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Posts by Peri Lane:

When to buy LTC insurance with a picture of an elderly couple on a park bench

December 1, 2022

LTC Strike Price: When to Advise Your Client to Obtain a Long Term Care Policy

apistemplate News Long Term Care Insurance, LTC

You’ve been diligently managing your client’s assets for years. Protecting those assets from future risk is all but in your job description. Your client’s assets are their long-term plan for their retirement, lifestyle, and legacy. Beyond market turns and economic forecasts, however, lies an even greater risk to their financial well-being: their health. It’s an unfortunate fact that as we age the risk of needing expensive care rises. In fact, over 70% of people age 65 will require long-term care at some point in their life. The challenge for you is to determine when is the perfect moment for them to consider a Long Term Care policy?

What your clients risk without a Long-Term Care policy in place

At the heart of considering a long-term care policy is liquidity. With long-term care costs skyrocketing, a senior client who requires nursing home care, in-home assistance, and hospital stays related to chronic care needs can expect to pay between $50k and $150k dollars per annum to cover these expenses. Depending on the severity of their ailment, the duration of these needs could last for many years, draining their assets. This opens up the very real possibility that your client might have to liquidate their investments to cover medical expenses.

Health insurance doesn’t cover these needs

Standard health insurance and federal plans don’t come close to covering the costs associated with long-term care needs. The only true vanguard available to protect your clients’ assets is a long-term care policy. Given the unfortunate reality that the odds of avoiding these costs are stacked against every senior, an LTC policy is an important piece of their long-term financial planning. Years of careful investment can go out the window as funds are liquidated to cover care.

The Cost of Waiting: Long Term Care Needs Can Happen at Any Age

As an insurance policy, the costs of LTC fluctuate dramatically depending on the age and health of your client. Statistically, a person over the age of 50 is at greater risk for declining health. Each year past 50, the risk increases. Accordingly, long-term care premium payments begin to rise faster the longer they wait to obtain a policy. Delaying the purchase decision by several years can result in diminishing options and overall return on value.

The best time to purchase an LTC policy is…the moment your client can afford it

Your client should purchase a long-term care policy the moment they can afford it. While the prices of LTC premiums fluctuate based on age and health, you might think that finding the best value based on age would be prudent. However, life simply doesn’t work that way. Your client could experience long-term care needs at any point in their life.

We tend to think of long-term care as being a need for the elderly. While it is true that increasing risk factors as we age lend some weight to this perspective, the reality is that a 40-year-old could experience significant asset loss should they require long-term care. The burden on your client’s family and assets would be absolutely devastating.

What type of policy should your client buy?

Long-term care policies offer some flexibility in terms of price, benefits, and payment methods. Here are some things to consider when finding the best solution for your client.

Traditional long-term care policies (LTCi)

Traditional LTC (LTCi) policies offer benefits solely for the purpose of paying for care. Unlike other products designed for Long-Term Care benefits, there are no death or legacy benefits with these policies. While they generally offer lower premiums, the premiums may be subject to price increases over time. However, a traditional LTC policy may be a good fit for someone who has less aversion to risk or does not have the budget for a single or short-pay solution.

Linked Benefit or Hybrid policies

These policies are best for clients who want a great return on their premium dollars for long-term care offering both guaranteed benefits and guaranteed premium stability. Like Traditional Long-term Care (LTCli) many of these products offer inflation protection and, in some cases, unlimited lifetime benefits.

From a cash-on-hand standpoint, clients who opt for linked benefit and hybrid policies will need to have a budget that allows for a single or short pay scenario in order to obtain one. Historically, these products utilize a simplified underwriting process that may be less stringent than individual long-term care policies but benefit from prequalification. In short, while these policies require more money upfront, their benefits, stability, and less-invasive qualification process make them an attractive choice for clients who want the best of both worlds.

