Increase Your Premium By Peeling Back the Layers of Need (Ep.68)

Hello and welcome to Life Insurance Academy Podcasts where we believe that any insurance agent with the right training, tools, and community can be successful. I'm your host Austin Lopes of Arrow and I'll be taking you into the conversations of top producing life insurance agents so that you can level up your business, increase your profit, and maximize your impact. To be the first to know about new episodes and announcements, check out LIApodcasts.org/updates or subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Life Insurance Academy. Welcome back to another episode back in the seat. So good to be here with you all. Is that seat still fit you? This seat is actually a little different. You made some changes here but that's alright. It's a recliner. The last one was recliner. Now we have stool f***ing anyways. Good to see you all today. We're talking about peeling back the layers of need but why is this important to agents? Where can they see this applying to their business? Well, the first thing is here's, have you ever wondered when some agents you see in the agency or the leaderboard seem to always sell larger policies? So they have bigger face amounts, you know, sometimes between 15 to 25,000, larger AP, but always the same number of apps. Yes. Oh no, I don't wonder it. I know why but for the sake of argument, I say, I appreciate that. Why the heck's that happening? Well, Zach, it's all diving into need because then you see these other agents or you may be in your car right now thinking, well, that's true because I'll write the same apps as Billy Bob over there. And Billy Bob's crushing it, dude. Billy Bob works hard. He does. He does. He's very driven. But he has the same number of apps but the premium is way lower. Yeah. And that's a big effect and it's all about peeling back to layers of need. It's finding out the true value and then understanding that as an agent but not just understanding it. It's helping your client realize it. I will say this and in this conversation, the thing I hope people are hearing at the start of this is there's not Billy Bob does not have superpowers. That's, that should be the title of this podcast. Billy Bob does not, he is normal just like you person. Average person. Billy Bob knows a skill set and a process and he implements the process. I had recommended a book recently to an agent and they had said, Chris, this is, this is blowing my mind because I used to think this was like, you know, magic. I'd see other people talk about it. But now I see, oh, there's a system in place for this. So this, this podcast is a system podcast and you can write more premium that sticks. Would you like to write more premium that sticks? Yeah. That's what I want to hear. That's what this podcast is. It's easy as it is off the chart. Oh, man. Because they're not different than you. That's what you need to hear. I mean, that's what I needed to hear. You know, when I was starting, like there were people who had, you know what I've heard. Chris. What's that? That need, need is like onions. They cry? No. They, they, they yellow in the sun. When you leave them out, no. Well, what about parfait? Oh, here we go. I was like, where's he going with this? No, need has layers, donkey. And he's got a green shirt on. He's corrected. He's sure I shared onto that. He's sure out of that. You did, dude. You did. I just quoted it in my best delivery, but I cheer you. Got it. Good job, buddy. Good job, donkey. And then to peeling back those layers of what need is and how are we going to make these people some more money? Absolutely. So one thing we have to understand is we can undersell a policy. We can definitely undersell a policy by not having or realizing as an agent and then translating that to our client to the full needs. So we may go into a home and only take care of the barrel coverage and we'll get to that as far as the layers go. But we're over there just surface level trying to get a policy and leaving where on the other side of that, Chris might come behind me and sit with that same client for whatever reason they may have filled out another request or he's just that good looking because he's working with that face. But he may come behind me and sit with the client and not necessarily worry about that surface level or basic need, but he may be listening and diving in and revealing all the layers. And what that does is that's going to open it up to the client that there's so much more that they weren't aware of. And all of a sudden now he's going to write another policy on top of that or a lot of times he'll end up replacing mine because it's a better value and an overall better for the client in that situation. I built my career off of replacing Zach's policies. No, you didn't. No, you probably never replaced one of my policies. We can bet on that. We're trapped on them. It's just you do the mouse trap and pull it. As soon as you open the policy review it shoots income. Ah, he did it again. But it's important because you want to write the proper amount of business because that takes care of your client for the long term and takes care of all their needs not only now, but in the future, but and you also don't want chargebacks, but you can oversell a policy, Chris. You can oversell a need that may not be there and you can over price a policy to where it's doesn't really fit and it's not sustainable. So then you get a chargeback on the other side. Yeah. And this is true for whether you sell face to face. This is true whether you sell over the phone. This is true for mortgage protection, vinyl expense. This is cross industry. This is true everywhere. Yeah. It really is. Our goal here is to be able to read the client situation and find where need, value and affordability intersect together and to find that perfect little combination. Okay. Say those three again. Need, value and affordability. They all come together and intersect. That's going to be