We look forward to the Van Mueller newsletter every month. It's chock-full of sound bites, sales tips, and eye-opening statistics. Here are our favorite parts of the June 2018 edition. We're sharing the full introduction, and 2 of the 7 monthly sales ideas. If you like what you read, we encourage you to click here and become a subscriber.
Reprinted with the author's permission.
June, 2018 – 7 Ideas and Views Newsletter by Van Mueller
June is always my favorite month of the year. One of the reasons is selfish. On June 22nd, I will be 67 years old. I will have been an agent for 45½ years.
It is exciting that I will be an insurance agent for another 20, 30 or even 40 more years. I truly love what I do and I am excited to keep on learning and growing and getting better. Can you imagine how fun our careers would be if they were never adversarial? What if all you ever did was ask questions that inspired people to take action and then they gave you money? Doesn't that sound like a rough profession? I agree. Not Really. That is why we must work hard to learn to ask and not tell.
I also love June because when June ends, essentially half the year is over. It gives you a chance to easily calculate what you must do the rest of the year to meet your goals. It is almost like a fresh start.
When June ends, essentially half the year is over. It gives you a chance to easily calculate what you must do the rest of the year to meet your goals. It is almost like a fresh start.
You will be assisted this year with all the craziness that will begin in the world's economies. Americans are in very serious danger of giving back ALL the gains they've made in the last nine years, and then some. I know many of you think I overstated this, however, you are the only people who can prevent our prospects and clients from experiencing doomsday. If we do not get in front of as many people and small businesses as possible, those businesses and people will be slaughtered. You do change and save the world one appointment at a time. It is vital that we ask our prospects and clients abut several issues.
First, are you aware of the danger that all Americans are about to face?
Second, what if there was a way to prevent yourself from being hurt by those very dangerous challenges?
And finally, what if there was a way to take advantage of what is going to happen rather than be hurt by it? Wouldn't it be important to know that? Ask them how many times they are going to let Wall Street take 30 or 50 or even 70 percent of their money and then have the Internal Revenue Service pour salt in the wounds by taking another 20 to 40 percent in income taxes? When are they going to say to themselves, “Enough is enough! I am not going to let this happen to me again. I cannot afford to let this happen to me again.”
This is an important time in history. Americans desperately need our advice. WE must be there to help them.
I am really excited about something I have been working on for months and months. My new CDs will be available sometime in the middle of June at my website www.vanmueller.com.
If you have my previous CDs the new CDs will enhance and add on to and provide new ideas and new questions to add to your arsenal. Important economic information will be provided as well as some new sales ideas.
If this is your first CD ever with me, it will help you understand that the skills you require to be successful can be learned quickly and will become effective quickly if you PRACTICE and PRACTICE.
That information is actually important to new and experienced agents. The information will be beneficial to previous listeners as well as new listeners.
Success is not about a great personality or great looks or even great advantages.
Success is not about a great personality or great looks or even great advantages.
Success in our business is about asking and not telling. It is about asking important and powerful questions rather than frivolous and inconsequential questions. It is about a desire to serve at the best of your ability. The key is to practice. All professionals practice. People with average natural ability are successful because they develop skills. Skills are developed by practice. Natural ability can take you part of the way. Practice will take you all the way. What is the message? You are only the amount of practice sessions needed that will allow you to become conversational, sincere, interested, intelligent, knowledgeable, inspirational and referable to achieve all the success you could ever dream of. My questions to you is this, “When do you want to get Started?”
I am very proud of the new CDs. I know that they will help you get more appointments, convert more of those appointments to sales and get more and more referrals without even asking because your professional demeanor will be referable.
Please go to www.vanmueller.com and get the new CDs. I know they will help you to help a lot more people than you currently are.
I haven't talked about economics for a while, but I am going to do so today. There is so much misinformation out there and we must help our prospects and clients realize they are the only ones who can control their financial and retirement future. If they wait around for the establishments they depend on to keep their promises, they will be waiting a long time.
There is so much misinformation out there and we must help our prospects and clients realize they are the only ones who can control their financial and retirement future.
Since 2009 there have been 667 global interest rate cuts. That averages out to 74 interest rate cuts per year. Here is something no one is considering. When the last crash happened, the Federal Reserve had almost 500 basis points they could reduce interest rates by. Now they only have around 300 basis points. If the next downturn is worse they will have less tools to deal with the devastation that will be caused. This could mean that old investing techniques will not work in the future.
We have enormous debt and astounding unfunded liabilities.
The unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare are now over $82 trillion. Remember, we currently have a $4 trillion per year government budget and a $20 trillion per year GDP.
The unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare are now over $82 trillion.
The amount of debt has become absurd. Subprime Auto Debt is currently at $1.1 trillion. The defaults on these loans are now currently higher than they were during the financial crisis.