Permanent Life Insurance Policies with LTC/CI riders

If your client wants to keep some flexibility when it comes to long-term care needs and is primarily looking to leave a substantial death benefit to their heirs, adding a rider to a life insurance policy could be the answer. The rider could give them access to the cash value of the death benefit should they need to pay for medical costs and needs. Additionally, unlike most traditional LTC policies, the premiums for a life insurance policy with a rider can be guaranteed to stay the same over time.

Adding an LTC/CI rider during the purchase of a permanent life policy will, however, will modestly increase the premium costs. This increase buys your client the ability to avoid the ‘use it or lose it’ nature of traditional LTC buy giving them access to the death benefit, dollar-for-dollar as needs arise. It should be noted that the benefit does not grow along with inflation and the benefit they buy today will not grow over time.

Options such as guaranteed premiums and benefits make these robust policies a great fit for a client that may already have a need for permanent insurance.

Mettle protects your best work

Mettle values your client’s financial goals. This is why we leave no stone unturned when researching policies that protect both your client’s current assets and their long-term security. After a comprehensive analysis and review of their needs, we can help you craft a long-term care plan for your client that will leave their assets in place in any eventuality.

November 1, 2022

Wealth Planning and Permanent Life Insurance in a Talent Driven Economy

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The last several years have seen a seismic shift in so many areas of life and business that serving your client’s rapidly evolving needs has meant keeping your head on a swivel. Just as the dust is settling on 2021 and the world collectively holds its breath for the eventual end of lockdowns, staff shortages, and disruptions in the workplace we must also awaken to the realities of this most auspicious 2022.

Now more than ever we have a fiduciary responsibility to meet our clients where they are while serving them with greater care and financial flexibility. 2022 and beyond will see a greater emphasis on the importance of agile wealth advisors ready to help their clients as they move towards distinctive, personalized financial plans.

The Gig is Up: Welcome to the Talent Economy

Amongst the myriad changes we have witnessed in the last few years, perhaps none is more prominent than the shift away from the legacy workplace to a more fluid, self-designed economy. This shift began a decade ago as the internet and technology allowed free-lancers to work from anywhere. Back then, we affectionately dubbed this the ‘Gig economy’.

However, not unlike the mass workforce migrations we’ve seen in history following other world-altering events, the pandemic has forged a new type of worker. While the Gig Economy was primarily fueled by free-lancers, small, one-person service businesses, and artists, that is no longer the case. Its expansion now includes scientists, former VPs and CFOs, and literally anyone who has realized that they don’t need to decide between staying at their job or uprooting their family for a new opportunity but can instead follow their personal needs.

In fact, according to a Pew Research poll, 20% of people worked from home prior to the pandemic, 71% are currently working from home, and 54% would like to continue to work from home when the pandemic is finished. The 34% potential increase in remote workers represents a possible shift in employment as workers who are asked to return to the office will seek out positions with more fluid work options. This autonomy in the labor market represents a shift towards self-loyalty previously unseen.

People have become their own small businesses and the continental corporate economy has given way to an archipelago of talented individuals in a perpetual state of motion.

The issue facing small, mid, and large-size businesses today has morphed from one of capturing talent to one of maintaining talent. In short, the Gig Economy is no longer an appropriate moniker. This is an economy of talent that is regularly on the move.

Flexible but Conservative Financial Planning: The Safe Bet for a Party of One

With the Talent Economy comes a new level of self-reliance for retirement and future financial planning. Essential planning elements such as a 401k will no longer be the stabilizing force it once was as people leave jobs with greater frequency.

The robust retirement packages that companies were able to provide their key people take on a new definition in the emerging talent marketplace. As people move from opportunity to opportunity, their financial plans will require a renewed focus on flexibility and security. The reality, of course, is that people still need a solid exit strategy for their retirement and will require more financial guidance than at any other point in their career.

Permanent Life Insurance provides the flexibility and safety to meet today’s mobile workforce while maintaining the fiduciary responsibility we have to our clients

When retirement planning requires a more hands-on effort due to shifting employment, our client will require tools beyond the 401k. Permanent life insurance can fill some of this insecurity without risking other assets. Essentially, when you aren’t betting with house money, the safest bet is also the smartest bet.