your perfect policy. That's perfect, man. Good stuff. The nerds, that's the center of the Venn diagram. Everybody just jumped off. I know. I'm sorry. Okay. So we're out. All right. So where can we find this need? Where can we build this need up? Well, the first thing is a client obviously sends a request in, right? At some capacity it could be any type of leads and check out our leads podcast. Chris, what's the lead real quick? The lead is an opportunity to talk to somebody episode 47. I'm just kidding. I was throwing out random episode, but yes, it's an opportunity to have that. Maybe we can answer that and drop the episode. So the next. It'll go. The episode 66. Absolutely. Absolutely. That was pretty good, by the way. Thank you, man. I was close. That was. Not really. You should listen to 47. I don't know what it is, but it's great. It's all great. Oh, they're all great. But the reason they really do that is because they're curious. And a lot of times as an agent, we can assume they know exactly what they want or they know the exact, they can identify the exact feeling that's inside of them and that's not true. We just know there's a curiosity and there's a vulnerability and they may not even be able to put words to what they're feeling or why. And so that starts our process of peeling back the layers of need. And the first one, Chris, is simple. This is the one that everybody thinks. They may think there's only one layer and that's having some sort of burial or cremation expense coverage. Just for that amount. Right. Yeah. Typically, we're going to say that the cost on that, I mean, this is their external need. We've talked about that several times. What the possibility of this is, but this external need, the cost on that is going to range from what we're going to say, eight to $12,000. Sure. Sure. And then it could range, depending on your area or depend on what the client, you know, the client's buddy, they have at the funeral home that everybody seems to know somebody. So understanding that, but it's the most obvious. It's the external need. It's the surface level need. And it may be, it's what it was possibly on the lead, right? Yeah. I mean, it said something about final expenses. It triggered it. And the same is true on the mortgage protection side. Absolutely. So it would be taking care of your home in case of a death. Yeah. That would be the case. It is the obvious external. Absolutely. So the number one layer here is burial cremation expenses. It's the simplest. There's so many agents out there, so many agents that I train that literally, they go into a home and that's their only goal is to sell a burial or cremation policy. Here you go. Here's your prices. Which one's best for you? Perfect. Great. We'll get you taken care of. And they never take the time to listen. They never take the time to analyze or get to know the clients to figure out what that situation is. It's really a mindset shift because we're not necessarily protecting it's a burial or protecting it against a cremation. We're actually protecting that beneficiary from a burden. Yeah. Which is a whole lot different mindset when you come to think about that. And so that's going to lead us into our second layer, which is beyond taking care of that initial burial cremation. It's going to go right into taking care of the future cost of that burial cremation. And that's really putting a little inflation cost and setting expectations. We need that accounts for the Bitcoin US dollar cash that's going up. So it's just going to keep going. So that's really good. When you talk about it, we'll see you next time. about inflation costs. Like, what is, what is it when you're teaching your, the agents, how to have this mindset? How are they, how are they figuring that out? Like, are they just going to pull a number out? Like, hey, you're going to live another 20 years. And we both know that the cost of a burial is going to be $700,000. Is that what they're doing? Because you're going to sell a lot of that. I feel like you said that before. But my AP was like, on that one was like 15 grand a month. Oh, I'm kidding. Oh, you get away with more than most agents could buy far. Yes. I mean, especially in a nested little off topic, we go to the door and like, how long is this going to take? Oh, just about six hours. I do. I do that for real. I do that. You do. But the way to teach that is, is again, we can't tell our clients that we have to help them realize that. So one thing that I like to do, and this is all inside of our no close presentation, that is amazing. So this walks you through this anyways. So it honestly, if you're unsure how to do this, the presentation does it for you. That's the good thing. So I want to ask them, I want to give them usually the average cost of a burial and cremation, which is generally between eight to $12,000 in the burial side and cremation. Really, you know, could be five to eight or one on the cremation side. But I want to ask them, who have they lost, who has passed away, and I'm trying to gauge an idea of how much they think it costs because I don't want to get into, no, it's this, no, it's that or I have a buddy that really doesn't matter. That's not what we're here to talk about. But once I get an idea of what they think it costs, then I'll say, yeah, and that's today's cost. And they're going to be like, yeah, and I'll say, now, Mr. Jones, I don't plan on you dying today, Dewey. He's like, oh, no, not at all. So we need to make sure we have enough coverage in place for when you die, not necessarily today. Because one thing I don't want Mr. Jones is I don't want you to have to call me in another five to 10 years to see, hey, man, the price has went up because everything's going so crazy that we're going to need to add a little bit more coverage because that's also going to be based upon your agent health at that time. And right now, you're probably as young as healthy as you'll ever be, right? And he'll agree with me on that. But I use