Reprinted from BROKER WORLD. December 2005. www.brokerworldmag.com
Used with permission from Insurance Publications. Subscriptions $6/yr. 1-800-762-3387

More or Less

Three consecutive years of declining sales has created an abundance of specula-tion as to the cause. Just what is it that we are doing wrong? Maybe nothing, maybe everything, or maybe we just need to back away from the battle lines and examine our assump-tions and perceptions.

What I suggest is that our current LTCI sales "problems" were an inevitable out-come of a natural and predictable genera-tion evolution.

The truth is, the product and sale of LTCI was designed originally for the senior mar-ket. We have continued to add band-aids, bailing wire and duct tape to a product and a sales process which is no longer valid. We are simply experiencing the normal process of completing a journey across a room that always had an "exit" sign on the other side. We must now open that door and enter a new generational horizon.

The boomers are upon us. We have been threatened with the arrival of the post World War II tidal surge ad nauseam. This rising tide of marketing shift is even now in the process of breaking the levees. The peak of boomers reaching retirement age is only 15 years away. The boomers aren’t coming, they are here.

It’s time to confront the reality of the numbers. There are 77 million boomers, representing 27.5 percent of the U.S. popu-lation, with an estimated spending power of $2.1 trillion.

Generational perception developed by different life experiences must now be taken into account to determine new product and sales approaches. Seniors lived through the Great Depression as children, and a World War as young adults, both of which demanded sacri.ce of all citizens. Seniors came to expect and rely on "more" government from the New Deal to the War on Poverty. Social Security—originally designed as a supplement—became "the" retirement bene.t of too many Americans. Medicare and Medicaid are the residue of this legacy.

The political and social landscape con-tinues to change from blue to red because boomers want "less" government. They expect to take responsibility for their own futures. They are a generation that has always been catered to and empowered to control their own destinies. Civil Rights, the Women’s Movement, and the ongoing accumulation of wealth has created a focus on self-reliance. We are not just aging hip-pies that set out to change the world. The new world has changed us.

We need boomer products and boomer sales strategies. We need products focused on .nancial risk, the reality of shortages of future caregivers, built on the certainty of increasing mortality and declining mor-bidity. We need product that is relevant, meets immediate as well as future needs, and speaks to us in a clear and transparent language. Those companies that continue to "dress up old dogs" will succeed.

Go to the blackboard now, wipe it clean and try again. Less is more!

RONALD R. HAGELMAN, JR. CLTC, CSA, LTCP, has been a teacher, cattle rancher, agent, brokerage general agent, corporate consultant and home office executive. As a consultant he has created numerous individual and group insurance products.

A nationally recognized motivational speaker, Hagelman has served on the LIMRA and Society of Actuaries LTCI committees and is the president of the American Association for Long Term Care Insurance, as well as a master trainer for the LTCP professional designation. He is a principal in the agent sales training company Hagelman-Barrie Sales Training Solutions.

Hagelman can be reached at Hagelman Consulting, 156 North Solms Road, New Braunfels, TX 78132. Telephone: 830-620-4066. Email: ronjr@satx.rr.com.