AgenteNews Insurance Producer's Online Resource
If you’ve shied away from selling disability income, now is a good time to reconsider. Marketplace trends point towards new and improved opportunities to make disability income sales a steady and lucrative source of income for the savvy producer. And, developments within the DI industry are resulting in better support than ever for garnering these sales.
Sales to Boomers Are Booming
The single most significant market trend creating expanded DI sales opportunities today is the aging of the baby boomers. As 82 million boomers enter middle age, they also enter their peak earning years and their years of greatest financial obligation. Along with their increased incomes and increased responsibilities comes a keen awareness of the need to insure their earnings.
Within the broad baby boomer category, there are numerous attractive niche markets. For example, minority groups are growing. As the most highly-educated, most affluent minority, Asians are good prospects for DI. And, according to the U.S. Census Department, Hispanics make up more than 16 percent of the U.S. population. That’s a goldmine of buying power.
Societal Shifts Create New Needs
Shifts away from the traditional breadwinner/homemaker family configuration are bringing the need for income protection to new prospects. Two-income couples have twice the need for income protection. The “sandwich generation,” which is simultaneously supporting young children and elderly parents, has heavy financial burdens as well. Single parents and divorcees as well as the growing ranks of never-marrieds have no one to fall back on if they lose their ability to earn. With the U.S. savings rate at an all-time low, few people, regardless of occupation or family situation, have enough set aside to sustain them through an extended period of disability. All these circumstances call for disability income insurance.
Target Occupations Changing and Expanding
New and non-traditional ways of earning income extend the need for disability beyond the traditional professional markets. They even change the requirements within established markets such as physicians and business owners. This affects both the need for disability income and the kinds of policies that will meet changing needs.
As employment opportunities shrink, more people are becoming self-employed. Therefore, more people are in need of individual coverage to replace the group coverage their employer might have provided. And, as many people seek more flexibility in their working life, the ranks of part-time, at-home, and freelance workers swell. These individuals need income protection plans that are compatible with their unpredictable income and earning patterns.
The Move to Multi-life
In the search for affordability and guarantees of insurability, both the new self-employeds and the traditional self-employed, such as physicians and attorneys, are grouping together. The resulting shift towards buying individual, group, and hybrid income protection plans in group settings is good news for producers. Multi-life marketing–selling multiple policies to many people found in a single setting–is more efficient and profitable than selling policies one at a time. Good multi-life opportunities, especially, can be cultivated with employer/employee groups and association memberships.
Industry Responds to Marketplace
Marketplace changes call for innovative disability income marketing programs and product designs. Only serious DI carriers are devoting the resources necessary to support your efforts in new arenas. The key to your own success with disability income, then, is working with a dedicated DI carrier that can provide the products your clients will demand and the services you’ll need to meet their demands. Look for a carrier with complete individual and group portfolios, marketing programs and support for basic and advanced sales concepts along with highly-trained underwriters. The right carrier will help you turn DI opportunities into commission dollars.
