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If You Want Blood (You Got It)

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The year was 1979, the 10-Year Treasury was paying 9.10% and Inflation was 11.35%. That Spring, AC/DC released their sixth studio record, Highway to Hell, which peaked at number 17 on the Billboard 200 Chart. Hidden on the second side was a little ditty called, “If You Want Blood (You Got It)”. As I write […]

Let’s Work Together

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It’s no secret that selling Life Insurance isn’t as glamorous as giving investment advice nor does it have as steady income as benefits and Property & Casualty. We know our process is archaic, frustrating and can takes months from start to finish. None of this is news to us. What we do not understand is […]

“Favorable” Tax Treatment

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I was talking with an advisor and he said the commonly used term “Favorable Tax Treatment” about Life Insurance. I stopped him and asked, “What makes it favorable?” He mentioned the Death Benefit not being taxable. I stopped him. “Why would the Death Benefit be taxable?” He answered, “Well, it could be a windfall if […]

2020 Vision

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By this time next week, nearly every carrier will only accept applications on PBR compliant products. This will be a greater reset for our industry than January 1st, 2020 ever could. This is a reset in the fundamental methods that our products are reserved for. A shift of this magnitude has never been undertaken in […]

A New Crop

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By no means would I consider myself an elder statesman of the Life Insurance world, but more and more I am finding myself being introduced to newer/younger advisors as an asset. When someone asks me for advice I am floored and humbled. I am floored because I consider myself a failure in Life Insurance sales. […]

Chaos Closing Out 2019

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In the November 2018 issue of Broker World, I predicted chaos for the end of 2019. Could we see a massive logjam for product approvals? Could we start off the era of PBR compliance with a very limited set of products? Could an extension be filed to alleviate the increased load the state insurance departments […]

The Fall of Life Insurtech

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Last week we found out that Prudential spent $2.35B to acquire a health and financial wellness start-up that is barely three years old. Two weeks ago, Ethos – a three-year-old Life Insurance start-up – was valued at nearly half a billion dollars. These are not anomalies. Carriers from A(XA) to Z(urich) have been dumping billions […]

10 Years In

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Ten years ago today, was a Sunday. I was set to start a career at Prudential Financial as a Financial Advisor the next day. My job experience to that point included: low-voltage electric work, aquatics (teaching, coaching, and life-guarding), and youth services (after school programs, camp counselor, etc.). So, clearly, I was cocky that that […]

The Company That Cares

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I received a few voice mails last week telling me that I am not allowed to go on conferences, and/or if I must, that I need to let everyone know beforehand. First, “Thank you”. It is very much appreciated to be recognized as an asset. Second, if you want me to continue being valuable, please […]

Betting on the Longshot

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It was raining harder than it had all day and it was cold enough that hoards of people were huddled anywhere they could find cover. Yet more than a few people were outside, waiting in lines, soaked, and shivering. That is because wagers were more valuable than comfort at the Kentucky Derby. The right bet […]

Close More Cases

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Like many firms, Algren’s internal systems track our productivity as a staff. How many quotes were requested, how many illustrations were created, how many phone calls made, how long since we have looked at certain cases, how often we speak to advisors, and much more. Since our dealings are tracked by advisor as well, we […]

Decline to Standard Plus

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February 14th we received an application for $1,000,000 of Permanent coverage for a 58 year old. The Target premium was around $24,000. Not a bad case. It took a while to get the client to complete his callback and then his doctor’s office added to the delays by holding his APS for about a month. […]

Story Time

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I just finished reading an excellent book about Norse Mythology. Before that I read an incredibly fascinating book about using DNA in genealogy. Halfway through a story relaying how Odin is the Allfather (since all living beings come from him), I realized that both books dealt with the same exact questions: Where did we come […]

Quit Smoking For Good

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Many friends become clients and many clients become friends. That is the way of the world. And it is a truly good thing, because who does not want what is best for their friends? Remember when you first met your friends/clients? Things were different. Maybe it was in the 60’s or 70’s or 80’s. Maybe […]

What Do I Do?