With permanent policies, your client is able to secure their family’s financial well-being in the event of their death while also retaining the flexibility and access to cash from the policy as needs arise down the road. Where a term life policy must be renewed and repurchased at higher premiums, a permanent policy ensures that your client’s protection follows them through their lives.

Wealth Advisors will become architects in the Talent Economy

As clients continue their migration to self-sustained employment, they will require creative solutions to grow and preserve their wealth. Wealth advisors will need to build a financial house for their wealth to thrive regardless of who their employer is at any given time. Life insurance policies support the structure and safety of your client’s financial goals.

The keystones of old may not be an option moving forward for many clients and they will require suitable and flexible replacements to ensure that as their talent is rewarded, their future is secured. While there is still some uncertainty in the year ahead as to how this shift will ultimately impact business, financial planning, and financial advisors, one thing is certain: Workers will have the same needs for security as they had previously. It is not the needs that have changed but rather the vehicles required to address them.

Mettle is Here to Help

Mettle looks forward to helping you find new clients in this market. Let us know how we can help you best serve your client’s needs to enhance their financial security while upholding your fiduciary responsibility to their best interests.

Trust owned life insurance liabilities. Pic of a pocketwatch buried in the sand

February 2, 2022

Trust Owned Life Insurance: Asset or Liability

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Trust-owned life insurance policies for individuals with considerable estates are set up with the best of intentions. The allure of protecting wealth from the Estate Tax and providing beneficiaries with a substantial death benefit is appealing to planners. Done correctly, trust-owned life insurance can be a perfect remedy to tax and privacy burdens associated with large estates. However, all too often, these trusts create problems, headaches, and even legal nightmares for the trustee. They are neglected or unmanaged to the point of becoming unmanageable leaving a mess for the trustee and beneficiaries. It could be said that a trust-owned life insurance policy in your client’s portfolio is a time bomb waiting to disrupt the best-laid plans.

The problems we see with irrevocable life insurance trusts are a lack of time and attention

One of the main concerns with an irrevocable life insurance trust is that trustees may ignore the policy over time. The reality is that many of these policies were put into a trust years and decades before. Depending on who is managing the trust, this creates a major issue with neglect and ignorance of what is happening to the policy. An ILIT left unmanaged or undermanaged can result in greater tax liability for the estate, underfunded life insurance policies, and even lawsuits that burden the trustee.

The trustee is responsible for maintaining the trust and the policy. If the trustee is a family member who is not skilled at policy maintenance then the advantages of placing the policy into a trust may become compromised. For example, changes in interest rates may have shortened the length of the policy thereby leaving the trustee liable to the beneficiaries for any monies lost in the process.

Fiduciary duty should extend to the trustee

It is important to stay in contact with the trustee assigned to your client’s policy. More and more, the conversation surrounding ILIT’s necessitates the trustee’s understanding of both the language of the trust and their fiduciary responsibilities of keeping it in order. This does not come naturally to many friends and family members who may be assigned as trustees. This is where they will rely on your expertise and guidance.

In fairness, there are many brokers who take the client through the process of establishing the trust only to fall out of communication over the years. The result can be an inherited quagmire of risk and lost liquidity. The reality is that people are often unaware of the breadth of their exposure when they are acting trustees. By the time the policyholder passes away, the fiduciary story of the trust is too often left unfinished with missing pages. A conversation with these clients today can help clear their legacy of unforeseen obstacles down the road.

A trust-owned life insurance policy is a house in need of upkeep

Just as a house will fall into disrepair over time if left untended, a trust-owned life insurance policy is not immune to entropy. Negligence in homeownership costs more money and time than regular upkeep. The trustee, in this sense, is a homeowner responsible for the regular maintenance and upkeep of the policy in the trust.

As an advisor, regular policy reviews on trust-owned life insurance can help the trustee keep everything in order with considerably less trouble and effort in the long run. This is where the advisor’s focus on fiduciary duty can help carry the original client’s wishes through to fruition.

