By Jerry Cohen | July 02, 2020 at 10:15 PM
Sometimes a lost sale is more than just a lost sale.
No, I did not mean to write the title
differently.
The amount of life insurance people own can be
viewed as a status symbol for those that like to throw big numbers around.
I always thought life insurance was a way
someone demonstrated their view of the value they place on themselves to
others. Many years ago, I realized that there was a direct connection between
the value a person places on their life and the value their life holds to
others and the amount of life insurance they own.
I have never really had to work very hard to
convince someone who knew that they needed life insurance to apply for
any. The hardest situations I have encountered are the ones where a person
would rather buy expensive jewelry, go on a long vacation, buy the biggest
house, or buy the most costly clothes or car.
This is as true in family situations as it is
in business. A situation I was involved in several years ago involved the owner
of the largest company of its type on Long Island. The man was in his late 60s.
He had diabetes, and heart problems, but he ran his company like a lion.
His oldest son worked quietly within the
company, primarily focused on keeping his father from overspending. The man was
in the process of constructing a palace on the North Shore of Long Island,
overlooking the Long Island Sound. It was kind of weird, because he had no
spouse and was not all that close with his few children, so the question was,
who was going to inhabit the walls of this big structure?
The man drew heavily from his company funds to
pay for the building of this place. At one point, when he realized he was
spending heavily, Mr. ___ decided to buy a life insurance policy for $1 million
death benefit. Knowing a little about Mr. ___’s medical profile I was not that
excited. I said, “You know I will have my work cut out for me, but, if you get
your doctors to cooperate, I will do the best I can.”
He promised to complete an application and get
his doctors to respond to the requests for medical records which were going to
be coming from the life insurance companies. With his completed application in
hand, I went to two different wholesalers with the man’s complete medical
profile.
He was rejected by 14 companies from one
wholesaler, and nine from another. Ironically, the second wholesaler received
an approval from one of the companies that had rejected him from the first
wholesaler. (That’s business, I guess). I went back to the man somewhat
nervous, because I knew I would be presenting news Mr. _____ probably did not
want to hear.
“Mr. ____, I have good news, and I have bad
news,” I said. “Which do you want first?”
My client was a former U.S. Army Ranger and
feared very little.
“Give me the bad news first,” he said,
somewhat bored with the whole discussion.
“Well, you were rejected by about 23 life
insurance companies,” I said with a hint of glee in my voice.
“And, now you are going to tell me good news!”
Mr___ almost hissed at me with anger on his face.
“Yes, you are going to love this,” I blurted
out. “You know the first list of 14 rejections…”
“Yeah, so,” Mr. ____ chimed in.
“Well, the same company that rejected you from
list 1 said yes on list 2. Same company, different underwriter.”
Mr. ____ did not share my enthusiasm. Instead,
he wanted to know the cost (which was roughly $21,000). He drew a deep
breath and said, “Call me next week. I’m going to think about it.”
Mr. ___ never bought the insurance. Two years
later, he was dead from a heart attack.
His dream home was still unfinished and had to
be sold for pennies on the dollar, while the son fought hard to keep Mr. ___’s
company operating.
A few months later, the doors of the company
closed for the last time.
About 35 full-time employees were left without
a job. The son was left to figure out his next occupation at the age of 42. If
only Mr. __ had purchased the life insurance.
Jerry Cohen is
a broker in the life, health and Medicare supplement insurance markets. His
office is in Port Jefferson Station, New York.
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