Why Cold Marketing Doesn’t Make Sense

Attracting the wrong kind of client is like dumping trash into your sales pipeline. So why do so many advisors think that getting a huge list of cold leads rather than looking in their own backyard is the right move? If you cram tons of cold leads into your pipeline, soon it gets so clogged that you don’t have any room for the right clients.

The traditional sales pipeline has

schooled many of us to think that we

should throw as many leads as possible

into our pipeline, including so-called leads

from mailers and advertising sent to the

masses. The problem is the advisor’s

message isn’t reaching targeted groups

of prospects - the message is broadcast

to ice cold leads. If that’s your strategy,

you may as well save a few bucks and

open your local phone book and start

mailing. While you may get a few sales

after spending thousands of dollars

sending thousands of postcards out

based on a list you got out of the White

Pages or a list you bought from the

same company everyone else uses,

cold marketing strategies are highly

inefficient and never pan out the way

that you hope.

All cold leads really do is create a ton of

busy work and waste your valuable time.

To successfully market to a targeted

group of qualified people, you only

need to work smarter, not harder. The

trick is knowing how to generate more customers who are ready to buy with heartier leads. Getting the right people into your sales pipeline is what drives sales, not increasing the number of wrong people.

Your “ideal” clients will not only understand the need for your services but they naturally pass on the information to people they know. Never underestimate word of mouth and the power a client has to bring others just like them to your door. After all, people tend to associate with others who possess similar qualities, have similar financial

situations, have similar concerns and have similar planning issues. The more you associate with your “ideal” clients, the better the chance you have at converting their similarly situated friends, relatives or acquaintances into your new clients.

Advisors need to create an inbound marketing approach to building their practice. It takes some skill and specialized planning, but it’s much more sustainable and you will yield better results. By focusing on marketing channels that work, you can systemize your marketing process, increase the number of prospects you touch and dramatically increase your selling appointments.

Can you name one of the greatest tax breaks in the U.S. Tax Code?

Thanks to the salutary effects of tax-free growth, the miracle of compound interest and tax breaks aimed

at saving spendthrift Baby Boomers from themselves, many people are going to accumulate more money in IRAs, pensions, profit sharing plans, 401(k)s, and similar plans than ever before. Why?

Some retirees may be able to sustain their lifestyles, meet obligations and still leave some percentage of their IRAs to their heirs. These individuals may want to pass on the unused portion of an IRA to a spouse, children or even grandchildren. Creating a Multi-Generational (MGIRA) or “stretch” IRA can result in substantial distributions being made over the

life expectancies of the owner, the owner’s spouse and their children.

Consider, for example, a 72-year-old married man with three children

who has accumulated $2,550,000 for retirement. By making the most

of Multi-Generational IRA planning, total distributions from a $2.5 million

retirement nest egg could exceed $11 million!

Unfortunately, putting together a successful Multi-Generational IRA

takes careful planning, as there are plenty of potential traps and pitfalls.

As Forbes® Magazine explained, “The rules covering inherited IRAs are

the most complex that ordinary taxpayers ever encounter; even the IRS

hasn’t filled in all the gaps.”

The biggest obstacle to an IRA legacy strategy, believe it or not, is the Federal Government. Congress

created IRAs to encourage Americans to plan for their retirement. However, it never intended for them

to accumulate funds and defer taxes indefinitely. Unless an IRA owner takes specific steps to continue

to defer tax liability, the IRS stands to take 35 to 80% of those hard-earned IRA funds upon the death of

the owner.

How Social Security Conversations Lead to Happy Clients

Social Security is the foundation of everyone's retirement plan. Learn how to maximize it and you will be deemed to be far more than someone preparing taxes. Here is how to use it as a non-threatening door-opener:

1. Tell everyone about Social Security maximization.  Everyone has an opinion about Social Security. It is easy to enter into a conversation. Start with, "Did you know that 70% of retirees lose thousands of dollars in Social Security because they don't know how to collect their maximum benefit?" 
2. Here is something 99% of Social Security retirees miss: Spousal Benefits may provide up to $60,000 of "Free Money" .
3. Share pitfalls:  Starting Social Security income at age 62 may cost over 100,000 in lost benefits.  
4. Ask this question: "You pay into Social Security for about 40 years. Why don't you spend 40 minutes with me so I can show you how you can get the most money from it." 
5. Call your existing customers and tell them how excited you are about your new Social Security Maximization calculator.  This will open doors to new business and referrals.
6. Give everyone five business cards and ask them to help their friends maximize their Social Security benefits.
7. Be enthusiastic!  You have the key to put thousands of dollars into the pockets of everyone you meet!
8. Transition question: "I have access to concepts similar to Social Security in that they provide risk-free lifetime income. Would you like to hear about other ways you can guarantee your future income?"

