3 Mark Financial, Inc.

1/3/2018

The 5% Retirement Sales Idea presented by Symetra

Webinar January 10 at 3:00 pm central

Please plan on Joining Jeff Wright for our first webinar of 2018.  Jeff will discuss The 5% retirement income sales idea and overview of Symetra's top-rated Accumulator IUL product, which features low-cost, great distributions and the high targets Symetra is famous for.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Last week, a major piece of tax legislation was passed by Congress and signed into law by the President.  Formally known as H.R. 1, “An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018” (“Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”), it contains provisions that impact both individuals and businesses.  This edition of Advanced Markets Insights & Ideas is the first of many communications about this legislation. It provides an overview of some of the major changes under the new law and planning opportunities involving life insurance.  Read more. 

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.

The Lincoln Leader

Click here to download the latest copy of The Lincoln Leader for updates on the 2018 per diem limit and more.

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.

Financial Strength Ratings Reaffirmed

Legal & General America continues to back our market-leading competitive position and solid operating performance with exceptional financial strength ratings from three of the world's top ratings agencies.  Learn more. 

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ew Non-Natural Owner Sales Opportunities

As of December 4, we have updated our non-natural owner annuity criteria and deferred annuity structuring considerations designed to help you improve sales efficiency and illustrate options. Together we can find ways to partner for new opportunities to serve your clients.  Learn more. 

Video: Watch How You Can Easily Prepare for Successful Client Meetings

Our holiday wish for you is to make it easier to prepare the best match of clients’ needs to the right solutions. Don’t stress! We can help. Check out this video that shows how you enter age, income and a couple other data points to produce a tailored recommendation specific to each client. It combines “what” to sell based on their life stage and “how” to sell it based on their generation.  Learn more. 

Protection, Growth Potential and Flexibility - All In One Product

Many people interested in life insurance protection also want the potential for tax-deferred growth that can be accessed later in life for things like retirement, college tuition or emergencies. Learn how Income Advantage IUL helps provide a solution for these client needs.  Learn more.

New Enhancements to Online Customer Service Options

Earlier this year, we launched two new features in our Online Customer Service portal: Payment Alerts and eBill. We continue to look for ways to improve our customers’ payment experience and will launch a new communication to our customers who register for AutoPay (available Q1 2018).  Read more.

Protective Indexed Choice UL Rate Changes Reminder

In October, Protective announced that our Protective Indexed Choice UL product would undergo rate changes. As a reminder, these rate changes will go into effect on January 1, 2018.  Read more.

 Protective Survivor UL Rate Changes

Due to the continued low interest rate environment, it has become necessary to increase the rates of our Survivor UL product.  Read more. 

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017

The House of Representatives and the Senate passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which will be signed into law by President Trump in the near future. This special edition of John Hancock’s Central Intelligence summarizes the key provisions of the final bill. Click here to learn more.  

John Hancock HealthyEdge — Offering Upgrades to More Customers

Your healthier clients have a new opportunity for risk class upgrades with HealthyEdge, our new proprietary crediting program. HealthyEdge will replace our HealthStyles program, which will be retired at the end of 2017.  Learn more. 

Indexed UL - The Future Looks Bright

“Like many great innovations, Indexed UL has been a disruptive force in the industry that has stood the test of time” according to J.J. Bowman, AVP, John Hancock Insurance Product Management. Hear what else he has to say about the future of the Indexed UL market in this recent interview. 

Flexibility and Control in Retirement Years

What does the future hold for taxes? No one knows – which is why it’s worth considering a diversified strategy. Adding a fixed index universal life (FIUL) insurance policy to your client’s financial portfolio can help them address their needs in retirement tax-efficiently, regardless of the market environment. View our new sales idea, Flexibility and control in retirement years, to see how FIUL can play an important role in your client’s overall financial portfolio, including providing death benefit protection.

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. 

Policy Health Check Preview

Policy Health Check (PHC), an innovative new supplemental illustration now available in AEGIS Web, has been developed to streamline the process of tracking how inforce life policies are performing. PHC provides a client approved report which shows visually, on one page, how long the policy is currently projected to last and will help determine whether the current annualized billed premium and current non- guaranteed charges will be sufficient to keep the policy inforce through three target duration periods. Learn 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.

Save Your Clients Money with Fit Credits

Our Fit underwriting credit program is designed to help you reduce insurance costs for your clients.  Learn how.

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.