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I started in the insurance industry almost 10 years ago. From my first day on the job I was told I needed a 2-Minute Speech or an Elevator Speech about what I do. In the early years it was a canned speech about growing and protecting people’s wealth. It was general enough and vague enough […]

A Tough Break

Last Monday I started off the day by walking into Doug’s office and letting him know that I screwed something up and wanted his advice on how to fix it. It was a pretty big screw up, so I was up front with him and wanted to be proactive in correcting it. He determined it […]

Thank You

It was the heart of the winter. Meteorologists were predicting mayhem. As the day dawned, it looked like their predictions would be dead on. Wind gusts were over 20 MPH and got as high as 40+ MPH. Rain was coming down in sheets, visibility was poor. Luckily, it was above freezing. On this miserable day, […]

Like a Lobotomy or a Broken Foot

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Between 1946 and 1956 roughly 80,000 lobotomies were conducted worldwide with the consent of individuals (and/or their family members). Put another way, 8,000 people every year had a surgeon drill into their skulls and remove a portion of their brain. Taking it down a notch. My wife’s foot has been hurting for about two weeks. […]

Happy Holidays 2018

It is hard to believe that 2018 is ending. We experienced many changes here at Alrgen Associates during 2018. There were some bumps in the road like any business but we are confident we are moving into 2019 stronger than ever. Our staff is firing on all cylinders and we have begun implementing new procedures […]

Algren’s Effortless Action of the Month: January 2019

Help Your Clients Maximize Their Pension Benefits   Instead of electing a reduced pension benefit that pays over the lives of both spouses, your married clients can choose the maximum pension benefit (a single life payout) and provide for the financial needs of their spouse using life insurance. How does this strategy work? When your […]

Let’s Pretend

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Let’s pretend it’s mid-December 2019. What happened this past year that helped make your business successful? Did you increase your revenue? Did you increase your client base? Did you increase your client offerings? How did you do these things? Did you sell more products? Did you ask for more referrals? Did you diversify your product […]

Happy Thanksgiving

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We at Algren would like to thank you for your partnerships with us this past year. We know there are many BGA’s, GA’s, MGA’s, etc. out there vying for your business and we do not – for one second – take for granted that you choose to work with us. We would like to thank […]

You Should Consider Using Protection

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I get it. In the 1980’s Current Assumption and Variable products were illustrated using wild and crazy interest rates. The backlash is still felt all over the industry in the form of “Well what are the guarantees?” anytime someone is discussing permanent products. This led to an overwhelming reliance on Guaranteed Universal Life and Whole […]

The Cost of Advice

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The Internet has turned us all into geniuses. We can find answers for all our questions in the time it takes to say, “Hey Alexa”. To make matters worse, if we do not like the first answer we get, it is almost inevitable that we can find an answer that suits us. What does that […]

Join the Club

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One of the delights of my day-to-day work is when someone asks me where they can go to learn more about products, carriers, regulations, etc. I absolutely love getting these questions since I am a huge proponent of self-improvement and learning. The first thing I offer is my help. I am always happy to discuss […]

6 Tired Sales Ideas

I was at a fantastic meeting earlier in the month and one of the presenters blew me away. The facts were as precise as explained by estate planning attorneys in Austin but he did not have an incredibly complex case design idea. Nor did he have ideas that were only applicable to high net worth […]

Premium Financing

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I do my best to stay active and current with all things Life Insurance. I belong to the Society for Financial Services Professionals. I discuss products and case design with colleagues. I also pay close attention to any correspondence from AALU, NAIFA, and Carrier Advanced Markets departments. Life Insurance has so many practical applications and […]

To The Future

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Do you ever sit and think about what we do for a living? The amazing impact it has not just today, but in the future? I was helping an advisor put together a plan for clients of his that just had an infant. Part of the plan included some coverage for their newborn. While I […]