Reader Comments of the Week

January 27, 2012 at 11:58 PM
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In response to Oh, The Temerity

Terence Coughlin wrote:

"Personally speaking, I have absolutely no problem with this. If a drug rep stops by the physicain practice and drops off a $12 plate of bagels, is that so terrible an action that a federal act is called for? In isolation, of course not. But it is never just a one-time friendly gift. It is gift after gift after gift after gift after gift, all done in the name of building no-strings-attached "friendship" between the provider and rep. Please. It's the science of reciprocity, and if this act shines some "sunshine" on just how extensive this practice is, at the expense of manufacturers having to submit some data on the practice, I say hurrah."

GilbertWChapman wrote:

"Some six years ago, I decided to sell my small agency in Vermont, and now that I've completed a six year sabbatical (to work on a project with two professors I had in college during the '70s), I am returning to the insurance industry . . . and will never retire.

Your short essay confirmed a 'thesis' I've developed. I only want to be known as either a life insurance agent, or better yet, a life insurance salesman, not a "financial planner."

With better than 99% of the young families in this country being under-insured, I see a niche begging to be exploited with either whole life, 20-year term, or whole life with a term rider. (No, I won't be writing any universal life. Our job is to accept all of the risk, rather than shouldering young clients with the risks associated with every kind of universal policy in existence.) Then, some months later, after the greatest risk has been covered with life insurance, I'll go back to those clients and sell them disability and critical illness insurance.

How much life insurance ? 10 to 20 times earned income. How much disability insurance ? As much as possible. Critical illness insurance? I know of no one who doesn't need CI. It amazes me that one of the greatest products ever created (at the request of Dr. Christian Bernard) has been virtually ignored by the major insurers in this country. (How anyone in good conscience can call himself a financial planner who hasn't protected every housewife he has ever spoken to with a sizable life insurance policy and a CI policy is beyond belief.)

I will again become a life insurance salesman, a title I will again take great pride in. Thank you, Mr. Harriman. Now, if only those guys in the corner offices would listen to you and start to train new agents…"

Life Insurance Quotes wrote:

"I think you guys missed the biggest lie in general: 'I've been in sales for ____ years, I already know how to sell.' Salespeople are the world's smartest people; I hope everyone thinks they know everything so when people like me actually improve and get training weekly we'll just wipe the floor with their lost deals."

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