Some people object

5:23

to any extra money other than the health care

5:25

. And then the other thing is people

5:27

just thinking they're young and bulletproof. You

5:30

know, when , when you creep into your mid

5:32

forties and fifties you know, a lot

5:35

of people have had a frame go down, people

5:37

in their twenties and thirties you know,

5:39

all their friends. That's never happened. So

5:41

sometimes with the young people I have a hard time

5:44

and then the other objection is money. And

5:47

so, you know, I've learned to

5:50

kind of let people sleep and

5:52

one of the ways I've learned to do that is I have

5:54

a couple stories, always

5:56

meet with the husband and wife, but I'm sitting in front

5:59

of them and I'll say, I'll just ask

6:01

them. I said, what would happen if

6:04

you went down for six months to a year? And

6:06

I just shut up and

6:08

you see him , you know, kind

6:10

of stewing and the wife gets a

6:12

panic look on her face and the husband,

6:15

you know, he starts Kinda stewing and

6:18

I asked him again, I said, what would happen?

6:20

Would y'all be able to financially make

6:22

it if you went down

6:25

for six months and

6:27

95% of the time they say, man,

6:29

it would put a world of hurt. I'd have to

6:31

sell trucks, I'd have to sell assets,

6:33

I'd have to do this. And I look

6:35

at him, I go, well we can fix that. I

6:38

can give you something that upon first

6:40

diagnosis of these 14 or 13

6:43

items, whatever it is, you would

6:45

get a check for 50 grand and

6:48

you seem kind of get excited about that.

6:50

I have a , another thing that

6:52

I do, my background

6:55

is I'm a pastor and so there's this Christian

6:57

book called his needs, her needs. And

7:00

on one side it says on

7:04

the man side it lists the top 10 needs

7:06

of the man. And on the woman's side it was

7:08

the top 10 needs of the woman. And

7:11

so, you know, I said, have y'all ever heard

7:13

of that book? And maybe go , no , no

7:15

, we've never heard of it. Then I

7:18

looked straight at the husband looking

7:21

right in the eyes and I said, do

7:23

you know what a woman's biggest need is? And I

7:25

showed up and then after

7:27

he kind of stays for a couple seconds, I

7:29

jump in and say her biggest

7:32

need is security.

7:35

And then I look at the wife and I go, am I correct

7:37

on that? And every time they shake

7:39

their heads, almost like put the sad look on

7:41

her patients . And I said,

7:44

what your wife wants to know is

7:47

that if you do not come home or

7:50

you fell ill with a major illness,

7:53

that and her babies are not going to be

7:55

out on the street. And then

7:57

I turned back to the wife and my correct on

7:59

that and every time she shakes

8:01

her head with this sad look, you

8:04

know it's very important that

8:07

for the security of their family that

8:10

they have a product that's

8:12

going to take care of them if they

8:14

go down.

8:15

Do you have clients who are concerned about

8:18

their high deductible health plans and

8:20

how to cover that cost if a critical illness

8:22

happens?

8:23

Yeah of course. I mean, you know for

8:25

the longest time self employed people,

8:28

that's how they think. You know, they want

8:30

to pay as little as possible for

8:33

their health care . So they, most

8:35

of them want high deductibles.

8:38

You know with Obamacare,

8:40

blue cross just announced that their max

8:42

out of pocket on every plan is $7,900

8:45

now . So yeah, critical illness plays

8:48

a part in gobbling

8:50

up, you know, that expense.

8:53

Can you share a story about a client had

8:55

a need for critical illness insurance and

8:57

how you helped to fill it?

8:59

I've had several, and I

9:01

haven't had a client yet that got

9:04

cancer, heart attack, stroke, coma,

9:06

whatever it was that

9:08

wasn't extremely

9:10

happy that they had that critical

9:13

on this product. I have one guy

9:16

that I went in and he had terrible

9:18

insurance and I was able

9:20

to change his health insurance

9:23

and get him

9:26

onto a better health care , but he had a wife

9:28

that was disabled and

9:32

with that wife being disabled, the

9:34

whole family was totally dependent upon

9:36

his income. Six months

9:39

after I sold the guy, he

9:41

came down with a very bad cancer and

9:44

he later told me, he said, Chad , I don't know

9:46

how I would've made it or how my family

9:49

would have survived without that. He

9:51

said, you know, I had great health insurance,

9:53

you've covered all my medical needs, but I

9:56

was unable to work for a large period

9:58

of period of time and that critical illness

10:01

kept me afloat and he

10:03

was very thankful. A very loyal client

10:05

. I had another client that

10:07

got a malignant melanoma and

10:10

this was kind of a funny story. You

10:13

know, he filed on his critical

10:15

illness and got a large

10:17

check for 50 grand. And he

10:19

called me up and he gets Chet and

10:22

I said, yeah. And he says

10:24

, uh , I just got a check for 50 grand,

10:26

can I, can I actually deposit

10:29

this? Can I have it? I

10:31

just started laughing, you know, it was like, sure

10:34

it's yours. That's part of the benefit. He

10:37

was super excited. But I

10:39

promise you if you have a client go down and

10:41

they have to use their critical illness,

10:43

they'll be loyal to you forever

10:46

for selling them that .

10:47

There you go. So how has the a

10:49

quick turnaround time for issuing critical

10:51

illness policies helped your business?

