Apply To Be Our TeleSales Partner

Technorati Tags: FINAL EXPENSE LEADS, FINAL EXPENSE TELESALES, Insurance telesales, selling insurance by phone, work from home

WOW!  We did it again… Not only did we change the final expense industry when it comes to doing business over the phone, we have just turned it upside down.

It’s not that we are patting ourselves on the back or worse bragging (maybe we are?) but it is absolutely exciting to see our agents on a path to making $100,000 NET while never leaving home.

Picture this…  Sitting at your desk in your home office and the phone rings.  You pick it up and say “Hello this is Bill, how can I help you on this fine day?”

On the other end is one of our skilled marketers who says, “Hi Bill, I have Mrs Smith on the line and we have gone through all of the Preliminary questions and it does seem Mrs. Smith may qualify for one of our final expense programs.  She has also stated that she can and does make her own decisions and if she does qualify, a plan will fit into her budget. Isn’t that right Mrs. Smith?”

Mrs. Smith answer “Yes”.

“Mrs Smith has also stated she does have a checking or savings account in good standing, now Mrs Smith I am leaving you in good hands with Bill…”

LISTEN TO AN ACTUAL TRANSFER TO ONE OF OUR AGENTS….. Keep in mind our agents don’t pay a dime out of their pocket for the call you are about to hear.

Did I just hear you fall out of your seat?? I thought so, now get back in your seat and keep reading…

If you are like our top agents, you will be transferred PreQualified, PreScreened customers and all you have to do is help them with which plan fits them the most and close the deal.

Our top agents spend all day having great conversations with people who are looking for exactly what they have.  Since they are pre screened to be buyers, our reps close all day over the phone.  No wonder they make a lot of money.

These potential clients are screened to make sure they fit our criteria:  (You just heard the call so you know we verify each of these items)

1.  Age

2.  Health

3.  Decision Maker

4.  They have a need

5.  Have a Checking/Savings Account/credit card

6.  A plan would fit their budget

2-3 sales per day is normal, 4-6 is a common every day occurrence.  10 in one day is the new record and 23 policies sold in a week by one agent has just been recently hit.

This is an extremely rare opportunity for an Agent that wants to get off the road and participate in the most advanced platform to sell final expense over the phone AND from the comfort of your home office.

One other added perk for agents on our platform is they do not pay for leads.  The more they produce the more free leads they get.  Their expenses are practically Zero compared to the traditional way of selling insurance. That’s why they can NET  $100,000.

Make it happen today and get a chance to get your life moving in the direction you have been wanting.

If you think you have what it takes to join our team, fill in the form to the right of the video above to get the Exact Details.  Join a winning team in an industry that is growing by leaps and bounds.

Hope to hear from you soon !

Steve Rohrer

You don’t know this yet but you have just stumbled upon one of those opportunities that are quite rare and for the right person will provide great rewards not only financially but also provide career stability and a light at the end of the tunnel.

What we are talking about is insurance telesales, final expense telesales or more specifically selling Final Expense Insurance over the phone. We have developed the only successful Insurance Selling Systems for selling insurance over the phone in the Country.  That may be a large claim but we have the numbers to back up what we say.

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Many people have attempted this but with limited success

==>We Perfected It!<==

We are not afraid to say that the opportunity we have available to the right person is simply…            !!AWESOME!!

Over the last 2-3 years we have developed a Insurance Selling System that is the envy of the insurance industry.  Not only have we revolutionized the way insurance is sold, we are looked upon as the new standard.  Our platform has been tested and 1,000’s of applications and families helped using our system.

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Think about this….

• Imagine never having to travel unless it’s for vacation!




• Imagine lowering your weekly and monthly expenses to nearly ZERO!




• Imagine reducing your weekly lead costs by 75% and  having access to 1,000’s of the best quality leads in the industry! 

• Imagine consistently earning $100,000-$200,000+ year after year after expenses!

• Imagine doing this in only 4 days from the comfort of your home or office!




• Imagine having  a close  group of successful peers helping you every step of the way!
  

We have changed the face of selling insurance and have a desire to help the right individuals earn $100,000+ right from the comfort of their home.  Companies court us to sell their products because our agents produce and produce big time because of our platform.  Our agents have more production and have a much higher persistency rate than the industry average.

Here’s what you have to understand… We are not about peddling insurance contracts as is the norm in the insurance industry.  Quite the opposite, we are selective on who we bring aboard and make this incredible opportunity available to.  This needs to be a fit for both of us.

We expect everyone we throw against the wall to actually stick!

Our desire is to have each agent we bring aboard make no less than $100,000+ net and we have all the tools and training in place to make that happen….You just have to provide the attitude and desire.