some statistics inside of that, which is also on the no close presentation. And I'll let him know, I'll say, Mr. Chris, the average man lives to about 77, 78 years old. The average woman lives to about 81. And then I'll do a little math based upon their age. So if our client, you know, 65, you know, say, just on average, you have another, you know, probably about 12 to 15 years on average, as far as living. Now, in 12 to 15 years, Mr. Chris, do you think that that funeral cost is going to stay the same or do you think it's going to go up more? Where's that? Absolutely. Now, now just curious, what in milk cost when you're a kid or what was gas or 38 cents? Right. A nickel, right? So then I'll make it related back to something real and something in their life. And it kind of makes it a fun little atmosphere. So what it's doing is it's planning the seed and it's planning the expectation of inflation. Oh, this is the price of today. I probably not going to die today. I don't plan on dying today. So when it comes to taking care of my family, I need to make sure have enough coverage or when I pass not necessarily today. No, that planting seed, you talk about that a lot. And it's almost like a, you're creating a fomo or a fear of missing out on providing for their family. Absolutely. Because at the end of all, this like when you really understand final expenses and you really understand taking care of families or any sales, we're not selling a policy. We're providing them. We're selling them the peace of mind of this burden not being left on whoever. Right. So that's the time and the time that's involved in that. It doesn't stop in five years. It doesn't stop at 10 years. The kids will always be kids. Family will always be family. So this is, you know, you're saying this external, the language we use in this conversation that we have is everybody has an external need. They also have an internal need. And that's what that's really what you're speaking to. But helping them understand there's a there's a time process inside of that external need. Yes. And this is the start of that internal need. So right there that already takes you to a whole another level because you may have been thinking, oh, I'm right, and eight to the thousand our policies. But you didn't tell them, hey, Mr. Jones, you need more. Right. You just asked questions, you know, you know, as far as setting expectations of age, setting expectations of price, setting expectations of inflation. And now we're not even showing prices yet because we're moving through ourselves process, which is on our no close, which is the no close presentation. Does it for you? It's awesome. But moving through that there and their mind, they're already, oh, well, I guess I might need more than 10. That's already, it's already setting that for you. And the thing is like, let's say, let's say our calculations on inflation are not correct, right? Well, then their family has more benefit to them, which we'll cover later in the needs. If our inflation calculations, let's say they're like, no, that's bogus or pie, well, then now their family has to make up for that, right? Like it's a win-win. Like you're protecting your family in case and if not, they're not losing out on the year. They die early. They have extra money. Right. Exactly. And here's something to consider. I'm glad you brought that up, Austin, because when we are running leads, we're getting all these requests for information. What agents many times don't understand is that people buy life insurance seven times in their lifetime. And it's because their needs, their needs change. And I can tell you, I've sold a policy, someone's in a card again. Did that ever happen to you? You saw the same. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And there's either something left undone. There was an unsettling. There was something that's still there. I mean, never once in a while you have somebody who just loves sending in cards. That's going to happen. But there's a people that love to get mail. They send me something else and them something back. I'm so happy. Thank you. Absolutely. Thinking of me. But yeah, there's just understanding that those needs, like life isn't static. I mean, things change. They're they have grain people get married. People have kids, people have grandkids. They move into a house. Yeah. They get a car. They see someone close to them pass away that didn't have enough. Their kids went through something. They went, anyway, I'm getting ahead of it. So go ahead. You're getting excited. I kind of like it. I kind of like it. So then that moves us kind of into our third stage. So for one, we have a layer one burial on cremation cost, which is basic. Two is setting the expectations that that burial on cremation is going to cost more. And number three, it's going to be any bills or any debts that are left behind from them passing away. And I tell my clients all the time, I say, Mr. Jones, we typically don't pass away healthy. There's usually some type of hospital bills. There's some there's some an ambulance ride. There's there's other things that trickle and come in that your family, you know, that you're going to be your sponsor before taking care of. And nobody dies perfectly on the first of each month where their car insurance is taking care of their mortgages taking care of like it's always mid-month or sometimes where there are leftover bills that need to be taken care of as well. So setting the expectation on that. So if you can imagine your client here, they're thinking they're filling out this car. They're going through it. They're thinking, oh wow, I just need 10 grand. That's it. And I just want to know your price. That's all I care about. I don't want to go through all of that. Well, then the other thing, the reason they're thinking that is they see stuff on TV. And for TV, they see a number. That's what it is. They see a number to pay. That's it. They don't. The TV's not uncovering these needs. Oh, absolutely. They're