My! How Things Change!

[Newby]

You are right but I still would like to see Newby's list of top FE cipanies for differnt situations.. And would like to see others make a simialr list.

Those type of lists were just me documenting things I was learning. Back in those days this forum was not kind to Final Expense Agents. It was mostly filled with traditional life agents (financial planners) and health agents. When I first found it I was very successful with Funeral Pre-need but I was just branching into Final Expense and Medicare. I was at the early learning stages of both of them.

I remember one of the first questions I had was why do hardly any of the companies have a calculator for their products to calculate rates on the Palm Pilot? The companies back then expected you to take a laptop into your appointments with you and booted up and do calculations on there is the only option other than pen and paper.

The responses that I got were basically letting me know that Final Expense or simplified issue products were for the low-life’s of the industry. No self-respecting age would use them. And why would I want calculations on Palm Pilot? What am I trying to do turn the sale of life insurance into a commodity that people just make a snap decision on without much thought or a fully detailed plan?

It was a whole different forum in those early days. Once me and some of the others started making posts like that you obviously could take a logical approach to selling Final Expense and then an agent that would study the market would be a better agent than just anybody out there flinging policies the forum made a very rapid change to practically became a Final Expense forum. Whether you consider a good thing or a bad thing I think we pretty much ran just about everybody else off.

But this forum did become a Wealth of knowledge and a great place to network with great people. Plus a huge source of entertainment.

As far as offering of my favorite most useful companies today? I’m pretty rusty. I’m not out in the field running leads and haven’t been for many years. No matter how much the guys running the agencies will try to convince you they’re the experts of the industry, if you’ve been out of the field for more than a few years you are no longer at the top of your game as far as knowing which companies are the most useful for the field agent.

The actual agents in the field producing high numbers are going to be the experts of that. At my agency KSKJ is the runaway favorite. It gets the most apps and the most chatter from the agents. It’s a fantastic company.

If I were going out I would start with KSKJ as my main. I would use Gerber as my GI. I would need a company for people that are too husky (don’t call us fat). I’d look at one of the Aetna’s or RNA for that. And I would probably make sure I had a company that had instant decision FE that goes down in the young ages. That would probably be AmAm. I would pretty much be ready for anything with those. But getting out and actually experiencing it, some of those could change.

 

[DonP]

Forget that . I started at met life in 1986 . We had a Nec multi speed tiny laptop looking thing . It was monochrome screen only . You had to program it with a cassette tape . It costs $1800 used and we had to buy one . I was so jealous of the Allstate agents . They had a cash register tape type quoting system for life . I had one of the first real laptops non Apple . It was a Panasonic. It didn’t have a hard drive . You had to put a 5 1/4 floppy drive in . I won trips with Gerber , midland , American general and time ins company in 1988 . I hit mdrt court of the table and barely missed making top of the table . Those days were simple .

 

[WinoBlues]

Same time period with John Hancock. They had one Uber slow computer in the bull pen. They had a guy come in trying to sell us a 'portable' computer. The size of a Samsonite suitcase. I was there a year and half. Made convention and went to an All-State agency as their Life Specialist. under two years in. And I was Wrote my first Million Dollar UL on one of those little adding machines. Thought it was high tech.

I started at met life in 1986 . We had a Nec multi speed tiny laptop looking.

 

[DonP]

Same time period with John Hancock. They had one Uber slow computer in the bull pen. They had a guy come in trying to sell us a 'portable' computer. The size of a Samsonite suitcase. I was there a year and half. Made convention and went to an All-State agency as their Life Specialist. under two years in. And I was Wrote my first Million Dollar UL on one of those little adding machines. Thought it was high tech.

Lol . There was about 15 people in the office and a few veteran agents had offices and the rest of us had cubicles . Yes there was one desk top for the office that we could print illustrations . I used to carry my am best flip craft around that showed the ratings of all CO’s . I’d show how met life was A plus and the smaller CO’s B . Honestly it’s much easier now for a young agent as there’s lead programs . Our office had no lead programs . I cold called business’s . Now there so many ways for customers to reach out . Ul was pretty new then . The big marketing gimmick them was to replace whole life’s and do a tax free dump on a ul . They used to give us orphan policys and they told us not to replace it we would .

 

[WinoBlues]

Lol . There was about 15 people in the office and a few veteran agents had offices and the rest of us had cubicles . Yes there was one desk top for the office that we could print illustrations . I used to carry my am best flip craft around that showed the ratings of all CO’s . I’d show how met life was A plus and the smaller CO’s B . Honestly it’s much easier now for a young agent as there’s lead programs . Our office had no lead programs . I cold called business’s . Now there so many ways for customers to reach out . Ul was pretty new then . The big marketing gimmick them was to replace whole life’s and do a tax free dump on a ul . They used to give us orphan policys and they told us not to replace it we would .