Credit card debt has now increased to $1.1 trillion. This is the highest amount ever in the history of Americans owning credit cards. There is a new record high for the indebtedness of our children. They now face $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. The default rate on these loans is already between 30 and 40 percent and we have recently discovered it may even be higher. Many students have been told rather than defaulting that they should enter into forbearance. That prevents default even though the student is no longer making payments. However, interest continues to accumulate on enormous amounts of money. The jobs these students are getting do not provide enough income to off-set the loans. Most of these students will never be able to buy homes. Their house payment will go to paying student loans. Would you like to hear the governments answer to this? They have just submitted new bills in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, that would forgive up to a maximum of $40,150 of student loans if that student is willing to defer taking Social Security for up to 6 years and one month. At $15,000 per year of Social Security it would cost those students over $90,000 to eliminate $40,150 of student loans.
Show this information to Grandma and Grandpa and ask if you could show them a way to help their grandchildren without hurting themselves, would they do it?
Subprime mortgages are back with a vengeance. Loans are being made to people with nothing down and 500 credit scores. Doesn't this remind you of 2007 and 2008? Housing is in a bubble again. They can make these loans because once they are made they are sold to Fannie Mae where the taxpayer becomes responsible for the bailout of those loans.
Subprime mortgages are back with a vengeance.
Since 2007, Corporate debt has risen from $40 trillion to $70 trillion. When the downturn starts, how do those corporations service all that debt? Corporations have actually borrowed money for stock buybacks. The recent tax cut corporations received was not used to create jobs or expand operations or put money into the pockets of Main Street, America. Those tax cuts and that borrowed money was used to buy back company's own stock thereby temporarily lining the pockets of very few Americans at the expense of many Americans.
The auto companies are a prime example of this. We bailed out General Motors during the financial crises and forgave their debt to protect all the union workers who would have lost their jobs or their pensions or both. Now, since 2009, General Motors has created $60 billion of new debt. They are worse off than the last time the taxpayers bailed them out. Soon, all these debt related issues are going to matter big time. Liquidity will be a serious issue when all the investors start heading for the door. There will not be near enough liquidity to provide money to all the sellers. They will be stuck.
Derivatives are becoming a serious issue again. American banks have exposure to $172 trillion dollars of derivatives. 89.4 percent of those derivatives are concentrated in just four banks. JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. Internationally, Deutchebank, one of the largest banks in the world and the largest bank in the European Union has exposure to $56 trillion in derivatives all by itself. This is astonishing. All the same mistakes, only much, much bigger.
Our government debt has gone from $6 trillion to $35 trillion in debt just since 2007.
Our government debt has gone from $6 trillion to $35 trillion in debt just since 2007
I always use this as one of my best transitional questions; “Have you ever done the math on any of this, or should we do the math on this?”
There are 74 million Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964 and there are 66 million Generation Xers born between 1965 and 1980. That means between now and 2045 there will be 140 million Americans going on Social Security and Medicare, and Medicaid will be stretched to its limits trying to provide long term care to retirees who cannot afford to pay for that care.
The argument is made that the Millennials and Generation Z's who are equal to or larger than the Baby Boomer generation will be able to handle all the taxes. If the Silent Generations' assets are not preserved and safely grown there will not be nearly enough money to pay for all the retirement and healthcare costs of the Baby Boomers and Generation Xers. By 2030, for the first time ever there will be more people over age 65 than there are people under age 18. Those numbers just don't work for “pay-as-you-go” systems like Social Security and Medicare.
By 2030, for the first time ever there will be more people over age 65 than there are people under age 18. Those numbers just don't work for “pay-as-you-go” systems like Social Security and Medicare.
There are so many other economic issues to discuss. We will talk about them every month as the challenges increase for our prospects and clients. Don't ever think or believe that there are not an enormous number of issues that must be considered by our prospects and clients. The list is considerable. I am going to provide you with that list now. Please do not use the list to tell people things. Please use the list to create questions that you can ask prospects and clients. Asking questions about these issues will make you look like you are a genius. Every time you ask a question about issues that are listed you will probably be asking them questions NO ONE ELSE has ever asked them. Here is the list:
- Longevity Risk
- Inflation Risk
- Income Tax Risk
- Excess Withdrawal Risk
- Health Expense Risk
- Long Term Care Risk
- Frailty Risk
- Financial Elder Abuse Risk
- Market Risk
- Interest Rate Risk
- Liquidity Risk
- Sequence of Return Risk
- Forced Retirement Risk
- Reemployment Risk
- Employer Insolvency Risk
- Loss of Spouse Risk
- Unexpected Financial Responsibility Risk
- Timing Risk
- Public Policy Risk
- Derivatives Risk
- Disability Risk
All of the above will be challenges that Americans of all ages will face in the years ahead. We have the ability to guarantee, yes guarantee successful outcomes. However, we must make sure that our prospects and clients are aware that these challenges exist. Don't assume they know: They don't. They are not stupid either. They are just busy. Help them to become aware by asking questions about all the issues above.