The ancillary benefit of helping the trustee in order to maintain the estate’s legacy through an ILIT is a strengthening of the client relationship and the extended relationships of those who will one day be in charge of administering the policies benefits.

Mettle is here to help

We have extensive experience in sorting out and helping to guide the maintenance of ILITs. Let us know how we can help you best serve your clients and their trustees so that the legacy they leave behind best benefits the ones they love.

Washington State Flag imposed on an outline of the state itself, representing the new long term care tax in the state

November 12, 2021

Why WA State’s LTC decision should matter to you and your client?

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The state of Washington passed a dramatic piece of legislation that impacts the long-term care insurance landscape of the state in a number of ways. While you may not have clients in Washington state, the potential domino effect of this legislation may end up on your doorstep.. So what are the pros, cons, and pitfalls of these legislative changes and why should it matter to you and your client?

Washington State Cares Fund in a nutshell

The basic concept here is that the state of Washington created and passed (without voter approval) a 0.58% payroll tax that will fund a public insurance program named WA Cares. Its aim was to tackle the problem of rising care costs associated with debilitating illnesses that require long-term care at home or a facility.

The fund:

Assesses a 0.58% payroll tax on all WA state workers
Provides a maximum lifetime Long Term Care benefit of $36,000 dollars
Provides a “use it or lose it” benefit.
Requires workers to pay into the fund for 10 years before they are ‘fully vested’ to receive the maximum benefit amount
Has stricter requirements for determining who is eligible to receive benefits. WA state has a 3ADL requirement compared to 2ADLs with most private LTC policies
Does not cover non-working spouses, people who live out-of-state, or those who are not ‘vested’

Only workers who are paying into the fund are able to access the benefits. WA Cares is a worker’s program. State workers will be assessed the tax on their paycheck. Once they meet the contribution requirements, they will be eligible for benefits should the need for long-term care arise.

How would a program like WA Cares affect my client?

Let’s assume for a moment that the WA Cares concept takes off throughout the nation. Indeed, there are several states considering such a move as of the writing of this blog article. The most obvious impact of this legislation is the hit to your client’s paycheck. A highly-compensated earner will be paying into this program whether they want to or not. At 0.58%, the money they are contributing could be significant. Note that the tax may increase over time and there are no stopgaps to prevent an increase from happening.

For younger workers who earn high salaries, they will likely have paid more into the program than the maximum benefit could ever payout by the time they might need it. For workers who are about to retire, they could be paying into a program that they ultimately will not be eligible for.

The truth is that there are many people who will be left out of this program. The benefits are not portable to another state, so workers who leave the state after many years will leave their contribution behind as well. Non-working spouses and family members are not covered under this type of program, either. In the case of WA Cares, there was a short opt-out window that required workers who wanted to avoid ever paying this tax to purchase a qualifying LTC policy before the deadline. This created a panic buy in the market and the industry struggled with the crush of requests for new policies. The lack of clarity from the government led to concern of many carriers regarding the persistence of policies sold in reaction to this legislation. Ultimately this caused most carriers to temporarily suspend sales of LTC policies in WA state until after the deadline.

A gathering storm: Be prepared

A large number of states either have proposals in the pipeline or are drafting proposals to do something similar to what Washington has done. States currently considering such a move are:

California
Oregon
Hawaii
Michigan
Alaska
Illinois
Minnesota
Missouri
Colorado
New York
North Carolina
Utah

As you can see, the concept has spread from west to east. So what lessons can we learn from the rollout in Washington?

Speak to your client

Take the time to talk to your client about their long-term care needs. It is better to have a policy in place before these programs force their hand. The impact on the price and availability of policies in Washington was dramatic in the months before the opt-out deadline. Now that we have seen that process play out, we should prepare our clients ahead of time to avoid the hurdles many people experienced there. While we don’t know where this legislation is going the writing is on the wall. The best way to position your clients today is to review their current situation and the quality options that are still available. This is critically important with younger clients as they could have the greatest exposure.

