Many of our clients are small business owners who care deeply about their business, employees and customers. As insurance agents, we help insure their home, auto, liability, personal life insurance, group health benefits, but are you asking about their Business Continuation plan or Buy-Sell Agreement?

On average, 45% of the business owner's net worth is tied up in the business.* This subject is near and dear to some of your best clients and if you start the conversation, your clients will be interested in what you have to say.

Only 26% of small businesses owners have some type of succession plan in place.* In fact, only 30% of family owned businesses survive to the 2^nd generation and less than 12% to the third generation.** Healthy businesses that do not plan for business continuation properly can fail rather quickly; conversely, businesses that plan for continuation can survive and thrive moving forward.

There have been many times in my health insurance career that I had to dig deep to find the positive in the rapid-fire changes that came with the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.

Since then, I'm sure all of us in this market segment have felt frustrated by the many unanswered questions and the inconsistency of the answers that we get from those that are supposed to be "in-the-know."  With the recent passage of the AHCA through the House, I suspect that even as this bill moves through the Legislative branches of our Government, there will be many unanswered questions that none of us can yet answer.

One way to confirm that Medicare beneficiaries are receiving accurate & compliant information during marketing events and personal appointments, is to utilize secret shoppers.

CMS secret shoppers measure quality of service and compliance with Medicare regulations as a way to gather specific information about products and services.

Objections should always be anticipated and handled early in the presentation. You know they're coming, so take the offensive and tackle them before they tackle you.

As long as there are annuity sales presentations there will be surrender charge objections. There are many ways to address this concern, however there is one aspect of handling objections that should be paramount.

A new year brings new optimism, new challenges, opportunities, goals and resolutions.

Unfortunately, many New Year's Resolutions end as quickly as they are uttered from our lips: lose weight, eat healthier, exercise, quit smoking, save more money, get out of debt, get organized, travel more, read more, spend more time with family. Sound familiar?