How to approach clients about disability insurance
Research indicates that 92.6% of people do not have enough income protection. How can you help your clients close this gap? It starts with finding the right approach. Here are three suggestions for discussing disability insurance with your clients, depending on their communication styles, family dynamics, and overall needs.
Wants and Needs
Encourage your clients to focus on what is truly important to them. By using real examples, you can more easily point out where they may currently be investing in the wants versus their needs.
Want — The average monthly technology cost per household ranges between $400 - $500, including smartphones, iPads, wireless service, cable, Netflix, and other services.
Need — At a cost of just 1-3% of annual income, clients can purchase income protection that will help pay bills if they become too sick or too injured to work.
What If?
Ask your clients “what if?” questions to help them recognize the importance of their paycheck and get them thinking about Plan B.
A great way to do this is by comparing auto insurance with disability insurance, which will help a client see that they aren’t actually insuring their most valuable asset. Here are suggestions:
Example questions: Why do you set an alarm clock? Why do you go to work? What if you couldn’t go to work? What if you couldn’t earn your paycheck? What if life doesn’t go as planned? Do you believe life will go as planned and if so with what degree of certainty do you hold this belief?
Comparison: Auto insurance can cost approximately 12% of a car’s value (for example, $125/month). By comparison, disability insurance can cost approximately 1.8% of income (for example, $230/month).
Mental Checklist
Encourage your clients to think about their plan for a hypothetical illness or injury that left them unable to work. Do this by asking questions such as:
“Imagine if you woke up in the hospital and it was the worst case scenario?”
Think about the resources and services that are important in your daily life, such as health insurance, sick leave, life insurance, child care, pet sitters, and lawn service, and then ask them if they have “Income Protection” to cover these services. In other words, who will write their paycheck if the unexpected happens?