And How About This…

~ No more No Shows ~

~ No more One-Leggers ~

~ No more Nights in Hotels ~

~ No more Appointment Setting ~

We are very particular about who we bring into our circle but be rest assured, if you are selected, you will have access to all the Tools and Leads you need to become successful and finally make a great living for your family.

Every piece of the puzzle is in place except for one…..You could be that missing piece?!?

Others have tried to copy our success and platform with no luck because they are missing far too many of our “Proprietary Pieces of the Puzzle”….

There is a 4 step process everyone goes through in the selection process.  This process allows you to get to know us and for us to get to know you.  All your questions will be answered and if we each find a great fit… we know we will be partners in this for a long time.

We look forward to getting to know you and being part of your new successful career…

Apply To Be Our TeleSales Partner

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Technorati Tags: FINAL EXPENSE LEADS, FINAL EXPENSE TELESALES, free leads, insurance selling system, insurance selling systems, Insurance telesales, selling insurance over the phone

Tired of traveling?  Are you a road warrior who puts on 1,000s of miles a month only to run into countless No Shows or One Leggers only to have to turn around and drive home with out a sale.  Agents by the droves are complaining about the wasted hours and money traveling trying to sell insurance. 

If you have ever checked your bank account at the end of the month you may find your self in the same boat as most agents, near the end of your rope.  However, to continue to work you need people to see and that only means one thing, time to order leads. 

At $25-$35 per lead it is difficult to afford enough leads to make an agent successful.  Agents tend to short themselves when it comes to buying leads, therefore, setting themselves up for failure.

Todays insurance agents also spend a lot of time driving to and from appointments, setting appointments and waiting around for their next appointment.  Most of the week is spent unproductive and not in a true selling situation, no wonder agents are struggling from commission to commission.

Agents also are finding products that once use to be profitable are no longer that way because of government meddling and new regulations.  The future is uncertain for a large number of products being sold today, not for Final Expense though. Its no wonder Final Expense Telesales is the new Rave in America.

Final Expense Telesales requires absolutely no travel and is helping these tired and worn out Road warriors get of the road once and for all. No more nights in hotels away from the family or daily back and forth travel.

Selling insurance over the phone solves the No Show and 1 Legger problem all agents accept as part of their business.  Final expense Telesales eliminates this annoying part of the business completely since instead of driving 2 hours and turning around they just hang up the phone and call the next prospect.

With the proper Final Expense Telesales program, you have access to practically unlimited leads and there are secrets to getting many of those leads free.  Leads cost are slashes by 75% but only if you find the right selling platform and trust worthy partners.

Not only are lead costs slashed but agents weekly expenses go to zero.  No more paying for expensive gas.  No more Hotel expenses or wear and tear on an automobile.  You dont have to spend money on business clothes since you wont be seen by the public.

The reason why Final Expense is the best product to sell over the phone is because it is simple to learn and understand, regulations and government will not be changing it,  simplified issued which means agents get paid fast and you can do more presentations in a day than you can in a week of selling.

There is a new phenomenon happening across America today and that phenomenon is final expense telesales.  Agents are discovering a much better way of selling insurance and therefore creating a much better quality of life for them and there families.

Technorati Tags: FINAL EXPENSE LEADS, FINAL EXPENSE TELESALES, health insurance, insurance agents, road warriors, selling insurance, selling insurance over the phone

Apply To Be Our TeleSales Partner

Technorati Tags: FINAL EXPENSE LEADS, FINAL EXPENSE TELESALES, Insurance telesales, selling insurance by phone, work from home

There is one thing you can say about Selling Final Expense Insurance to Seniors and that is it’s recession proof. Whether it’s a good economy or a bad economy, selling Final Expense Insurance is the way to go.

Not only is Final Expense Sales recession proof it also is one form of Insurance the Government and regulator don’t mess with and most likely won’t in the near future. If you have ever sold health insurance with it’s yearly rate hikes or Med Advantage, you know exactly what we mean. And then there is Long Term Care… No thank you!

The real trick though with selling Final Expense Insurance is finding that right Insurance Selling System. Most agents don’t make $100k per year and that is sad since there is so much opportunity to make that and so much more if you find that right system.

Most agents don’t focus on one thing or they do and then can’t keep there book of business because rates keep going up and they have to start over every year or the Government changes regulations and all those agents run to the next hottest thing.

AAAAh then there is Final Expense. Such a simple product with little or nothing to learn. You can master it in about a week. There are no moving parts and it is so easy for clients to understand. There is no complicated language about what is covered and what is not. No complicated illustrations or contracts to decypher. There is no question as far as need since we all die. And it won’t put any client in the poor house.