Sounds similar.

Other than dialing for dollars nights we were given a 'debit' to work. Basically an area of orphan policy holders. Mine was Concord, CA. A working class city in the SF Bay Area. Between wealthy and low income areas. Prospecting 101.

And yeah, we learned some shady ways to replace.

I sold UL 'IRA Alternative' in the wealthier areas full $2,000 or half $1,000 also VL and VUL and of course Mutual Funds. Burial insurance in the areas like Oakland.

 

[rousemark]

Forget that . I started at met life in 1986 . We had a Nec multi speed tiny laptop looking thing . It was monochrome screen only . You had to program it with a cassette tape . It costs $1800 used and we had to buy one . I was so jealous of the Allstate agents . They had a cash register tape type quoting system for life . I had one of the first real laptops non Apple . It was a Panasonic. It didn’t have a hard drive . You had to put a 5 1/4 floppy drive in . I won trips with Gerber , midland , American general and time ins company in 1988 . I hit mdrt court of the table and barely missed making top of the table . Those days were simple .

Even before computers there was the ELBA system .Slide projector that used casset tapes for the sound track.. Again, about the size of a suitcase. VA helped pay for it. Lugged that thing around and used it for a few moneths without noticing any increase in closing ratio or size of sales so I tossed in the garage and left it.

I had one of the first handheld calculators in our office, Paid $69 for it at Sears.. $482 in today's money. Was the size of a pack of cigarettes, maybe a little thicker. Did the exact same thing as the little thin ones you can buy at the Dollar store for a buck.

 

[shonceman]

When I took my first run at life insurance in the early ‘80’s, the broker I worked for had a state of the art computer and gear-fed dot printer for running UL & ISWL illustrations. It ran on 512k (at the time Bill Gates was saying he couldn’t imagine a PC ever needing more than 512k)!

When I came back to the business for good in 1990, I started with MetLife. We had a similar computer in the office. But each agent was also provided an early version of a laptop computer that did eapps. No way to capture signature, though. We had to lock the app, then enter the lock code on a one page form that the client signed with agent as witness. Every night we’d upload that day’s apps via an external modem. Each app took several minutes to upload. If they were clean and non med, they’d be issued the next day. I thought it was pretty awesome!

Later I started working with a debit company. Not only did they not have eapps, they had a separate paper app for each type of policy they sold! The big satchel I carried had a binder in the center with a page of policy info for each household I serviced, and two side pockets where I carried my rate book, various apps, brochures, receipt books, and various service forms (again, a separate form for each service need - they loved paper!). That satchel was heavy! It’s no wonder I have back trouble now!

Nowadays I’m loving that most companies use eapps!

 

[WinoBlues]

That satchel was heavy! It’s no wonder I have back trouble now!

Yeah, I don't know how you guys walked those debits.

JH had a 3" three ring binder rate book. That sucker was heavy also. That worked in my favor once, feeding it to a guy breaking into my truck.

 

[rousemark]

Yeah, I don't know how you guys walked those debits.

JH had a 3" three ring binder rate book. That sucker was heavy also. That worked in my favor once, feeding it to a guy breaking into my truck.

Debit book was good for fending off not so friendly animals.

 

[rousemark]

When I took my first run at life insurance in the early ‘80’s, the broker I worked for had a state of the art computer and gear-fed dot printer for running UL & ISWL illustrations. It ran on 512k (at the time Bill Gates was saying he couldn’t imagine a PC ever needing more than 512k)!

When I came back to the business for good in 1990, I started with MetLife. We had a similar computer in the office. But each agent was also provided an early version of a laptop computer that did eapps. No way to capture signature, though. We had to lock the app, then enter the lock code on a one page form that the client signed with agent as witness. Every night we’d upload that day’s apps via an external modem. Each app took several minutes to upload. If they were clean and non med, they’d be issued the next day. I thought it was pretty awesome!

Later I started working with a debit company. Not only did they not have eapps, they had a separate paper app for each type of policy they sold! The big satchel I carried had a binder in the center with a page of policy info for each household I serviced, and two side pockets where I carried my rate book, various apps, brochures, receipt books, and various service forms (again, a separate form for each service need - they loved paper!). That satchel was heavy! It’s no wonder I have back trouble now!

Nowadays I’m loving that most companies use eapps!

With National Savings Life we had a computer (think maybe it was an NEC) that was about the size of a carton of cigarettes. Had a small printer that attahced to the end that printed out a tape about the size of a cash register tape. The program was on a chip that pluin and when it was updated they sent you a new chip. You printed the current and gtd values on separate tapes, each about a foot long. People thought that was the most amazing thing they had seen.