3 Mark Financial, Inc.

12/20/2017

A World of Good Wishes During This Holiday Season.

One of the real joys of this time of the year is the opportunity to say thank you for your business and wish you the very best for the new year. 

Expecting a slow down in carrier news this week The next issue of In The Loop will be January 3, 2018.  If something does come up that can't wait it will be published as a Carrier Spotlight.

Business Life Insurance Opportunities Await

Successful businesses need capable leaders, but attracting and retaining top executive talent can be tricky. Especially since the savings offered by qualified plans alone may not be enough to maintain their current standard of living in retirement. Fortunately, a comprehensive benefit package that offers non-qualified deferred compensation can help your clients stay ahead of the competition. Watch our quick video to learn how. Watch the video.

Exclusive NAILBA-Lincoln Resource Center

At Lincoln, we value your partnership and are committed to your success. Through our diverse product lineup and experienced sales teams, you can rely on Lincoln to offer competitive solutions and leading-edge underwriting to meet your clients' needs. Visit our exclusive NAILBA resource center to access an array of planning tools and support. 

Experience an Advanced IUL - Lifetime Builder ELITE

Lifetime Builder set the bar high for accumulation-oriented indexed universal life, and it has been leading the market for 10 years. What could make something that good become elite? Learn more.

eDelivery Win-Win

Legal & General America's flexible eDelivery solution can save agencies both time and money. Nearly 50% of policies are now eDelivered! Visit lgamerica.com/edelivery for marketing and training materials. Newly updated flyers explain the process and options. 

Term Reprice Reminder

OPTerm rate change restored our #1 price ranking in the term marketplace. Legal & General America is committed to delivering even more competitive rates and simple solutions in 2018, so stay tuned! 

Modal Factor Change

The monthly modal factor has been reduced from .0875 to .086. Both annual and monthly rates are highly competitive! Check out lgamerica.com/term for marketing materials and to learn more.

GUL to IUL: Bridge the Gap

New to the IUL space? Not ready to make the leap into selling a concentrated cash accumulation product? Check out our Value+ Protector and learn how to cross the bridge from a GUL sale to a death-benefit-focused IUL sale. 

Tailored Client Pitches

A time saver during crunch time, our new client meeting prep tool provides a fast track to tailored sales strategies based on client generation, life stage needs, income and more.  Pitch perfect.

Help Clients Assess the Indexed Interest Rate Potential

Our Indexed Universal Life look-back calculator provides clients with information that can help them assess the indexed interest rate potential for an allocation to each of the S&P 500 crediting options. Learn more about how the calculator works.  Read more.

New Advanced Markets Blog

We are excited to announce our new Advanced Markets Blog! This is where we'll share stories of successful cases and best practices, announce new materials and tools available, discuss current events, and provide other tips and resources to help further your insurance practice. See what we've got to say by logging into JHSalesHub.com and bookmarking our Advanced Markets Blog. 

Protection SIUL: Twice as Nice

See how Protection SIUL offers competitive rates of return AND rewards for living a healthy life, making it twice as nice — plus it's a top performer relative to leading competitors! 

Changes to New Business and In-force Illustrations for our No-Lapse Guarantee Products

Consistent with industry practices, John Hancock will be updating the New Business and In-force illustrations for our No-Lapse Guarantee UL product series (UL-G ’05 through UL-G ’13 and SUL-G ’05 through SUL-G ’13) to present values based only on the guaranteed assumptions, effective December 18, 2017. Please note that while only guaranteed projections will be illustrated, the current policy charges and crediting rates remain unchanged. 

Proposed Tax Reform Plan - Updated Pieces

In light of the proposed tax reform plan, our Advanced Markets team has updated some of our most popular pieces, including the Planning in Uncertain Times and History of Estate Tax Because You Asked (BYA) flyers.  And, in case you missed it, check out the Special Edition Central Intelligence which recaps the Senate and House tax proposals.  

Add More Life Campaign is Ending, But Your Conversations Shouldn’t

The campaign is ending, but the important role life insurance plays in death benefit protection and helping clients with the retirement derailers isn't.  Access all the campaign has to offer.

Help Your Clients Give and Receive This Holiday Season

Want a way to help your clients transfer assets to a favorite charity while receiving potential lifetime income from those assets? A charitable remainder trust (CRT) can help your clients meet their income tax and estate planning goals. Read more. 

How Much Life Insurance Do Your Clients Need?

This is a common, yet difficult question to answer. That’s why we have our Life Insurance Needs Analysis calculator. Our calculator will help your clients determine an appropriate amount of protection they may need. Learn more.   

How Will Your Client Spend an Extra 30 Years?