How simple is this – Client dies….. Beneficiary gets some money!

Selling Final Expense in and of itself isn’t necessarily profitable. It really boils down to how you do it and what platform you use in selling it. The old way is out and not very profitable anymore.

What’s the old way? Running appointments in the field, knocking on doors, spending $25-35 for the good leads….. you get the point.

The way to be successful today Selling Final Expense Insurance and the way to cut your personal expenses to practically ZERO and cut lead costs by more than 75% is with final expense telesales.

Final Expense TeleSales has all the advantages of making money without all the expenses and limitaion running appointments in the field has. The real trick though is finding the right platform and group to work with. Not many people have all the pieces in place to make Final Expense Telesales Profitable. It’s a tricky business if every piece of the puzzle is not in place. This is where doing your due diligence and research is so crucial to your success in this business.

Selling final expense is the future of selling insurance for those agents that want a simple non complicated product that is recession proof. Not only is it easy to learn and sell but the Market is exploding with new customers every day as the population gets older.

There is an exciting future for this business.

Apply To Be Our TeleSales Partner

Technorati Tags: final expense insurance, FINAL EXPENSE LEADS, final expense sales, FINAL EXPENSE TELESALES, insurance selling system, Insurance telesales, selling final expense insurance, selling insurance

There is one thing you can say about Selling Final Expense Insurance to Seniors and that is it’s recession proof. Whether it’s a good economy or a bad economy, selling Final Expense Insurance is the way to go.

Not only is Final Expense Sales recession proof it also is one form of Insurance the Government and regulator don’t mess with and most likely won’t in the near future. If you have ever sold health insurance with it’s yearly rate hikes or Med Advantage, you know exactly what we mean. And then there is Long Term Care… No thank you!

The real trick though with selling Final Expense Insurance is finding that right Insurance Selling System. Most agents don’t make $100k per year and that is sad since there is so much opportunity to make that and so much more if you find that right system.

Most agents don’t focus on one thing or they do and then can’t keep there book of business because rates keep going up and they have to start over every year or the Government changes regulations and all those agents run to the next hottest thing.

AAAAh then there is Final Expense. Such a simple product with little or nothing to learn. You can master it in about a week. There are no moving parts and it is so easy for clients to understand. There is no complicated language about what is covered and what is not. No complicated illustrations or contracts to decypher. There is no question as far as need since we all die. And it won’t put any client in the poor house.

How simple is this – Client dies….. Beneficiary gets some money!

Selling Final Expense in and of itself isn’t necessarily profitable. It really boils down to how you do it and what platform you use in selling it. The old way is out and not very profitable anymore.

What’s the old way? Running appointments in the field, knocking on doors, spending $25-35 for the good leads….. you get the point.

The way to be successful today Selling Final Expense Insurance and the way to cut your personal expenses to practically ZERO and cut lead costs by more than 75% is with Final Expense TeleSales.

final expense telesales has all the advantages of making money without all the expenses and limitaion running appointments in the field has. The real trick though is finding the right platform and group to work with. Not many people have all the pieces in place to make Final Expense Telesales Profitable. It’s a tricky business if every piece of the puzzle is not in place. This is where doing your due diligence and research is so crucial to your success in this business.

Selling final expense is the future of selling insurance for those agents that want a simple non complicated product that is recession proof. Not only is it easy to learn and sell but the Market is exploding with new customers every day as the population gets older.

There is an exciting future for this business.

Apply To Be Our TeleSales Partner

Technorati Tags: final expense insurance, FINAL EXPENSE LEADS, final expense sales, FINAL EXPENSE TELESALES, insurance selling system, Insurance telesales, selling final expense insurance, selling insurance

Photo by Hugh Kretschmer

R.I.P. Off By Barry Yeoman, January & February 2008 A funeral-industry scandal that’s fleecing thousands of Americans

In 1975 Audrey and Carl Brewer purchased what they thought was peace of mind—both for themselves and their family—when they bought two pre-paid funeral plans from Forest Hill South, a mortuary and cemetery in Memphis. Their plans cost them a total of $1,298, which they paid off in monthly installments of $27. That included caskets, the funeral services, and two burial plots on Forest Hill South’s 80-acre grounds. The Brewers considered their pre-need contracts as protection against inflation and a way, when they died, to take the financial burden off their children. “They [Forest Hill] told me everything was taken care of,” says Carl, 89, a retired housepainter. “The only thing I would owe would be if I wanted some flowers on the casket.”