not putting them back these layers. So for them, like that's all they're feeling initially. Absolutely. So they're thinking, wow, all I need is 10 grand. They're thinking, oh, I might need to, I might need a little bit more because it's going to cost more when I die. And then I think, oh, I didn't, I didn't even consider medical bills or other things. If I don't want my brain to fall in my family, well, I want there to make sure there's enough. And I want to make sure that they're not left with any medical bills or deaths following my death as well. So that leads you to your third knee. This is a practical piece, too. That a lot of agents don't consider. And maybe because that's hasn't been a personal thing for them. But in my family, I've seen this happen a couple of times where where somebody had passed, there were there were medical bills or nursing home, for example. And, um, you know, the government's going to get, they're going to get days, right? They're going to get theirs. So they, they will take the property, they'll take the property. And I can't tell you the amount of pressure that they put on the beneficiaries or, you know, the, uh, who's left behind to take care of everything. I mean, it's letters, uh, you owe this much. Um, hopefully the property sells for this much. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's intense. So you're dealing with loss and you're dealing with that. And people don't, um, you know, many agents, they, they have the tunnel vision, especially when you're starting of, and, you know, external need, $10,000 policy. Well, you know, there may be small $150,000 house that's been in the family for years, you know, that you want to keep in the family and, and give this somebody to bless them or something like that. And now you're getting letters from the government that are demanding much. - Like holy cow. - Yep, some of it's also pride, right? Like, you know, if they're thinking, okay, if I pass today, do I want my family to see all these debts and then they have to handle that, right? Like, there's also the pride element in this. So like, Chris, you talk about all the time. Like, what do good people do? - Yeah. - Well, they take care of things so that their family doesn't have to, which speaks to a family. - I don't know what they do. - Feel it's awful. - Feel it's awful, yeah. - Yeah, so that's the third layer of need that good people do these things. And man, you hit that nerve and good stuff happens. - Yep. So now we move to the next layer, which is four, which would be the really the loss of income. So now that we've taken care of the burial, we've taken care of the future cost of burial and just making sure that's fully taken care of. And any medical bills or debts that are going to be associated with that client passing away, we want to now make sure that the living is taken care of. And these are the people that we live behind. So this would be for the surviving spouse to supplement that income loss because typically, what I see, Chris, is in our market, there's two things I know. They're usually on a very fixed or limited income. And it usually takes about all of their money working together, sometimes multiple family members working together into one home to make ends meet. There's not a lot of families that we sit with, particularly in the final expense market, that put a bunch of money in their savings account every month or seven in a shoe box underneath their bed. It's usually pretty much month to month. So when considering that, let's say you have a husband that makes $1,200 a month. And let's say you have a wife that makes $800 a month. Well, the way Social Security works is the surviving spouse would receive the larger of the two Social Security's. For example, if the wife passed away, the husband would maintain his $1,200 Social Security because it's larger, but he would completely lose his wife's $800. Now, if it was reversed and let's say the husband passed away, good news, the wife would receive the $1,200 because it's larger, but again, they lose the $800. So that $800 might not seem a lot, but that $800 is $9,600 a year. $9,600 a year that makes ends meet in that household. Do you think that's important to that family? - Oh yeah. - It's incredibly important. So beyond final expenses, beyond the future cost of bail, beyond medical bills and debts. If one of them passes away, they're not even even. They're not even back to where they were when they were living because now they're $9,600 a year in debt. Now, if they're, let's say, 65, how hard is it gonna be for that surviving spouse to live another two years? That's almost 20 grand, right? What about five years? And they're just 70, right? The average man lives to 77. So think about the loss of income over just a five year span, let alone a 10 or 15 year span. What's that gonna do to them? What's that gonna be in their environment? And if you're listening, I really want you to think about this because this is what we talk about painting that picture and helping your clients visualize and see what is going to happen combined with some of the really good, deep questions. Again, that are in the no close presentation. This is going to help your client realize the different levels of need that this is a whole different ball game because you may have been with your wife for the last 40, 50 years together and you've always been your best friends, been your soulmate and all of a sudden, you pass away, she's homeless because she can't make the monthly bills. Now, it's great, you did an awesome job 'cause you already have a policy in place for 15 grand. I don't need anything, I'm good, I got 15, we're taking care of. That would, a lot of agents would shred their shoulders and walk away. A lot of agents, and Chris, I know they call you up, now they were good, they already had coverage, right? But he's not thinking, he's not realizing, it's because the agent doesn't realize, that's great, but what's the quality of