Charge Backs

[Guest]

I have just passed my State test for life and health and property and casualty license. In the beginning my original plan was try to try and focus on mortgage protection insurance as I have been a fairly successful Realtor for the last 10 years. I thought this would be a way to augment my income due to the fact that I work in an office with about 110 agents and no one in my office is doing anything in this area that I know of. That and the fact that I have a daily list of sold properties that are made available through the Multiple Listing Service.

I have done alot of research about the industry through forums like this and one of the things that concerns me is the matter of charge backs. I wondering how prevalent this is? As I mentioned I also got my property and casualty license, because I was entertaining the thought of working for AAA or and independent. The reason for AAA is that I have four children and I know prevalent work for them and they say that they have an excellent health insurance program. I can easily pay for health insurance but I have a daughter with an irregular heart beat and I am in constant fear of losing my coverage. I have a team set up in Real Estate so I can almost be like an absentee owner of my Real Estate business which I will consider to operate.

In summation, I guess what I am really trying to ask is how prevalent do you feel charge backs are in the life insurance segment of the business?
Also should I focus more on Term products or mortgage protection products? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Newby]

I have just passed my State test for life and health and property and casualty license. In the beginning my original plan was try to try and focus on mortgage protection insurance as I have been a fairly successful Realtor for the last 10 years. I thought this would be a way to augment my income due to the fact that I work in an office with about 110 agents and no one in my office is doing anything in this area that I know of. That and the fact that I have a daily list of sold properties that are made available through the Multiple Listing Service.

I have done alot of research about the industry through forums like this and one of the things that concerns me is the matter of charge backs. I wondering how prevalent this is? As I mentioned I also got my property and casualty license, because I was entertaining the thought of working for AAA or and independent. The reason for AAA is that I have four children and I know prevalent work for them and they say that they have an excellent health insurance program. I can easily pay for health insurance but I have a daughter with an irregular heart beat and I am in constant fear of losing my coverage. I have a team set up in Real Estate so I can almost be like an absentee owner of my Real Estate business which I will consider to operate.

In summation, I guess what I am really trying to ask is how prevalent do you feel charge backs are in the life insurance segment of the business?
Also should I focus more on Term products or mortgage protection products? Any advice would be appreciated.

Working mortgage leads probably has more chargebacks than usual because you will have about 10 other agents contact them also and if you are selling the mortgage version of term life you will get murdered on premium amount.

BUT, if you take your commissions as earned rather than advanced you don't have to worry about paying money back.

If you sell the policies that have full underwriting you won't have too many charge backs at all.

 

[Guest]

Thank You for the info. I will definitely try and go the full underwriting route. My objective is to identify the leads before they close on their properties or with in days of them closing. I don't plan on buying any leads. In the area that I live there are probably 50 to 150 homes that close on a daily basis. I am believe that I can contact them by direct mail or canvassing before they would ever show up on a lead card anywhere but that is just my thinking. Your advice really cleared things up for me though. Any thoughts on who I should try and contract with or affiliate with. I am in NW Indiana. I was considering UandIWin, but it appears that there is alot of negative thoughts about this company.

 

[Mr. Bill]

Sounds like he's got a saleable list of leads as well!

 

[James]

If selling term, the best thing to do is go for the Annual Premium. May or may not be possible, but it is the best way. No matter if they are fully underwritten or not.

 

[Guest]

Thank you James and others for your advice, it is much appreciated.

 

[somarco]

You might want to avoid UandI win. I know some folks who were very close to the top in that organization and had their legs cut off. One guy in particular still gets his renewals (since he owned the business) but he lost 90% of his revenue (which was overrides).

I don't write that much life, but I always sell & collect an annual premium. If they can't afford to pay an annual premium they are not a prospect.

You can still get charge backs on annual premiums but it is less likely to happen. Also, concentrating on underwritten plans vs. non-med life with all the junk add-ons is solid advice.