Brandon Roberts

Reinsurance is a topic few consumers–and not that many more agents–come across. It does however play a serious role in the underwriting process, and that role has a lot more to do with every day operations than most people realize.

Most agents understand reinsurance as a means for a company to insure against the possibility of paying a claim on a policy it has written. And this is a very good rudimentary understanding of the topic. There is, however, a lot more to reinsurance and understanding this can help both agents and consumers when it comes to selecting a life insurer, and in navigating a tricky underwriting situation.

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Oh April is coming, and everyone knows what April brings. For those of us in Yankee Land, you might think SPRING! But unfortunately the bitter end to short days covered with depressing grey filtered sunlight and the all too occasionally annoying snowfall (I really don't know why I still live up here) would never be complete without that ultimately frustrating moment when Uncle Sam rolls up and reminds you that income you thought was yours (you did “earn” it after all) is just something you share with him. Like an annoying ex-wife or spoiled kid who never stops rolling up to the trough, April 15th rolls around and says, “money please!”

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The waiver of premium rider is a mini disability insurance policy that covers the premiums due on your life insurance policy when you are sick or hurt and unable to work and therefore unable to pay the premiums due on your life insurance policy.  This rider helps many Americans keep their much needed life insurance coverage during one of the most financially stressful and perilous times.

But you should know that this rider can vary considerably from one life insurance company to the next.  It also varies considerably between types of life insurance (e.g. the rider often works differently for whole life insurance than than it does for term life insurance).

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Though we've talked about it in other venues, I just realized we've never spent time here on the Insurance Pro Blog discussing much about AG 38 and its impact on the industry. That ends today.

Guaranteed universal life insurance has always been a somewhat boring topic to me from a daily professional life point of view. It doesn't fit all that well into my usual paradigm of life insurance plan design, and as a result is often skipped over (rightfully so) by me. However, purely from a thought exercise point of view, guaranteed universal life insurance is quite possibly one of the most fascinating products the industry has ever dreamed up.

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Warning: I should preface this post by warning our readers that this is mostly directed at our fellow life insurance agents.  However, if you're at all interested in the industry and it's inner-dysfunction, you'll probably be interested enough to keep reading.  This post is not intended to be arrogant but it is direct and truthful.  You've been warned.

Competitive intelligence in the insurance and financial services world can be the deciding factor between us and our competition.

I can't begin to tell you the number of times we've either been in a competitive situation, or have been contacted to assist with a competitive situation where it was apparent the client didn't care about who could present the better product.  They were much more concerned with who appeared to understand the complexity of the problem and had the competence to understand the solution.

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