If you know exactly what you want, you should not use an agent. But sometimes, people think they know what they need and don’t.

That is very expensive.

A really good life guy is great for:
a. solving the term needs for clients or….
b. solving the estate planning needs of those in need. Usually, someone with a very large estate. Whole life or universal is fantastic for that purpose (skip variable life if you ask me).
c. business transition planning is a great place to use whole life or universal too.

I think the very successful life insurance people either do one of the 3 things above or they are very convincing sales people who take advantage of clients who don’t know better.

In the interests of time/space…that’s my best answer.

Stock brokers can be really great if they are old school….i.e. they actually pick stocks and have a system to do so that has been successful. Usually, such a person has a very high minimum account requirement.

This is my opinion based on my experience.

I feel that while there are those Life Guys or Stockbrokers that aren’t worth the suit they try to fill (is that a saying or did I just make that one up lol) there are plenty of both of those types that take a comprehensive look at a client’s finances. And those are the ones that are the most successful.

It’s often behind the scenes. I’m going to write about RIA registration tomorrow….I hope you tune in.

If people in your office are also doing fee based work, they either:
a. have an RIA or an affiliate RIA (more on that tomorrow) or
b. they are breaking the law.

There is no problem having more than one license – I have 2. I used to have 3. But if a person ONLY has the insurance license and no other affiliation, they can’t give fee based advice legally. The only exception I know of is if they have very few clients and qualify under the deminimus rules.

If I’m wrong…..by all means….let me know. But my guess is, the folks have some kind of association with the firm’s RIA….can you confirm?

This simply isn’t true. I work in an office where most of the people just have their life insurance license, but they do Fee Based Financial Planning and there are clients who buy nothing but that relationship.