Education

Save big on CLTC Designations with an exclusive discount negotiated by Thrivent!

Over 30% discount on eCLTC tuition

To celebrate LTC Awareness Month, Thrivent has partnered with the Certification for Long-Term Care to provide a substantial discount on the eCLTC program.

The eCLTC program is the online version of the CLTC program – the symbol of educational excellence in the long-term care industry.

What you will learn:

• The exclusive CLTC philosophy of how to engage clients in a discussion about long-term care that completely eliminates the debilitating objections that your current presentation creates.
• How to create a plan to protect your client’s family from the emotional, physical and financial consequences of providing long-term care.
• How to position long-term care insurance as an essential tool that funds the plan.
• How to overcome every financing objection, including: self-funding (with an emphasis on the affluent), Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA.
• Selling scenarios and case studies that give you the tools you need to immediately increase production.

When you earn the Certification for Long-Term Care (CLTC®) designation, you’ll gain the confidence and competence to discuss LTC planning with clients, helping you better serve customers and increase production.

• A multi-media experience with 24 learning modules
• Includes videos and interactive quizzes
• An on-demand format that gives you total control of where and when you take the course
• The option to pay the discounted tuition in four equal monthly payments

According to CLTC data, graduates write over 20% more LTCi in their first year after earning the CLTC designation. Take advantage of this exclusive discount to invest in yourself.

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Enroll by December 15. Type in Promo Code TFCLTC. Enter right before payment.

“Human nature continues to get in our way. But of course this perpetual uphill battle defines our chosen profession. What I would like to suggest is that this remains a double-edged sword. Perhaps the greatest flaw in our sales history is the propensity to sell what arrived in our briefcase at the moment of a sales presentation. Convenience and expediency continues to threaten our basic fiduciary responsibilities.

Let’s begin with the largest mystery that clouds current sales results. Combo life sales will represent 90 percent of extended care risk solutions in 2019. But what was the true nature of that sale? Was it simply a traditional life sale with long term care/chronic illness furnished as an “add on,” or was it offered as a direct alternative to a request for help with that specific risk abatement? Was the sales conversation a comprehensive one in which all alternatives were described and offered?”

Click here to read more, originally published in the December 2019 edition of Broker World Magazine.

Fairly certain no one will argue with the notion that limitations or restrictions that apply to specific policy benefits can be considered “flaws.” Any benefit that is not complete as presented must be inadequate by definition and therefore “flawed.” What “is” is of course crucial, but what “ain’t” is critical to our professional survival.

A vibrant combo life and annuity market has bubbled to the surface. As predicted repeatedly in this column over the last 10 years. (Sorry, I couldn’t stop myself.) You simply do not want to be the company that does not have a critical illness/long term care combo option. Not having one paints a giant target on the back of any existing coverage. Home office 1035 personnel are vibrating in anticipation. Combo policies have been around forever; truthfully the two birds with one stone story never loses its luster. The corollary truth is equally important: Two risks require two costs. Nobody rides free.

Click here to read more, originally published in the May 2019 edition of Broker World Magazine.

“Suggesting that Americans are unprepared for inevitable future emotional and financial turmoil falls into the cosmic understatement category. Only one in five have a will or any last directives. Just a little over half own any form of life insurance. We are lousy at saving, having an average of only $15,000 put aside. Yet we somehow continue to have faith that a leprechaun will appear at the end of life’s journey and provide financial sustenance for our marital partners, largesse and remembrance for our grandchildren, private rooms at five-star hospitals and beautiful Swedish nurses for our superior one-on-one care at home.

Fantasy is wonderful at a superhero movie. It has, however, always been a measure of your powers of persuasion that allows a small dose of reality to intrude and provide some attempt at planning ahead. Believing that your sales presentation succeeds based on your skills to illuminate financial risk suffers from the same hubris that allows consumers to boast that they bought insurance because they are simply wise and wholly committed to protect themselves and their loved ones. Forgive my skepticism!”

Click here to read more, originally published in the March 2019 edition of Broker World Magazine.

“Like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, we now live in a world of “combo” confections coming in all combinations of flavors, sizes and colors. Confusion, misunderstandings and frankly a potential abundance of experience disappointments, stand before us like a solid and forbidding rock candy mountain.

Some light has been recently shed on the mysteries and old wive’s tales frequently attributed to the two birds with one stone,  have your cake and eat it too aficionados. LIMRA, with the hard work of an SOA LTC Section Council member, has recently released a new combo life study helping clear the fog. The study is titled “Combination Products: A One-Stop Solution?” (full annotation at the end). I would not want to offend LIMRA by publishing any direct information in this column. Instead I will take my usual liberties to paraphrase, embellish and interpret my own personal observations from this excellent work.”

Click here to read more, originally published in the February 2019 edition of Broker World Magazine.

“Recently an industry publication offered a headline that even State Regulators were confused about regarding chronic illness combo/hybrid policy offerings. That same confusion is rampant through the ranks of all concerned. As has been suggested previously in this column, there is little if any consensus on the balance of pricing assumptions.

We do seem to have come to  understand that mortality and morbidity are both at play in one financial instrument. Some early SPWL product  with limited chronic illness riders were based solely on mortality. Furthermore, it is accepted that premium, underwriting and administration expenses must be considered for either contingency.

The persistent low interest environment has seemed to help point the market in the direction of the intrinsic value of whole life promises guaranteeing premium and predictable benefit.”

Click here to read more, originally published in the January 2019 edition of Broker World Magazine.

Here is the latest from the NewsMax Finance monthly column by GWG Life’s, Chris Orestis – EVP of Secondary Markets.

“How to Financially Prepare When Loved Ones Can No Longer Live Alone” Read Article

“Even before the Long Term Care provisions of the PPA went into effect in January, 2010, it was repeatedly predicted in this column that the day would come when almost every life company would have some form of long term care or chronic illness rider. It is simply too easy to sell against those who do not. We now live in a world where “living benefits” has become a holy mantra.

A plethora of options to address the problem now exist, perhaps even more choices than the days of the apex of stand-alone LTCI health sales 15 years ago. But these riders are not created equal. You cannot escape two of the most basic principles of living: The Golden Rule, and “You only get what you pay for.” Sadly, at least as far as I’m concerned, the majority of these options are flawed and occasionally deceptive by default.”

Click here to read more, originally published in the December 2018 edition of Broker World Magazine.