According to the Stanford Center on Longevity (Stanford), individuals living today will exceed the average life expectancy of those in the 20th century by an additional 30 years. Are your clients and prospects aware of how much longer they could live? How do they plan on spending their extra time? And, most importantly, how should they go about seeking to finance this longer life?  Learn more.

2018 Dividend Scale Announcement

For 2018, Lafayette Life remains committed to delivering solid performing whole life policies and competitive dividend payments that provide policyholders with value — now and in the long term.  Read more. 

Hybrid or linked-benefit products are a fresh approach to retirement and estate planning. These products, cover opposing risk groups by combining long-term care coverage with life insurance or an annuity.

Understanding LTC Buyers

Understanding your client’s needs can help you be successful. To help with your success, Mutual of Omaha created the Hearts & Minds brochure to help you find the right people to talk to.

In the Hearts & Minds brochure you will find a profile of the typical LTCi buyer, what life events can trigger a purchase and how customers educate themselves on LTCi. The research is a combination of our LTCi policyholders as well as people who own policies from other companies.  We also conducted focus groups made up of long-term care buyers and non-buyers. Understanding what your client’s needs and concerns are will help you provide the right solution for them. To learn more of the findings in the Hearts & Minds brochure, please click here.

How to Talk About LTC Planning

Long-term care (LTC) services are evolving, as more clients are choosing to stay at home and receive LTC from informal caregivers.1 Informal caregivers are usually a loved one, friend or neighbor — and go unpaid for the daily care and assistance they provide. Now is the time to talk to your clients about their future LTC needs, so you can help them put a plan in place. The first step is to identify your client’s future LTC needs. Nationwide® can help you start the LTC conversation with any client — at any step of the planning process.  Learn more. 

Check Our Your New Annuity Playbook

Our new interactive Annuity Playbook combines the most important online annuity resources in one place for traditional fixed, index and income annuities. Visit http://www.aig.com/annuityplaybook to familiarize yourself with it and be sure to bookmark for future reference.

DOL Update

April 6, 2016, the United States Department of Labor (the “DOL”) issued final rules to expand the definition of an “investment advice fiduciary” under ERISA, and redefined certain prohibited transaction exemptions (“PTEs”) to be applicable as of June ‌9, 2017. Some components of the rule become applicable on June 9, 2017. In order to help you navigate the rule, please see the Continuing to Do Business with Lincoln in a Post-DOL Environment bulletin. The attached bulletin outlines key information regarding sales of annuity and life contracts for the June 9, 2017 to January 1, 2018 transition period.  Also attached is a sample 8424 template.  Please read page 1 for important information about this sample template.

Annuity Fact Finder 

Click here for a great Annuity Fact Finder

ASSET TRANSFER TIPS 

For all annuity carriers

Transferring assets, or exchanging money via section 1035 of the tax code, may have tax consequences. Any questions regarding taxation should be referred to a qualified tax professional.

1. Call the Financial Institution/Insurance Company to see what they require to transfer the money e. g. some financial institutions, like Fidelity, require a call from the client to release money, others like Northwestern Mutual require their own surrender form to accompany the 1035/transfer form from the company receiving the money.
2. Attach a copy of a current policy/ account statement for the funds being transferred to the 1035/transfer document.
3. Complete the 1035/transfer form carefully and completely. Be sure all necessary signatures are obtained.
4. Send original transfer forms with the application to 3 Mark for processing.

Video: Changing the Lives of People with Diabetes

This new John Hancock Vitality video features a testimonial by Vitality policyholder Gordon F., who has been diagnosed with diabetes. In highlighting the various ways the Vitality program has helped Gordon improve his life and health, the video does a great job of reinforcing the unique benefits John Hancock Vitality offers those with diabetes. 

What Do People with Diabetes Think About Life Insurance?

A recent survey by John Hancock revealed the misconceptions about life insurance held by people living with diabetes. The reality is that life insurance can be both accessible and affordable for these clients. What’s more, John Hancock Vitality is the only life insurance solution that offers savings and rewards for the healthy things people with diabetes are already encouraged to do to manage their condition. Learn more with this infographic and article. Also, share this story with your clients who are living with diabetes.

Revised Age and Amount Requirements

As of December 11, electrocardiograms (ECGs) for all ages at face amounts below $10 million have been eliminated.  Read more.

How is TeleLife Simple and Quick?

We keep it in-house. The Tele-Life process is completely owned by Protective. Our interviewers are trained to ask the questions our underwriters need, creating a smoother experience. And we are responsible for making a top-notch experience for you, your agents and your clients.  Learn more. 

Lowering Barriers to Life Insurance for Farm and Ranch Customers

Nationwide remains committed in helping to support family farm and ranch operations by offering more flexible underwriting guidelines. Put our updated underwriting guidelines to work for your farmers and ranchers now.