10:54

Well, you know, it's , it's nice.

10:57

50,000 and under is non bad

10:59

and you can move it through. And I

11:01

find that the less

11:03

you have to touch a client after you make

11:05

a sell, the better. So

11:09

the nonmedical quick turnaround,

11:11

it's good for the client and the fact that nobody,

11:14

no vampire has to go to touch him . You

11:16

know, cause it's hard to get people

11:18

to get excited about having blood withdrawn.

11:21

And then from the agent side it's

11:23

nice because apps that are

11:25

submitted through the app get

11:27

quickly approved

11:30

and you get paid and you know, and when

11:32

you're trying to hire new agents quicker,

11:35

you can get money in these guys pockets

11:37

makes a huge difference.

11:39

What's the one piece of advice that you

11:41

would share about how to sell more critical

11:43

illness insurance?

11:46

You know, it's , it's a product that

11:48

people don't think of it as a staple

11:50

kind of like they would health insurance,

11:53

life insurance or auto insurance.

11:55

Oh a lot of times it's just

11:58

helping people understand why

12:00

they need it. You know, one of the things that

12:03

I've learned is how many people out

12:05

there have very little in their

12:07

savings accounts and

12:10

you know, live almost paycheck to paycheck.

12:13

You know, one thing about Obamacare, it

12:16

showed me you have

12:18

to ask people's income. So I know what these

12:20

guys make and most

12:22

small business owners and you

12:25

know, make between 40 and

12:27

70 grand. Well

12:30

that's not a whole lot of money. And if you

12:32

go down and can't work,

12:34

you're going to be in trouble in a hurry. You

12:37

know, my , my single people is

12:39

a huge one. I always asked him point

12:41

blank, I said , who's going to take care of you

12:43

if you go down and

12:46

eat , at least if you have critical illness, you could

12:48

hire somebody but who

12:50

can afford to take off six months and

12:52

take care of you. And so

12:55

when you ask people these questions and

12:57

make them think about it, it's almost

12:59

like they're silly not

13:02

to do it. I sell a tremendous

13:04

amount of critical illness. You

13:06

know, I love it as a product. You

13:08

know, it's got great renewals. People

13:11

don't drop it. You

13:13

know, I've got policies that have been on

13:15

the books for years and since

13:17

people can keep it to age 75

13:20

it makes a big difference on them hanging

13:23

onto the product. And you know, when

13:25

I'm dealing with my young people, I say,

13:27

listen, you will never be able

13:29

to buy this product as cheaply as you

13:31

can today and

13:34

you will have need. It's just a matter

13:36

of time. So it

13:38

would be smart to lock it in now

13:40

while you're young and the price is cheap

13:42

instead of waiting until 55

13:45

when you really need it and it's going

13:47

to cost you a lot more. And

13:50

um, the nice thing is, is

13:52

that, you know, when we go in

13:54

with Christian sharing

13:57

or health sharing and stuff like that into

13:59

these clients' houses, you know,

14:01

we're, we're saying eating them 50%

14:04

on their health care and so

14:08

critical illness as a way to claw back

14:10

some of that money in a way that

14:12

benefits them. You know, I think

14:14

it's very important that

14:17

we show it and you

14:19

know, my close ratio with,

14:22

you know, health care and

14:24

uh , critical illnesses, you're probably

14:27

close to 95% because if

14:29

you lay it out correctly, when

14:32

you go to close it or sit

14:34

down with these people to close the deal. And

14:36

this cracks me up because when I do that, his

14:39

needs her needs or I, you know , talk

14:42

about, you know, what would happen to your business.

14:44

I can't tell you how many times I've had

14:46

the wife say, I don't care

14:48

what deductible you take on that health. I

14:51

don't care what other products, but she made

14:53

sure that critical illness is on there

14:55

because that's going to keep us safe.

14:58

Chat , I'd like to thank you for joining us today.

15:00

We appreciate you taking the time to spend

15:03

a few minutes with us as we talk about the

15:05

important role critical illness insurance

15:07

can play in people's lives.

15:09

Thank you. I appreciate being with y'all . Thank

15:11

you for uh , getting this information out

15:15

and to our listeners, thanks for tuning

15:17

into assurities podcast series

15:19

tips from the insurance pros. Stay

15:21

tuned for our next episode to get more

15:23

ideas on successfully selling critical

15:26

illness insurance. In the meantime,

15:28

if you'd like to learn more about assurities critical

15:31

illness product, head over to critical

15:33

outlook.assurity.com you

15:36

can also email us@podcastatassurity.com

15:39

and we'll be happy to connect you with one of our

15:41

regional reps in your area to take a

15:43

deeper dive. Thanks for listening.

15:52

[inaudible]

15:52

for producer use only not for use with the general public,

15:55

not for use in New York. Assurity as a marketing name

15:57

for the Mutual Holding Company, assurity group incorporated

15:59

and its subsidiaries. Those subsidiaries include

16:01

but are not limited to a surety life insurance company

16:03

and it's already life insurance company of New York insurance

16:06

products and services are offered by a surety life insurance company

16:08

in all states except New York. In New

16:10

York, insurance products and services are offered by a surety

16:12

life insurance company of New York, Albany, New

16:15

York product availability, features and rates

16:17

may vary by state.

16:27

[inaudible] .