his life with his wife, if he passes away? What's his wife gonna do? So the home they lived in for 30 years, she's gonna have to now sell it. She's gonna lose everything, she's gonna find somewhere to live. She now only makes $1,200 a month. How's she gonna live off that? Who is she gonna live with? Hopefully there's kids or family members that are there, but they're gonna be stuck in a situation. I don't think that's ideal for your lifelong partner. This is supposed to be your golden year, these are supposed to be your retirement, she's supposed to enjoy the rest of her life. And I don't think that's the situation, and families or agents don't think about what comes next, beyond that. - These are those things that we say, they hit an emotional funny bone. - Absolutely. - Like, since there's something's off, when they read the lead, when they read final expense or mortgage protection, but they don't have the language for it at this point, and this is giving them the language. So when we ask a question, like Mr. Mrs. Smith, do you understand how social security works when you pass? The chance to answer it, we're not telling them, it gives them a chance. Most of the time they don't know, they are completely unaware of this. So it's a news flash for them. And back to that philosophical need, I mean, what spouse wants their spouse to go live with the kids? No, it goes back to that. - Or about to figure that out. - Most of time, their kids can take them. - Has kids, and they're in a financial situation trying to make ends meet on their own. So it becomes a whole world, man. And then that moves us into the next level. Yes, Austin, it does go deeper than that. - Man. - Right? - We're tiering up from this onion dude. - We are people of the layers back. - And it's getting sweeter. - Well, when we're done, it's gonna be a bloomin' onion. Because your income will be bloomin' as well. - Let's get this off. - They will. - And we're not sponsored by Outback's day, huh? - We should be though. - We're coming out loud. - You gotta be on the remember. - We have a full number. - They should probably check this podcast out. But then we now we move into the next layer of need, which should be five, which is. - To assist you in launching your insurance career, the Life Insurance Academy is now excited to announce a strategic partnership with Excel Solutions. Excel is the top provider for life, accident, and health insurance, pre-license training. 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LIA, you can get the course for just $99. This exclusive discount is available for life, health, and accident courses, or even a combination of these. You can go to LIApodcast.org/excel. And Excel spells x-c-e-l. That's liapodcast.org. That's our Life Insurance Academy podcast homepage. You can go liapodcast.org/excel. You can get it there. You can also find it on the Life Insurance Academy.org homepage in the upper right corner. So if you're going to be launching a career in insurance, or if you know anyone who is, you want to ensure the highest pass rate, the first time, send them this code LIA to receive this exclusive discount. Get the code, get licensed, and launch your career. Now we move into the next layer of Needwood should be five, which is having some sort of emergency fund. So let's assume we have enough for burial. Let's assume we have enough for future cost of burial. Let's assume we have a little bit extra in our policy to take care of any debts or any bills that are coming associated with death. And we have a good plan put in place to protect loss of income. Okay? Now we're looking at some sort of emergency fund. So this is the first opportunity. The first opportunity we're able to help our clients get ahead. Everything up, all four of those layers of need so far, is just to put them back in the same situation that they are in right now, pre one of them passing away. This is where you're able to leave a little bit of extra money to pay off the car, right? Pay off the remaining balance of a home to put a little bit of money in the savings accounts for a what if or an emergency. And if you don't think that is important, for families to have, look at your own bank account. If you don't have money in there, you know the feeling I'm talking about. If you do have money in there, you know the feeling I'm talking about because that's why you have money in there, right? Because the unknown happens. Crap happens. As soon as you pay off your car, it's something, something goes wrong with it. I mean, it's just, that's the way it is. And nothing ever went wrong. There would be no sense to be the things that you get a built-in chicken coop. And then you put rice in this week, right? And then the flat screen TV. He said you tongue drywall for the first time and your chicken coop. Not for the chin coop with recess lighting. You are taking us so far. Sorry. He's good at that. Just so this is the little bit of nest egg for your spouse. To be able to go ahead. You can't catch it. He's trying. You said that's it. He said nest egg. It was perfect. It was a perfect segue. You liked that. I loved it, man. You sure? You're soft. You're going, you're good. You sure? You got it. Perfect. Again, it's that little bit of nest egg for you, Chris. To be able to have that money set aside for there and to be able to pay for any of those unexpected needs or, you know, anything going on. And then it leads us to our very last need, which is leaving a legacy for the family. So after all those other needs are taking care of now, you can set a sad money for the kids, for the grandkids. You could put a policy in place to leave all 10 of your grandkids, $1,000 each, or, you know, $5,000 each, or all three of them, $10,000 each. Whatever you want to leave is a gift. It could be to a church. It could be to a child, a grandchild, an organization, a fundraiser. It's really then you're able to give back. The amount that this hits into that philosophical of like, what do good parents, what