Our business Partner Ben Ward has been an innovator and designer of products for many years. He has a long history of product creation dating back to the old Delta Life days and most recently was instrumental in helping Forethought design and deliver their Forethought Bonus Advantage product and several others. Now with his help, we will have access to a new and exciting product from Forethought which until recently was only available in the bank channel. I asked Ben to write something for the blog to help us promote this great opportunity. So…let me introduce Ben Ward, the owner of The Leaders Council and an innovator in the product design world.

Forethought Makes Banking Product Available to Us

by Ben Ward

Forethought launched the ForeCaresm Fixed Annuity in banks over a year ago. It is, “a fixed annuity with important long-term care benefits.” It is the essence of simplification, there is a 3-step process:

STEP 1

Pre-Qualification: Client signs the HIPPA Authorization Form and then completes the Medical Questions – 11 questions, but the first 6 questions all have to be answered “no”.

So what are the questions? Typically:

• Confined to a nursing home…?

• Require assistance with daily activities…?

• Use or been medically advised to use a walker, scooter…?

• Been diagnosed or treated for Alzheimers, stroke, Parkinsons, MS, ALS, AIDS or HIV?

• Applied for LTC in last 3 years and been declined?

The next 5 questions are more general and can have a “yes” with explanation and medication list. (I did them all and at 76-years-old could qualify for this product.)

This is just a summary of the type of questions, but you can see they are not hard and you as an agent will know if your client/prospect would have to answer “yes” to any of them before even starting the process.

STEP 2

Qualification: You and the client call Forethought to begin a client interview. A decision will be given the Agent either Standard, Premium or Decline.

STEP 3

You pull the cost of insurance factor from the Facts and Factors brochure or call Sales Desk for illustration with the factor. Complete the application, get signatures, and submit paperwork.

But, what is it?

It is a simple fixed rate annuity with a 9-year surrender scale and a 1-year guaranteed rate, reviewed each year (currently 2.5%) to be competitive with a CD.

What is the LTC benefit? There are two:

1) The Accelerated Benefit is basically the cash value before surrender charges in the account, and 2) the Maximum Extended Benefit which is a multiple of the account value (two or three times depending on underwriting). The Monthly Benefit is the sum of those two, divided by the number of months the benefit will be payable, which differs by the age of the client — at age 50 it is 90 months and at age 70 it is 72 months.

This is a real simple solution to the “I don’t want to pay for something I might not use” answer to buying LTC.

But here is the KICKER in this product:

One of the chief reasons people do not buy LTC is because they do not want to go into a nursing home, they want to stay home — this product lets them do that! The client can use the monthly benefit for Home Care, Adult Day Care, Hospice, Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Respite, Bed Reservation, Nurse and Therapist, Home Health Aide & Personal Care, Homemaker Services and Chore Services — WOW! To my knowledge no other combination product allows such a wide range of use of the payments. It starts if/when they have certification from a health care professional that they cannot do two of six activities of daily living.

Of course there are some problems. You have to be licensed for Long Term Care and have all the CE credits. You have to fill out new paperwork for Forethought (oh no!). And right now, not forever, you can only be “licensed only” not contracted in the normal hierarchy. Why? Because it was solely a bank product and they don’t need levels. But the company is working on it. Commission is 5%.

Interested? Want to run some illustrations for prospects? Call ISN at 800-338-1892, Brad or the Sales Support Team will get it done! There is also a complete kit available with everything you need to know – even a sample policy and the illustration tab if you want it.

This product will open doors! Get on board now.