Possible Marketing Opportunity Help

jmarkk1

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I have an opportunity to work with a mortgage company to work with their clients seeking loans. (Using life as mortgage protection)
This company might work with me if they can figure out the benefit for them.
Ideas on how to make this a win win opportunity?
 
Pay them a marketing or referral fee. Have a clear agreement and spell out exactly what their firm is entitled to receive based on the commissions generated per client.

If you can't call it a marketing or referral fee, then maybe you have a different kind of a 'lease' agreement in place to use one of their offices. Be flexible on how you arrange this. As long as they are the source of the clients, they can be ENTITLED to an institutional compensation agreement and/or to each broker who is referring you.

Each state will be more or less stringent on this than others. California makes this nearly impossible unless they are also insurance licensed. Of course, that means you can split business right there on the application, versus paying a check and issuing a 1099 at the end of the year.

Here's an article on joint venture marketing:
http://www.insuranceproshop.com/blog/tag/jointventuremarketing/

Of course, it's also trying to get you to sign up for their members only section for $25/month ($35/month starting in January):
http://www.insuranceproshop.com/insurancemarketing/insurancemarketing.html
 
In my talks with one of their main partners this is what he's told me:
1. He believes majority of clients have no life insurance.
2. He believes that clients would not want to talk life insurance unless price was part of monthly payment.
3. The struggle is ultimately about how to incorporate life insurance into the discussions.
 
In my talks with one of their main partners this is what he's told me:
1. He believes majority of clients have no life insurance.

Probably true. Last I checked though, most lending applications DO ask if a borrower has any cash value life insurance on the application.

2. He believes that clients would not want to talk life insurance unless price was part of monthly payment.

Could be accurate... especially for new home purchases.

3. The struggle is ultimately about how to incorporate life insurance into the discussions.

You need a "mortgage protection" package.
- We'll pay your mortgage in the event you are sick or hurt and cannot work (disability).
- We'll pay off your mortgage if the worst should happen and one of you passes away.
- If you live, you get all your money back (ROP Term).
- If you live, you can pay off your mortgage 5-10 years early (permanent life).


Here's the problem: When someone has a NEW mortgage, especially on a purchase, there's going to be renovations, new furniture, appliances, etc. This will take a significant cost for most new homeowners for the first couple of years.

What I would probably do with new purchases... is recommend a term/DI blended policy (Assurity does this) and get them to be a client FIRST. You could even do an ART/DI combination plan. Keep in touch with these clients over a couple of years (via newsletters)... and then offer a full review to see about converting the term to a permanent plan.

With refinancing... you may get a chance to do much more up front and recommend a plan to pay off the mortgage early using permanent life insurance.


In any event, I'm not recommending a "quote and buy" scenario... except perhaps with an ART/DI plan. I would be recommending that you be positioned as the in-house financial consultant to help people achieve MORE of their financial goals as a result of obtaining this new mortgage/house/refinance/whatever.

Just some thoughts.
 
What I'm going to have to do is somehow convince him that this would be a value added service for clients vs. anything else as being the primary goal.
 
I worked for an insurance agency in Los Angeles area that sold life insurance to pay off the mortgage for a lender. The agency did $1-2 million a yr in premium. It was so good that the lender formed their own agency and we lost the account.

The agency then signed up Bank of America and we sold life insurance to their checking account customers through an insert they filled out and returned. The agency did $5 million a year in premium. The owner retired, sold the agency to an out-of-state agency and the local agents found other jobs.

Given my experience with the mortgage company & bank, I have drawn 2 conclusions:

1. Money. That's what they wanted. They received a 30% commission on our sales.

2. NO COMPLAINTS. NO COMPLAINTS. NO COMPLAINTS. Since they make a lot more off of the loans, it was important to bend over backwards to please the customers.

So, when talking to the mortgage company, focus on money & no complaints.
 
Have them get a life insurance license, so you can let them participate in the commissions. This is what we do when we set up new alliances with local CPAs. They're not going to quit doing what they do, in order to cut you out. It's much easier and profitable for them to spend a couple of hundred bucks and 2 weeks studying to just get their license. This way, they can continue making money doing what they're doing, while allowing you to service their clients on other needs and get compensated for letting you do it. You just have to convince them to take the exam and get the license. That's the only hard part. However, we have one CPA that got her license, and we paid her nearly $200k last year in participating commissions. If she sends us a client and we close them, she gets 30%. That's pretty good incentive.
 
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