The Annuity Lead

Now, more than ever before, people are looking for security when they may financial decisions.  For some people, this involves seeking out the advice of a qualified financial advisor to assist in making the tough decisions about how their money is invested.  Obviously, you want to be this person that customers flock to with their assets, but how can you position yourself as a trusted advisor in the financial field?  How can you sell annuities and also serve people well? The key is in building a relationship with your clients.

Think about it – would you rather do business with a slick person who swoops in with glossy brochures and polished sales messages, or with someone who sits down with you to discuss your financial options and genuinely seems to care about your financial well being?  This distinction becomes especially apparent when dealing with senior citizens, who may be especially wary of dealing with anyone who comes off as too professional and impersonal.  There are several steps you can take to build this relationship with your existing clients and in the process sell annuities to them and their referrals:

• Try to get a full understanding of their financial situations

It isn’t enough to find out how much money a client has sitting in bank accounts and retirement investments.  Take the time to sit down with a client to understand the whole picture.  Where do they owe money and in what amounts?  What are their biggest fears about money?  When do they plan to retire and what type of lifestyle would they like to lead at this time?  When a client feels that you truly care about finding the best solution for them – whether or not it’s your product – they’ll be much more likely to work with you resulting in more annuity sales.

• Explain the terms of your annuities fully

A lot of annuity agents get a bad rap for glossing over the terms of annuity surrender periods and the fees associated with early withdrawals, leaving participants unaware of the risks associated with the investments.  And although these tactics may have helped them to make sales, the deception eventually catches up – many of these brokers are now being investigated by the SEC and may be subject to harsh fines and criminal sentences.  Instead, take the time to make sure your clients understand both the benefits and risks of annuities fully.  You don’t need to define every technical term in the fine print, just be sure that your clients are clear on what’s involved in the annuity. You’re likely to make more annuity sales to referrals when your clients feel they are fully informed.

• It’s the little things that matter

Sure, it may sound cheesy, but send that birthday card or Christmas card to clients that have purchased annuities with you.  They’ll appreciate your thoughtfulness and keep you in mind if they’re thinking about making further investments.  Also, take the time to make a follow-up phone call or two once a client has purchased an annuity to make sure that everything’s going according to plan and to see if they have any further questions.  Your clients will see you going the extra mile and feel more confident in the annuities they’ve purchased from you.  This is what leads to repeat annuity sales and referral annuity sales.

The real payoff from building a relationship with your client comes in the form of referrals and additional business.  People talk, and if they’ve had a positive experience with you, they’ll be much more likely to recommend you to other people they know that are looking for financial assistance and investment opportunities.

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An annuity buyer is a specialized firm which pays a lump sum cash for the annuity payments that are made in installments, i.e. a structured settlement. An annuity is designed to pay long term returns on the investments that has already been made by an investor.  The role of an annuity buyer is understood when an individual requires lump sum at a time.  The role of annuity buyer does not end at this. There are other areas when an annuity buyer can come as an investor.  Here I am using the word investor for an annuity buyer because the specialized firm helps an individual to get the cash required for an emergency and takes up the effort and time required to collect the annuity payments in installments.

Such firms also help individuals to sell lottery winnings and life insurance policy. Let us check out how this is done. The structured settlements purchase programs run by many firms across the country helps to achieve this. Structured settlements are not designed to meet circumstances. As a result if there is any unfortunate incident like an accident, they do not come handy. It is during these times that an annuity buyer can come in and buy those structured settlements at a time.  When buying structured payment schemes we must be sure that they can be sold at a time to a third party if there is any emergency. Any annuity which does not allow this feature may not be a prudent investment in some cases.

Third party annuity buyers create specialized plans depending upon the requirement of an individual to buy annuities. For someone it may not be needed to sell the entire annuity at one time, while for others they may want to sell the entire annuity at a time. To satisfy various requirements of customer an annuity buyer will create a special plan to ensure that maximum payouts are given out to the individual during their trying times. It is suggested that investors should not wait for any incident to happen till they finalize on an annuity buyer. It is normal that if we try to sell an annuity for a lump sum at the eleventh hour the price that we may get would be less than what we would have got if we had an arrangement earlier. 

There are numerous companies across the country which engages in the business of buying an annuity. We should approach a few of the renowned companies and agree upon a rate.  The probability of any untoward incident or sudden requirement of money does not happen frequently. However when it happens we should be well prepared to handle it. Apart from annuities there are also life settlement programs which are offered by many companies.  When choosing an annuity buyer it is important to understand the credibility of the annuity buyer. In the present market turmoil, many of the companies may not be in a position to honor commitments made to clients.  So investors should be aware of such factors before taking a decision on their annuity buyer.

This post provided by Javelin Marketing

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