John Hancock's Benefit Builder

[yankee466]

unfortunately, my schedule got away from me.....so I dialed in on the only the last 5 minutes and all I heard was some agents asking "how do you expect me to explain this to a client?"....

So....I guess we'll have to wait for someone else to chime in with the details. Sorry about that.

 

[Arthur Rudnick]

Originally posted by Mr_Ed

The way you describe it is not how it was explained to me when I was in Boston last Nov.
You make it sound like they have to pay an extra premium and they may or may not get any growth in their benefits.
My understanding is that they decide if they want to pay the premium, how much they pay and that determines the growth in their benefits.

I'm sure many of you appointed with Hancock received a very pretty, colorful bruchure explaining a little bit about Benefit Builder.

First of all, it does appear that Benefit Builder is an optional benefit at additional premium.

It goes on to state:

"Benefit Builder includes a built-in feature that is designed to provide policyholders with benefit growth gradually over time when the investment returns of John Hancock's general account portfolio supporting this feature exceeds 3%. Through this process, any benefit increases are determined by a specific formula and applied annually"

originally posted by Yankee466
All I heard was some agents asking "how do you expect me to explain this to a client"?

There's your answer......
Just tell them "it's determined by a "secret formula"

 

[csalter]

Originally posted by Mr_Ed



I'm sure many of you appointed with Hancock received a very pretty, colorful bruchure explaining a little bit about Benefit Builder.

First of all, it does appear that Benefit Builder is an optional benefit at additional premium.

It goes on to state:

"Benefit Builder includes a built-in feature that is designed to provide policyholders with benefit growth gradually over time when the investment returns of John Hancock's general account portfolio supporting this feature exceeds 3%. Through this process, any benefit increases are determined by a specific formula and applied annually"

originally posted by Yankee466
All I heard was some agents asking "how do you expect me to explain this to a client"?

There's your answer......
Just tell them "it's determined by a "secret formula"

That will go over real well with someone like me.

 

[ltcadviser]

I received my Benefit Builder packet today. Seems like if John Hancock's general portfolio does 6% year in and year out, policyholders will receive about 1% growth on their benefits over 30 years. And the crediting growth is backloaded, not credited immediately. The marketing term throughout all of the materials is "gradual growth."

I was looking for a picture of a tortoise next to the illustrations but I did not see it.

It will be interesting to see the pricing, but it seems like it should be priced as essentially a GPO option product, because the only real growth within benefit builder will be derived from the purchase options being exercised.

I guess I was hoping for a little more oomph.

Maybe if we have clients deciding between multiple GPO policies, the benefit builder feature could be a tiebreaker, I guess.

I sure hope agents don't misrepresent the feature based upon the brochures focusing on the benefit builder being activated if John Hancock's investment returns exceed 3% e.g., "If John Hancock gets 7% you get 4%, if John Hancock gets. 6% you get 3%."

Could be room for misunderstanding, negligence, or a little bit of both.

I won't mind quoting it for clients, but I think it needs to be viewed as a GPO plan with a very small kicker.

 

[Arthur Rudnick]

originally posted by ltcadviser

I won't mind quoting it for clients, but I think it needs to be viewed as a GPO plan with a very small kicker

I think it needs to reviewed in the "comical section" of your presentation.