do great parents, what do good grandparents, what do great grandparents do. When you think about, you know, this word legacy, how are people going to remember you? Right. How is your name going to continue on? Is it going to be, man, daddy passed in, you know, it really, our family didn't know what to do. We had to figure out some finances. We're still trying to recover that. And, you know, he wouldn't want it to be this way, you know, or is it, you know, daddy passed, but he took care of us. He would, he, he's still watching out for us. Yeah. My, my kid is going to go to college because, you know, daddy was thinking of us, right? Like, do you hear the difference? Like that, that is what we're talking about. These, these layers of need. This, um, leaving a legacy short version of this, I was in Louisiana writing with an agent and sat down with this, I think I lifted it, trailer on his sister's property. And we sat on his sister's porch and talked with him and this chicken kid coming on the property. He's like, I'm going to shoot that chicken picked up a handgun that was laying there. Bam right on the porch. My ears were ringing. He shot the chicken. Oh, they have to check him. He missed it. He missed it. Like, this is wild, right? And we're sitting with him. You know, yes, chickens, right? I know. I'm sorry. I didn't want to tell that part of the story. We're having this conversation. And he's, um, you know, he has a policy. He's had it for a while. He's not even sure why he sent it in. I'm just letting the agent kind of run. It's quiet. You know, it's like, there wasn't much core. Just watching and letting him do this and talk about his family. And then it comes out that he's got this daughter. He didn't know he had. Didn't know it. And she found him on Facebook and they, she lives in Ohio. And they started to connect and all of a sudden, they're really close. That's blew me away. blew me away. He's like, I just, I'm not, I don't know why I sent that in. I'm sorry. I wasted your guys time. But I'll tell you what, I do some cartoons. And he wanted to show us this cartoons. And he pulls out this book and we're looking through his cartoons. And we went into his trailer because we're sitting on this. It's just fortune. I said, no, is that, is that your daughter? You visited with? He said, yeah. And I said, Mr. Smith, you missed a lot of time with her. Didn't you? He said, yeah. I said, I'm guessing as a dad, you haven't had very many times to do something special for her. Have you? He said, no. Have you ever considered that could be possible that you could do something special to say, I love you one last time? Talk about it. I talked to him about the policy. It's like sign me up. That's what he said. Sign me up. That was, yeah, dude. It was, it was a powerful set. It was a great moment. And he was so excited when we left. But it is that moment of looking past. I wasn't going to sell him. We weren't going to sell him a burial policy. No. And so what you, like the cool thing is, is in your mind, you understand and you're going through this checklist of need. And you're never quitting because you're going all the way down to it. And you're able to stop and you're able to find the need in the last layer there, which is really legacy. And the whole goal here is we have to help the client or our perspective client to paint that picture of their family of their need. And we're only able to do that if we see it as agents. We can't think, oh, well, there's only burial cost and inflation cost, right? They're never going to see beyond that. They're never going to understand the effects of the loss of income. They're not going to understand the effects of bills or medical bills or having a little bit of savings account, emergency fund, or even leaving a legacy of the family. They don't even know its options. And it'll never trigger that emotional, that internal need that you hit there. You hit them right on their emotional funny bone, as you like to say, and to really help them and benefit them. Correct. So the one thing, I do this with pretty much everybody that goes through our final expense training course. When you pour the bourbon and you haven't taste it and they're like, what is this? And then you walk them through and like, oh, there's notes of this and you say, this is uncovering need and insurance. Is this that day? This is exactly that day. I like notes of vanilla and lemon. I didn't even know how you do. It's more. We'll be having another course sounded up in two weeks. It's like, it's an allergy actually. It's kind of like that. But I kind of send them on this little insurance trip here for a minute. Okay. And so I do this exercise with them and I say, okay, Chris, you're an insurance agent. He's like, I know, I know. I was like, so Chris, you're an insurance agent and you help families and your goals to put the proper plan in place, right? It doesn't seem, it seems normal, right? It means true. But the insurance that you help clients with is completely free, completely free. It doesn't cost them a penny whatsoever. So go ahead and take it out of your mind. Well, they've got to be able to forward it. It's eliminate all of those excuses because exactly price is an excuse to me 100% is always an excuse. So everything is free. They don't have to pay a penny. But the only way they get approved for the plan is if you is the agent, feels out the application and identifies their true need and exactly how much coverage that they that they need. Okay. Can you say that so that an agent can practice this? Just say that one more time, simple steps. So you're an agent and your job, you work for an insurance company. So you're let's just imagine that you get paid another way. So it's not about the cell of policy. All right. So just, you know, don't you can pay your bills. You're fine. But the insurance that you help families with doesn't cost a penny. So it's all free for the client every bit of it. But the only way they get approved for