Barry Lundquist:

One thing I guess, I’ll share, I vividly remember this conversation with a broker in New York named Steve Herman, great guy, sold to healthcare professionals primarily, and extremely successful, and just really had a wonderful career. I remember him saying to me, “If I ever knew how lucrative this business was, I would have started doing it 20 years before I did.” The compensation people can earn from disability insurance is significant, in particularly renewals, which take a while to accumulate, but they last a long time. It’s very unique to the disability business. Group disability in ways is the same way. I mean, it’s level conditions. Just from a financial point of view, I mean, agent are business people, and they need to decide how do they make a living. That’s something they should factor in. I would like to start by talking about people who aren’t selling disability insurance, period. I can really get pretty fired up about this. I spent five years …

Joe Sevcik:

That’s good.

Barry Lundquist:

… trying to educate people. But speaking to that person who doesn’t sell DI … and regardless of the reason, it might be a good reason. But if you’re not discussing income protection with your clients, you are not doing your job, period. You’re literally being negligent. If you choose to not be involved in selling DI, at least find a disability expert you can trust, partner with that person, developer relationship, and refer that that task, if you will, of protecting each client’s income to that expert. I mean, the last thing in the world, I would want, if I were a broker is a phone call from my client spouse, because the clients experienced the stroker, some other debilitating disability.

Barry Lundquist:

The spouse has asked me what coverage is in place? There isn’t any. I mean, how do you explain that? Your trusted advisor is your responsibility to make sure they’re protected one way or another. I hope that comes across as being pretty strong. For people who are just starting out or even not selling DI, besides the fact that you can make a lot of money doing it, which is an important consideration. One thing is always occurred to me, is disability insurance is a coverage that young people should buy. There are many reasons why buying DI when you’re young makes good sense.

Barry Lundquist:

Premiums are low, and you can lock in those premiums forever. The person’s health is typically much better when they’re young, so they can buy the insurance without much hassle. They can build in ways to preserve their future insurability. Really, I just genuinely think it’s easier to talk to someone in mid-30’s about protecting their income than about dying. If you’re a group insurance, salesperson, disabilities, important protection with a relatively low cost, compared to the medical insurance that you’re dealing within cost, you’re headaches all the time, if an employer, your employer, your client doesn’t offer disability insurance and an employee becomes disabled and can’t work, if they don’t have the coverage, it puts the employer in a horrible position.

Barry Lundquist:

Do they keep paying the person, even if they’re no longer working, or how long do they pay him for? Do they cut him off? I mean, how can you hire replacement because somebody needs to do the work that disabled person was doing before they left, so they got to pay a replacement. When they cut somebody off, basically just say, “Okay, sorry, we can’t pay you anymore.” I mean, what’s the impact on that person, and their family, and how do the other employees view that because they’re going to know what’s going on. I’m running on here a little bit.

Barry Lundquist:

But one last thing, I think that’s really important today’s world is that all disability carriers basically and individual carriers, group carriers, they almost universally have expertise and will devote a lot of resource to helping that disabled employees back to work. This is such a win-win. Really, when you think about is almost more important than the income replacement. What you’re talking about is getting a person back to their life. This helps the employer get good employees back on the job. Science has shown the sooner you intervene and begin working with the person with the idea that they’ll get back to work that they’re wanted back to work that they’re valued, it does help them return faster. I think that’s a consideration. That’s really overlooked to a large degree.

Barry Lundquist:

A little bit, that early intervention. You think about having surgery, and I’ve had a few you guys maybe have or not. But one of the first things, you have knee surgery, I mean, pretty quickly. They have you in physical therapy, the sooner the better. It almost seems like “My God, I shouldn’t even be doing anything with this knee,” but they’re out there making you do it. Very similar. The sooner someone can start thinking about in taking steps to return to work, the more successful it’s going to be. I’m going to make one last comment. Again, I know I’m being …

James Crook:

No. Barry, it’s great. I mean, this is a lot of good stuff. Please indulge yourself as much as you want. We’re happy about it.

Barry Lundquist:

Okay. I want to talk to the broker who’s already selling lots of disability insurance. First off, thank you, and congratulations. Those people know the reasons why they protect incomes, and they’ve seen the benefits of what they do. They get it. I would speak to those experienced disability sellers, and say become the Pied Piper for this protection. Give some back and help younger, less experienced agents get into the business. We need those people. If there are people that you know that are selling insurance, or investments or anything, and not selling DI, approach them about being their partner, and help make sure that their clients are fully protected, and you can help them, you can help yourself, and you can certainly help the client. I think taking steps along those lines will be a very satisfying thing.