Mettle is here for you

We are staying on top of this very fluid situation impacting our industry. Let us know how we can help you prepare your business and your clients for potential changes. We can keep you a step ahead of the game and help keep your client’s long-term options open in the future. Mettle is here for you.

October 12, 2021

Your Client’s Biggest Asset is At Risk Everyday

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People can insure just about anything they want to. And they do. Their wedding rings, their cars, their homes, their businesses, their health, and more are all insured as a matter of prudence. People feel better when they are protecting their important assets. In all this flurry of consumer protection, however, many people neglect to insure or grossly under-insure their most important asset: their income. Let’s take a look across the disability income insurance landscape as it stands today and assess the opportunity.

Disability Income Insurance Policies by the numbers

Precise numbers on how many Americans protect their income are difficult to come by. This is due, in part, to some of the data being siloed in government disability programs. However, the Council for Disability Awareness estimates that out of nearly 140 million working Americans, roughly 90 million of those income-earners have some form of DI other than WC or SSDI. This leaves a staggering 50 million workers, and their incomes, vulnerable to disabilty.

Additionally, they report that of the 90 million workers with disability coverage that the breakdown shows:

69.1 million have partially or wholly employer-paid DI
7 million purchase through their employer and pay for it themselves
7.8 million access DI through a club, society organization, or alumni society
6 million purchase through their financial advisors

50 million workers, more than 1 out of every 3 working Americans have no protection against asset loss concerning their income. This is a large and vulnerable population especially considering 1 out of every 4 workers will require time away from work at some point due to disability. While these numbers speak to the importance of protecting more workers and closing that gap, there are opportunities to improve the coverage of those that already have a policy in place.

Find the gap: Revealing your client’s coverage

The percentage of salary lost due to gaps in disability coverage increases significantly with the salary size. Finding this gap is the first step towards protecting your client. The team at Mettle specializes in identifying under-performing coverage and developing best practice strategies to overcome shortfalls in disability compensation. We will perform a comprehensive review that identifies the gap and presents you with solutions to share with your client. It is likely that your client is unaware of the disparity between what they earn and what their current disability plan covers. This is where our expertise and educational resources can help you show your clients not only where the gap lies but also the most efficient way to close it.

The true value of income: gaps in disability income coverage

If a person totals their car, they can expect an actual cash value amount from their auto insurance policy. While this value is less than what they originally purchased the vehicle for it is still usually enough to purchase the same vehicle of the same age and condition. Obviously, this is not the case with DI coverage through an employer. The general standard hovers around 60% of income paid out after the waiting period for a disabling condition.

Additionally, people with greater income benefit less from standard group disability offered through their employer. In our next article, we break down the percent of income replaced through standard group DI. Top earners are under-insured by group DI alone. However, it is possible and favorable to add a portable GSI gap policy to increase the amount of salary covered and improve their income protection. For highly compensated employees, an additional GSI multi-life policy can bring the total coverage to 80% of their income protected.

Market opportunities: selling DI to your clients

Disability income insurance is a product that needs to be sold. Clients have to understand the ramifications of being without their income for an extended period of time. Their income is the foundation behind all of their investments, assets, and financial planning. The fact that there are so many people with incomes that are uninsured or under-insured tells us that people take their income for granted.

Educating our clients about the importance of protecting their income themselves comes down to exposing them to the statistics surrounding the need for DI.

Going through their current financial plan and sharing information about products that can help round out their coverage and keep their income intact will help them protect the engine behind all of their goals. By protecting their income they are protecting all of their other assets.

We are here for you

Mettle understands the importance of income protection for any financial plan. We can help find the best-fit disability products to protect your client’s greatest asset. Let us know how we can help you best serve them.

August 10, 2021

Disability Insurance as a Business Survival Multi-tool

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From a solutions standpoint, we are living in an abundant time in our industry. There are countless life insurance products at our disposal to help our business clients achieve their financial and life goals. However, the complexity of the need can often exceed the intention of the tool. In order to truly meet the demands of our clients, we must sharpen our skills and consider every possibility, every opportunity, that these tools afford us in meeting those demands. Not unlike the essential items in a survival ‘get out of town’ or ‘go bag’, we must rely on our expertise and our ability to get the most out of each of the products available to us in the marketplace. For our clients with sophisticated needs, we need the ability to turn an insurance product into a multi-tool.

