I had my introduction to Long Term Care planning when my sister and I started a Senior Move Company in Southern California. Like many small businesses, we aimed to build our company by attending networking events where we could meet other senior care providers. These events were often sponsored by Long Term Care facilities. Usually, there was some sort of educational presentation and the most common topic was Long Term Care. Intrigued by the information presented, I usually stayed after the event and asked questions about specific care concerns for the LGBT community. Over time, I was introduced to care professionals who specialized in LTC for LGBT and got a crash course on LTC planning for the community.
I became pretty obsessed with the whole topic of insurance so when I started working with a financial advisor she suggested that I get my insurance license so I could handle that side of her practice while she took care of the investments. Because of my background in training and coaching, she had this idea of us doing financial planning seminars and presentations. I liked the idea, so I jumped in and took the Life Insurance exam. Then, when I realized that insurance was only part of the full planning picture, I took the classes and obtained my securities license. That was not enough, I still wanted to get more training and wanted the help I needed to open my own practice. When Northwestern Mutual was there to offer me the opportunity, I took a leap of faith.
When I started working at Northwestern Mutual, my insurance education continued because Northwestern Mutual has products in all 3 lines, Life Insurance (LI), Disability Insurance (DI), and Long-Term Care (LTC). They made sure we knew how to incorporate insurance into a comprehensive plan. When I was doing the training, I put together a strategy to work with my community which is an intersection of dog owners, athletes, female and LGBT veterinarians. That plan worked fine until I moved into the office with the other advisors and started meeting with clients.
You see, these firms set you up by covering your training and expenses during the first couple of years. They also cover your insurance and securities license training and testing. In exchange, while studying and training, you are expected to work with senior advisors who can show you the ropes. And, of course, you get to split your commissions on the insurance until you are ready to go out on your own. Most of the rookies were in their 20’s and 30’s and many of the “senior advisors” were not that much older. This worked out fine for many of the young advisors because they were mostly white males. I wasn’t quite sure how it was going to work for me, a fully licensed 53-year-old lesbian. I would soon find out.
On my very first day in the office, one of the assistants came up to me and asked me for my help. One of the senior advisors was working with an LGBT couple and one of them died. She was a bit beside herself because the whole insurance process with this couple and another couple was less than smooth. She asked me if I could step in and help. You could tell that the advisor and the client were not seeing eye-to-eye, so I ended up working face to face with the clients while the other advisor stayed out of the picture.
A week later, I had my second experience. A lesbian couple I knew was coming in for a meeting. Since this was one of the first meetings I had in the office, it was recommended that I have a senior advisor join me for the meeting. When the couple came into the office, I could feel the eyes watching us as we walked to one of the conference rooms. When the senior advisor joined us in the room, I could tell he thought they were not ideal prospects. My hunch was correct. After the meeting, he told me that I could handle this by myself.
A few days later, I received a referral from an estate planning attorney. She asked me to meet with a friend who was transgender. Her biggest concern was that I used the correct pronouns. After my last meeting, I was not planning on asking a senior advisor to join me, so instead, I approached three of them with a question that was not covered in training. “On the applications,” I asked, “what gender do I select?” I asked this because insurance is based on age, gender, and health. The first advisor said that “They must check the box that matches their birth certificate.” The second advisor said, “They must check the box that matches their driver’s license.” The last advisor said, “I wouldn’t know and quite frankly, I don’t ever think I would take a meeting with someone like that.”
Fortunately, I called the home office underwriters before I met with him and they said that they underwrite based on actual gender, not the gender assigned at birth. They also informed me that other insurance companies still go by gender on their birth certificate. What was interesting was when I went back and told the advisors what I found out. All three thanked me, but the third one added, “I still would never meet with him because I would be very uncomfortable and worried, I would say something wrong.”
People generally buy Life Insurance, Disability Insurance, and Long-Term Care Insurance in one of two ways. They look it up online or they get a referral from a friend. Some people who search online can get information but often end up on the site of a company that spends a lot on marketing. Referrals also can result in you sitting in front of a representative from a big insurance firm.
These companies can be fine if you are healthy and do not have a complex situation. The problem stems from the sales techniques that most advisors are taught. They are very scripted and are intended to find the prospects’ pain. It is done that way to shorten the sales cycle so they can close, get the sale, and move on to the next. That can work fine if you are just like the person on the other side of the table. But it is not easy when you meet with someone who doesn’t look like you or doesn’t understand your needs or values. It also doesn’t work when they rush or force the sale.
The process of obtaining Life, Disability, or Long-Term Care insurance is not the same as purchasing insurance for your car or home. You cannot go in, pick what you want, and have the insurance in your hand when you walk out. Nor would you want to because you want to make sure you get the right policy for your needs. What follows is the process you can expect.