this plan is if you find out the exact amount of coverage they need, the exact amount of coverage that they need. And if it's not the right amount of coverage, they won't get approved and they won't get any insurance. That's good, man. That's good practice. Yeah. Now half a user that's easy. Give them a million dollars. No. For you that just said that, no, honk your horn twice because that's income. You can't do that because they won't get approved. You have to understand this layer of need. So now then I paint the situation. We have a couple here. And you guys can do this with me. We have a couple and they're both age 65, male and female. All right. The husband makes $1,200 a month. The wife makes $800 a month. They both want to be buried and they don't have any insurance in place. All right. I want you to tell me exactly how much coverage the wife needs. And then I give them a couple of minutes to do that. Okay. All right. So if you guys are listening, you can have a couple minutes. Do that. Pause this podcast and pick it up here in a second. Austin gives me that when we try to burn a couple of minutes. So he won't be able to do that. So after we go through this, some of you may come up with this answer. And the probably the answer that I get the most, what do you think it is? 10 to 15,000. Close. What do you think it is? I'm going to say, oh, I've been listening to Zach. 25,000. But I cheated. I gave him the podcast before we did the extra. I should probably done the extra as the front. But yeah, they say about 15 to 20,000. And I'll say that's great. I was like explain to me exactly how you got there. That's great. And if you can't, then you're just you're throwing the dark, you're throwing darts in the dark is what you're doing. You're going into homes, you're picking number, you're talking to families, and you're just writing numbers down and hoping they pick them. You want them to show their work? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. You can't say next to that one girl who's really smart in this. No, you can't. And so what that realizes is, in a lot of agents do it, is you're going and you're just guessing and it doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make sense 'cause it doesn't line up what they really need. It doesn't really make sense for the burial because they're thinking, well that's way too much from a burial, you're not explaining or you can't explain why it's 15 to 20. You're literally writing down a number and hoping that a client picks it. And you won't have conviction, you won't have confidence, and you're praying that they'll just pick one and you'll write the policy, but you don't really know why. You don't know why. And that can really affect your persistency 'cause somebody that does know why it comes behind you is gonna be able to really help the client. - So there will be questions. Like when you ask me that, like this situation, my questions are, you know, do they have a mortgage, do they pay rent, do they have debts, do they have, are they supporting a kid, do they make a car payment? - Do they have kids, do they have grandkids? - Yeah, there is a lot of levels you can go here. Just if you focus on the layers needs we talked about in this episode, this is what we're gonna find. All right, and we can agree, we're gonna get in a ballpark, but I'm gonna show you why it's about. - You have a reason behind your number. - Exactly, and here's the reasons. It's walking through this mental process with your client. It's like a checklist while you're in the home. Somebody do some math for me here. You can do a type of table. - Yeah, my job. - So let's say if we're looking for coverage for the wife here, okay? And let's say she wants to be buried. And we'll throw out a number. We'll just say, we'll say 12,000. We'll say 12,000 is a great number. All right, 'cause it didn't cost her, so we don't have to take the cheap burial and go to 10 or 8. So we'll do $12,000 for the burial. What's our second layer need, Chris? - It's going to be inflation. - It'll be inflation, the future cost. That's a number that we really don't know what it is. So we have to take our best educated guess of what it is. I mean, I know you're saying, well, there's actually things out there, but they're guessing too, right? They're basing enough studies and there's different inflation sheets that people use. But we'll say, if they're 65 and she's going to live to 81, that's another, you know, 15, 16 years from now. Okay, 15, 16 years, we'd probably say, you'd probably be good with a good $20,000. Would you agree with that? - Yeah. - Okay, I think that's fair, okay? So we'll say, now our number, I'll tell you the number is up to 20. Okay. Then we look at our next layer need, which is bills and medical debts. Now, we don't want to get crazy here. We have the typical bills and medical debts that we're talking about, what's saying could be, depends on, you know, kind of what their health history is and what they got going on. But I would say a good amount of this would probably be another 3,000, 3,000, 4,000, right? Just to be safe to take care of any-- - That's pretty low, but-- - Yeah, I was going to say, probably eight, but this is my plan. - Right, but I keep this low 'cause I want you to see what my final number ends up being in its all on the low side. - We'll say four. - It's all very conservative. - Okay. - So we'll say 4,000, so our total number is, we're at 24,000. - 24,000, okay. Then the next is gonna be the loss of income. Again, we ask the questions, we go through it. That loss of income is $800 a month, right? - About 10 grand. - $9,600 a year. - Now-- - One year is 10,000. - One year is $9,600 bucks. The wife needs this coverage, so let's say the pass away. That's 15, 16 years. Realistically, nobody's ever gonna write a policy that's gonna cover 15 years of loss of income as well. But what we can do as agents, that makes sense to our clients. It's we can provide two to three years worth of loss