For many of today's life insurance experts, we entered the business when there were basically two common options for life insurance: term and whole life. Term was analogous to renting new office space while whole was equivalent to buying the building that your office was in.
During the last 10 to 15 years, a myriad of life insurance options have emerged. Today, financial advisors need to take an entirely different approach with senior clients vs. the traditional methods they are used to. Not only have the options changed for the client, they've changed for you, too.
There used to be only two options – "rent" or "buy." Today, there's a combination of choices including term, permanent, securities-based, guaranteed interest rate-based or a combination of all of them. To help alleviate confusion with the available products, advisors today – in particular senior advisors – should approach their clients on the basis of how long they want the policy in force.
Does your client want the policy until they die, and if so, do they want the insurance company to assume all of the risks in the years ahead? If this is the case, a whole life insurance policy or a guaranteed universal life policy may be the best fit. Or does your client want to share the risks and therefore the rewards with the insurance company, which might suggest they are interested in a variable life insurance policy?