Start a Social Security conversation and let me know how it turns out. We can help you explain to your clients the power of Social Security Maximization.

Advisors Should Practice What They Preach... Do You?

Being an effective, credible advisor or

financial planner entails practicing what

you preach. When you meet with clients

to discuss their financial well-being

and make recommendations to them,

are you coming across as an ordinary

salesperson or are you following your

own advice and implementing the very

strategies you are promoting?

There is nothing worse than having

a client say to you that your proposed

financial strategies sound ideal but when

the client asks how they are working out

for you personally, you haven’t even

done any of the things you are asking

the client to do! Think about it, if what

you are recommending is so great, why

aren’t you doing it for yourself? When,

for example, you are discussing the

wonders of life insurance or FIAs with

your clients, they want to hear how YOU

have protected yourself and your loved

ones with these products.

Indexed universal life insurance fills the niche between being too risky and "too fixed."

With the stock market's continued ups and downs, and interest rates still sitting at near historical lows, there are many clients who are likely left wondering how they may be able to supplement their retirement income sources.

The good news is that there may be a product that fills the niche between being too risky and "too fixed." This middle ground is indexed universal life insurance.

In addition to offering death benefit protection, a potential advantage of owning indexed universal life (IUL) insurance is that the policy may be used for receiving a tax free retirement income. While the policy's cash account is being built up, these plans can also provide several advantages over other types of permanent life insurance options.

A long-term planning option

While IUL provides many of the same protections as do other permanent life insurance policies, these policies can also include more flexibility, as well as some additional advantages.

Some of the benefits that can found by choosing IUL include the following:

• Tax-free death benefit. Certainly, one of the biggest benefits of life insurance is that the death benefit proceeds are free from federal income taxation to survivors. This can allow beneficiaries to use the full face amount for paying off debts, replacing the decedent's income, or any other need that they see fit. Also, because life insurance proceeds pass directly to a named beneficiary, these funds aren't held up in costly, and time-consuming, probate proceedings.
• Tax-deferred growth of cash value. Permanent life insurance policies also allow the funds inside of the cash or investment component to grow on a tax-deferred basis. This means that funds have the opportunity to grow on an exponential basis, versus if the gain were taxed each year.
• Additional growth potential. With IUL, policy holders can obtain additional growth potential in their cash account. This is because the funds are benchmarked off of an underlying index (or in some cases, more than one index). In doing so, interest is credited to the account based upon the market performance, but without the downside risk of loss of principal.
• Protection of principal. Many IUL policies will protect policy holders' principal from underlying market losses. Due to an annual "reset" feature, cash value gains can be "locked in" each policy year, and they can never be lost due to future market losses. This essentially means that policy owners can participate in market growth, but they cannot lose principal in the event of a market downturn — almost like the best of both worlds.

• No minimum age requirements to participate. Though most types of qualified retirement plans require that participants be a certain age to participate, there are typically no minimum age requirements for purchasing IUL. This can allow individuals to start saving early. There are also no minimum age requirements for cash value withdrawals, so these plans can also offer flexibility when it comes to taking funds out of the plan as well.
• No mandatory RMD (required minimum distribution) requirements. Likewise, there is no requirement to start withdrawing funds from an IUL policy once a policy owner reaches age 70 1/2 as there is with qualified retirement plans. This means that the funds that are inside of an IUL policy may remain in the account, continuing to accumulate on a tax-deferred basis

Want to learn more? Just ask!

The Truth About Fixed Indexed Annuities

What do Walmart, Wells Fargo, major wirehouses and Tony Robbins all have in common?  They’re all part of a growing stampede to sell Fixed Indexed Annuities.  2014 will end up as the year where Fixed Indexed Annuity sales were up over 36% from the previous year, a new record high for FIA sales.

Financial commentators of all stripes tend to harp on high profile cases where consumers were sold annuities ill-suited to their needs.  These commentators also claim annuities are too complicated, expensive and have inflexible terms, making them unattractive to changing needs. Many advisors believe annuities offer clients little more than 3 to 4% interest. We believe the public is not getting a balanced picture and the time has come to set the record straight and give consumers the truth about fixed indexed annuities.

It’s crucial to disseminate

Three Ways to Increase Your Level of Success

Table Bay Financial has the great pleasure of working with and consulting with successful advisors throughout the country. The truth is, we all want the same thing…we want a greater level of success.

Everyone’s definition of success may be slightly different… some advisors with whom we work want a higher level of personal income, some are focused on building a more efficient business, and some just want more free time to enjoy the successes they've worked hard to achieve.