Disability Insurance: A Swiss Army Knife for Business Security and Succession

Disability insurance is a perfect example of a product with multiple applications to meet the many potential needs your business client may have. In addition to a disability policy’s native use as a stop-gap for lost wages incurred when an employee is no longer able to perform their work tasks, it can also be utilized to secure money for the company should they lose a key player.

Business Owners Can Protect Their Chief Asset With Key Man Disability

Since many business owners exclude themselves from workers’ compensation at their own company, the company is left vulnerable should something happen that prevents them from performing their tasks.

In this case, we could utilize a key-man disability policy or overhead coverage on the owners. Should something happen to one of the owners, the money from the policy goes into the business to help them offset the loss of their key player.

This way we are allowed to protect the company, facilitate a temporary continuation plan for your client’s business and keep the company afloat in their absence.

Salary Continuation Disability Insurance: Cutting the Risk for Business

When an employee becomes disabled, a salary continuation plan can help keep them financially sound for the period that they are unable to work. However, this places the company at a loss while they pay for employees who are not contributing to the bottom line in a meaningful way.

Well, if you know where to look, there’s a tool for that, too!

Salary continuation disability insurance acts as the tiny scissors in your multi-tool, cutting away risk for the business should one of their salary-continued employees becomes disabled. Saving the company money while still caring for the disabled employee ensures that a company offering a competitive, peace-of-mind benefit to their valued employees doesn’t suffer as much in their absence.

Stress Testing 10 or More Policies Reveals the Best Solution

As with plan, different carriers are able to provide different levels of protection for the company in these circumstances. Knowing where to look and how to use these policies is key to finding the perfect fit for your client. Where some policies strictly limit the amount of compensation a company may receive (oftentimes less than the actual amount of salary the company is on the hook for) others have ways to indemnify the entire salary against disability. This is why Mettle places profound importance on stress testing multiple policies from multiple carriers in order to find the sweet spot in terms of budget and overall protection.

Disability Insurance as a Loan Indemnification Tool

Typically, when a business owner wants to protect their debts, monthly charges such as rent and utilities, and other charges associated with their business, we might steer them towards a BOE or business overhead expense disability insurance policy. While such a policy would grant them suitable protection to keep the lights on, what would happen if that business owner had an outstanding business loan from a bank with monthly principal and interest payments?

Consider this: An young mechanic is purchasing an auto repair shop from a retiring owner. In order to achieve this dream, they apply for a loan from a major bank. As part of the closing requirements, the bank needs them to acquire a disability policy that directs the benefits towards the loan repayment schedule.

In this case, a traditional BOE would not necessarily apply to the loan repayment. In many cases, disability benefits previously assigned to cover other financial risks should be left in place so as not to expose the company to risk. Once again, if you know where to look, there is a disability solution for this as well.

There are some carriers that offer loan indemnification disability insurance for precisely this scenario. In this case, you would be able to indemnify the entire loan, including principal and interest payments, and structure it favorably to cover the entire payment schedule.

Mettle Gets the Most Out of Each Product to Create Flexibility and Improved Client Outcomes

At Mettle, we place a premium on stress testing multiple products to understand the right approach for every client’s unique needs. While a certain carrier and policy may seem like a perfect fit at first, it is imperative to play out as many possible scenarios in order to truly comprehend how the product will perform under varying future circumstances.

What happens if you reduce the death benefit?
What happens if you miss a premium in year 11?
Which disability product allows for a company to retain the most cash?

The answers to questions like these and many others when comparing 10 different life products is the only way to get the right policy in place for each client.

