Tag: broker

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Know Your Agent

Posted on by Seek First Financial in About, Blog, common questions

I meet with many people for the first time almost every day. Introductions are made, problems are explained, and needs are assessed. We go from complete strangers to talking about intimate, personal, and sometimes difficult realities of their lives in minutes. This can be a positive thing and it also could be dangerous. As we know all too well there are many out there preying on strangers for their own gain. I want to share some simple steps to help you verify your agent and establish long lasting relationships that serve you and your family for years.

There are a few very effective ways to verify your agent or broker and I suggest you use them. The first method I will cover is not always available but in many states it is. This verification tool is simply using the states options to request an insurance agent. In my resident state of Kentucky, we work through the Kynect benefits portal for health insurance, and in this portal you can “Find an Insurance Agent” or request that one contact you. If you use this option and the Agent reaches back out in response to your request, they are likely a legitimate source of help and verified by both the state and carriers they work with.

Another option to verify an agent or broker is to ask them for their NPN. This number is like their “social security number” in the insurance world. You can take that number and their name and check them up and against the Department of Insurance or its equivalent in the state you reside. You will see if their license is current, their names match their NPN and even get other various bits of verifying information depending on the state site you’re using. Any agent or broker should be willing to give you this information and even answer verifying questions with understanding. As agents, we know all too well the risks facing consumers today and we strive to provide information and verification methods that show who we are and who we are accountable too.

Another verifying method that could be helpful is to do a quick internet search. While this is not completely foolproof, this step can help add peace of mind in connection with one or both of the steps listed above. You may be able to check reviews, see if they are listed or if they have any social media pages. These things could also be a helpful piece of the puzzle as you validate the person you are sharing so much of your personal information with.

I am writing this to inform you of your options, not to scare you. There are many other ways of verifying your agent, but the ones listed above, especially used together should weed out the bad apples from among the good. This is the time of year that you will be getting many phone calls regarding Medicare, ACA open enrollment and even options to apply for different life insurance plans. It’s good to be prepared and know how to navigate the system to best protect yourself. This is one of the reasons we developed the Verification page on our website. As more and more business is done over the phone, we wanted to put all the verification options out there for our clients to feel comfortable doing business with us. I suggest you check it out and you can even use the links on that page to verify the agent you’re working with. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us directly.

Joseph Doppe- Seek First Financial LLC

725-400-9136

What is Mortgage Protection?

Posted on by Seek First Financial in About, Blog, common questions, Term Coverage, Whole Life

Many people see the value of protecting their assets from the results of death, disease and disability. A growing number of people are putting coverage in place for these reasons, specifically in relation to their mortgage. While you can, and should, put coverage in place for all of your assets, especially assets with debt, your home is typically one of your largest assets and the landing place for a large part of your monthly/yearly income. If you were to die, get sick or disabled, what would happen to your home? Would your family be able to make the payments and stay in the home? Or would the bank quickly have to take possession leading to a loss of all the years of investment into your property? Even if your spouse or family could continue to make the payments, how would that affect their financial situation as whole? Who would you leave your home to and are they able to pay for it? What would happen if you got sick or hurt and couldn’t work? These questions and the many like them have led to a rise in coverage designed to protect the home in the event of death, disease and disability.

Mortgage Protection is simply a life insurance policy designed to protect your home and the equity stored up in your home. While everyone has a different situation and different desires, the foundation of Mortgage Protection is to first; protect all the money already invested into the property. Whether you are in your first year of payments or near the end of your mortgage term, Mortgage Protection can put a safeguard around all the money you have already invested into your home. Secondly, people don’t want their families taking on extra financial burden while dealing with a recent death, disability or sickness of a loved one. Death, disease, and disability most often results in a loss of income that paid for all or portions of the home and without that income many people would lose the home. Another reason people are increasingly putting this coverage in place are the Living Benefits included with many of the plans. These benefits also pay the insured (while they are living) for Terminal, Chronic, and Critical diagnosis as opposed to only paying their beneficiary in the event of death. This allows the insured to continue to make the mortgage payments while they are recovering from things like, heart, stroke, cancer, etc. because of the resulting loss of work and income in those cases.

These are just some of the benefits of Mortgage Protection and the reason many people are seeing the value in this type of coverage. Meet with a Mortgage Protection specialist and review your options today. Many of these plans have the possibility to get all or portions of your money back if you don’t use any of the death and living benefits. This simply means that if you don’t use the coverage the entire time you paid for it, you can get up to every dollar you put into the policy back tax free at the end of your term. Make an APPOINTMENT and learn more.

Joseph Doppe