Don't forget, my new CDs come out the middle of June. Please go to www.vanmueller.com and order the new one immediately. It will help you open more cases and successfully close more cases.
Let's get started with the sales ideas. I am very excited about this month's ideas because they are some of my favorite things to talk about and help me to make a majority of my sales.
We're passing on two of the newsletter's monthly sales ideas - every issue of the newsletter contains 7 ideas, plus one idea for the Canadian market. Subscribe to get them all.
Idea #1: Milliman Medical Index
Every May Milliman issues a report disclosing what they believe to be the average cost of health care for a family of four. In 2015 it was $24,671. In 2016 it increased to $25,826. It rose again in 2017 to $26,944. Over the last 15 years the costs have tripled.
The latest report issued May 22, 2018 says that the average cost of healthcare for a family of four has risen to $28,166. That means if healthcare costs continue to rise as they have in the past, by 2033 healthcare for a family of four could easily rise to $84,000 per year. How many families will be able to maintain access to quality health care? Not many.
Why do I trust this information so much? Milliman is an actuarial firm. They are about the math. Actuaries cannot be influenced by politics or sales quotas. They only use the math to make calculations.
How do you use this information? First, you present it to every Grandma and Grandpa in America. Why? Because they are the only people with any money. If we can show them how to preserve, safely grow and even leverage their money without giving up control of that money we can help the generations that follow while helping the current generations maintain the certainty of being in control of their own lives. Grandmas and Grandpas love knowing that they can help their families especially when they don't have to lose control or jeopardize their current circumstance. Most are actually enthusiastic and excited to know that an opportunity like this is available to them.
Remember we should always sell what life insurance does, not what it is.
Second, we should show younger people these costs and explain why they are very important.
Without access to quality healthcare will it be possible for younger people to even become old people? Shouldn't they be encouraged to work with their families to make sure money will always be available for quality healthcare? Won't another problem be created with this magnificent increase in health care? Who will pay for all this increased health care cost? Won't it be young people? Shouldn't they be made aware and shown ways to never lose any money, take advantage of bad things that happen as opportunities and do it with reduced or even total elimination of income tax liability? Didn't I say that many experts believe investing will require different techniques than those used in the past?
This one idea opens up discussions at every age group about everything we can do to help people.
I am going to give you a hyper-link to one article, however please “Google” this phrase; "Milliman Medical Index 2018." You will find access to all the information you can use to inspire people to take action to deal with the challenge future health care costs will require. THIS IS A KILLER IDEA! Use it. Practice it. Become conversational with it. This will help a lot of people and you will make a lot of money doing it.
Title: Milliman Medical Index: Healthcare costs for typical American family reach $28,166 despite low annual rate of increase
www.prnewswire.com (PR Newswire, May 22, 2018)
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/milliman-medical-index-healthcare-costs-for-typical-american-family-reach-28-166-despite-low-annual-rate-of-increase-300652165.html
Idea #4: Don't Forget Long Term Care
According to Medicare, 70 percent of seniors 65 and over will end up needing some type of long term care during their lives. 69 percent of those recipients will require three years or more of care.
With current costs ranging from $85,000 for a double room to $98,000 for a single room that is overwhelming enough. However, if you just apply 6 percent inflation to those costs, by 2030 when all the Baby Boomers are over age 65 those costs will have risen to $170,000 for semiprivate rooms to $196,000 per year for a private room. That is astonishing money any way you look at it. This is one of the greatest opportunities ever to use cash value life insurance to create money for long term care needs.
If a client has $200,000 in a savings account or checking account or money market or short-term bond fund or a CD, that money can be reallocated to cash value life insurance. It will provide approximately the same return. It will remain reasonably accessible and with the $200,000 buying a $375,000 face amount policy. Our clients could go into a nursing home for two years using around $80,000 per year of the money to pay for that cost. If the client then dies they would only have $40,000 left of the original $200,000 for their family. Because they met us our client would still use the same $160,000 but it would be subtracted from the $375,000 face amount rather than the $200,000 they gave us. This means the family would still inherit what our client started with even though they used 80 percent of the money while they were alive.
Wouldn't that be a more effective and efficient use of that money that they are currently doing? Wouldn't this be a better use of your money?
This will be the biggest expense we cover in the next 50 years. Let's show our prospects and clients how to use their money to their best advantage. Wouldn't that be cash value life insurance?
Title: The 1 Retirement Expense We're Still Not Preparing For
www.fool.com (The Motley Fool, May 24, 2018)
https://www.fool.com/retirement/2018/05/24/the-1-retirement-expense-were-still-not-preparing.aspx
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