of income so that the wife or the husband, whoever surviving, has enough time to figure out their next move and put plans in place or refinance the house or do a reverse mortgage or do what they need to do to make the adjustments. - It's a value on time. Instead of the next month missing house payments, missing bills, not knowing, and still grieving. Still grieving. I mean, the loss of a partner that you've been with for 50 years, you expect next month to make drastic changes and move out to the other thing you have. So we're buying time. So let's just say three years of that. It's 9,600 times three. - Round up to 10. (laughing) - So let's all right. - We're 54,000. - We're 54,000. - We're 54,000 right now. Okay. Honestly, how many of you listening right now, your number was below 54,000? - Austin's was. - Yes. - Probably almost everybody's honestly, 'cause you don't really think and hopefully right now we're painting your picture. - And that's fast to day one, we're even today. We're square today. - Now we're even. Now we're, yes, we're back to where they're still living, but for only three years. Remember we're being very conservative on this. The next step is to set an emergency fund. So ideally, how much would we want to put in a little stash to think about repairing the home, the water heater, the roof? - Probably five. - Water leaks different things. - So five. - On a conservative F. - Yeah, $5,000. We'll go with that. - All right, 59. - So we're at 59,000. And everybody agree that these are low in each category. It could easily be 10 grand of a nest egg. And over 15 years, 10 grand of savings is nothing, right? Car payment, so things. So now we have the opportunity to leave a legacy. And this number is where you really want to put a big question mark, 'cause it's really, I know this policy's free, so do they want to leave it to their kids? Do they want to leave it to their grandkids? Do they want to leave it to other family members? So this number can really be anything. So obviously if it was free, we're probably gonna say, maybe $5,000 each, and you can pick the number of grandkids. I don't care. - Well said. - We're even looking at 15,000 there. - We're at 74,000. - Right, so when you talk about this, the level of need and the level of that you build with your clients and the value that you create, it's not, you're not manufacturing it. It's there. This is real life. This is a scenario we painted pictures on. Obviously if you get to know the client, you're gonna get so much more specific and really be able to identify. But if you have the agent understands that every single home that you go into, they need about $75,000 to $100,000 each. And you paint that picture? It's really easy to build value on them getting enough that they can afford. 'Cause once you add, when we talked about need, value, and affordability intersecting, once you add the affordability, 'cause there's not very many people that you've seen or couples that you set with that you wrote $100,000 policy each, have you? - No, but you do. - Of a whole life permanent coverage. - No. - No. It's not gonna happen. And it's not gonna be, it's not gonna be in this demographic. But that doesn't mean we don't build the value on that. That doesn't believe we don't paint that full picture of that amount. Because when you do that and when the agent sees that level of need, then $20,000 is the client has to do. - At least they can do. - It's the least they can do. They have to. They have a higher value on it. They're gonna do as much as they can comfortably afford, instead of what's that $10,000 policy cost. - Does that tell the listeners how they can sell this free insurance that you're selling? (laughing) - There's somebody listening who's like, Zach said something about free insurance. - I tell you, this is free insurance because this is a free mindset training right there. - There you go, I love it. - And what this will do for you, if you implement this and you think about it, and you take the time, and when you're presenting those prices, and you have a reason, so you have logic and emotion behind what you're presenting, you're now a real advisor. You're really helping the family and it makes sense. You speak with conviction of that and you paint that picture of what will happen to their family in these scenarios. They're gonna be on board with you and they're paying for premium and they're gonna be happy to pay for it and your bank account's gonna go up to your welcome. - That's the free insurance. - The free insurance is right there. - Awesome, well, to review it, the layers of need that we talked about today, peeling back the onion of need. One, burial or cremation expenses. Two, the future costs, a burial or cremation expenses inflation. Three, the bills and the debts that would be left behind medical bills. Four, loss of income. How are they going to continue to live without having that income coming in? Five, the emergency fund. Is there something that it can be applied for so they don't get in a bind? And then six, leaving a legacy. What does that mean when they think of your name after you pass? - Absolutely, stop selling insurance to start protecting families. (upbeat music) - That's a wrap for today's episode. As always, thanks so much for listening to Life Insurance Academy podcasts. You enjoyed this podcast. Make sure to subscribe wherever you're listening. Greatest five stars. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Life Insurance Academy. We also have our YouTube channel. Subscribe on that YouTube channel, Life Insurance Academy and you'll get all of our new videos, including the video version of this podcast and new training videos. The Life Insurance Academy podcast is hosted, edited and mixed by me, Austin Lopes-Obero. This episode was produced by Roger Short, Chris Paul, Zach McAwey, and myself. Our theme song is by flashing lights. We'll catch you on another episode. Until then, stay safe and go be a different smoker. (upbeat music)