Being able to take each product and find the flexibility and options available to best serve your clients is a skill set that we have keenly developed over the years. Our chief aim is to make certain that the plans we design for your clients are not just perfect for the here and now but for the evolving future of their needs and goals. Let us know how we can help you make the most out of any of the tools available to you today. We look forward to the conversation.

June 27, 2021

How A Pandemic, Emerging Technologies, and Public Interest Changed the Landscape of Life Insurance

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Throughout the course of our industry’s history, we have seen remarkable changes and innovations both from a policy and technological perspective. In every event, whether it was the creation of new GI policies to reflect the sacrifices being made in World War II or the digitization of policies and records after the commercial success of the computer, our industry has always reflected the world in which it serves. The free market economy has given rise to indexed policies, encouraged financial planners to offer their clients life insurance as part of a balanced asset strategy, and the government has come to bear on everything from taxation to rules governing the illustrative process. The past year and a half have seen a number of external and internal forces shift the landscape beneath us. Between the Covid-19 pandemic, the success of rapid medical underwriting, and a renewed sense of mortality amongst our fellow Americans, our industry has been sprinting forward to meet the challenging demands of today’s diverse marketplace.

Social Distancing Created a Need for Emerging Online Applications Technologies

With the vast majority of the nation on a self-imposed lockdown complete with mask requirements and social distancing guidelines, the ability to ‘meet’ clients where they live became paramount to the continued growth of our business. While online applications had been around for a number of years and remote medical underwriting had been in its infancy, the pandemic accelerated the need and maturity for both.

While carriers have long had these technologies available, the pandemic has supercharged their application.

We’ve seen companies sprout up virtually overnight offering 15-minute term life policies with no exams or lab work required of the client. This same underwriting will inevitably find its way into more products as the data collection algorithms supporting them become more advanced. The ability to acquire a policy at the point of sale has turned shopping for term policies into a more familiar purchasing experience for the consumer. It’s nearly as easy as an online entertainment subscription. Needless to say, demand for this approach to purchasing life insurance will increase in the years to come.

The Pandemic Altered the Way People View Life Insurance

In a study conducted by the Lincoln Financial Group shortly after the summer peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, 33% more people viewed life insurance as an important purchase than in previous surveys. When facing uncertain times, it’s clear that the security and consistency that life insurance products offer can help people feel more secure. This resulted in increased policy sales for the industry and a slew of difficult coverage decisions for insurers facing the same uncertainty.

Policies are being purchased at a rate not seen since the decades following World War 2. As industry professionals, we should press that advantage and find ways to maintain this renewed momentum.

Precise and relatable messaging for our clients will be necessary to fuel continued interest in our products and offerings.

While the net result of the pandemic may have been a boon to certain aspects of our industry, the economic fallout from the lockdowns has had adverse impacts on markets and market-facing products.

Historically low interest rates for a prolonged period of time have created issues with some of our products. While runaway inflation may eventually tip that scale in the other direction, the current forecast is for continued low interest in the foreseeable future.

The silver lining for life insurance is the renewed interest in our offering from the public at large, the tilt in perspective that the tools we educate clients on every day are becoming more valuable to a greater segment of the population.

The Time for Increased Productivity and Working Smarter, Together is Now

Beyond the technological advancements that have helped serve client needs throughout this challenging time, there have been internal improvements as well. Improvements that help all of us work together with a focus on productivity, accuracy, and efficiency. Mettle was founded to take full advantage of all of the leading-edge tools available to producers, agents, and advisors.

Mettle exists to take advantage of this new selling environment in order to advance your practice in the best interests of your clients

In addition to our investment in tools to make implementing sound insurance strategies for your clients easier, we have assembled a team of people who understand how to best use the existing market products to their full potential. The last year and a half has been a period of great adaptation in our industry. We pride ourselves on our expertise and capacity to understand the best use cases for each product that we stand behind. By maximizing all of the tools available to us, we are able to adjust to the changing environment around us. There will be obstacles ahead as the industry continues to navigate towards a more effective future. Mettle will lead the way with transparency, attention to detail, and adaptive persistence. We look forward to taking the journey with you.