The Brewers had no reason to question the honesty of Forest Hill. Its three locations had been in business since 1888, serving the rich and the poor alike, including such luminaries as Elvis Presley and his mother, Gladys. Like the Brewers, thousands of customers from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas had also trusted the company’s reputation enough to buy pre-need policies. Then in July 2006, one of Forest Hill’s new owners, Oklahoma oilman Clayton Smart, called a press conference to announce he was invalidating 13,500 pre-paid funeral contracts, including the Brewers’. While police stood by to prevent a customer riot, Smart explained that any contract holder who wanted to use his or her pre-need policy would have to pay an additional $4,000, more or less, at the time of death, even if the plan was already paid in full. “Obviously, things were a lot cheaper in 1965,” Smart explained. “I wouldn’t have bought the business if I thought I’d have to honor those contracts.”

Officials with the Tennessee attorney general’s office offer a different explanation for why Smart wasn’t honoring the contracts. They allege Smart and his partner, attorney Stephen Smith, drained the company’s pre-need trust funds of $20 million shortly after they purchased Forest Hill in 2004. Those funds, which were part of the purchase and were earmarked to pay for the pre-paid funerals and cemetery care, “were supposed to be in very conservative investment vehicles,” says Martha Davis, a senior counsel in the state’s bankruptcy division. Instead, she says, Smart and Smith diverted the money to risky hedge funds and unsecured loans owned by Quest Minerals and Exploration, an oil-and-gas company controlled by Smart’s family. The attorney general’s office says the Quest loans ended up being worthless.

People believe that if they have a pre-paid funeral, everything’s fine. It’s a dangerous delusion.

Smart’s staggering announcement was just one more chapter in what is becoming a growing national scandal: pre-paid funeral contracts that don’t deliver. Industry watchdogs say that while most funeral directors operate honestly, the problems associated with pre-need policies have become too widespread to ignore. “This is not every once in a while, and it is not just a few bad apples,” says Joshua Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance. “People want to believe that if they sign a check now for a pre-paid funeral, they can close their eyes and say, ‘La, la, la, everything’s going to be fine.’ It’s a dangerous delusion.” A delusion because too often funeral companies change hands, close their doors, or simply raid the trust funds where their customers’ payments are supposed to be securely collecting interest. As a result, when the services are needed, there’s no money left. Even worse, because of inconsistent state regulation and enforcement, there’s often no recourse for distressed families who thought everything was taken care of.

It’s not just consumers who are outraged. The funeral industry itself has warned that pre-need abuses are ruining their profession’s reputation. “We funeral directors should never have been able to take money for pre-need,” says Michael Tod Good, a mortician in Reamstown, Pennsylvania. “It’s just too tempting.”

Carl Brewer, the housepainter, discovered the dangers of pre-need last year when his wife, Audrey, died suddenly of an aneurysm. Six months earlier, just before Smart’s announcement, Carl had talked with Forest Hill employees, who assured him his contract was still valid. So he was surprised when, after Audrey’s death, the staff at Forest Hill South informed him he’d have to pay an additional $3,510 before they would honor his wife’s pre-need contract. “There’s nowhere we could go to come up with that much money,” says daughter-in-law Shirley Brewer. Forest Hill finally accepted $194 in cash as a down payment on the extra fee. Then, Carl, not knowing what else to do, signed a contract promising to pay the rest even though he knew he couldn’t. “We did what we had to do to lay Mom away,” says Shirley.

The notion of pre-need funerals dates back to the 1930s, when local morticians informally began allowing customers to pay for their services in advance. The deals were often sealed with little more than a handshake. “It was a matter of trust,” says Ron Hast, publisher of the industry newsletters Mortuary Management and Funeral Monitor.

By the 1980s, as national chains began gobbling up family-run funeral homes, the industry realized there was profit to be made in pre-need sales. Pre-payment would guarantee a steady stream of business in the future, and the pre-need money could be invested to keep pace with the rising cost of funerals. The companies developed more aggressive marketing tactics to convince Americans that pre-payment was a gift to one’s survivors. “Your purchase price is frozen now,” Forest Hill wrote its pre-need customers. “You will not [have to] pay one cent more.”

Today, pre-need continues to be big business. A 2007 AARP survey of 1,087 Americans 50 and older found that 23 percent of them had made pre-payments on funerals, burials, or both. Dan Isard, founder of The Foresight Companies, a consulting firm for funeral homes, estimates that $18 billion is currently invested in pre-need accounts. He projects that will increase by about $2 billion a year. This money, however, isn’t being stuck in file cabinets as in the old days. Funds are now invested in sophisticated life insurance policies or state-regulated trusts.

Too often funeral companies change hands, close their doors, or raid trust funds. Then, when services are needed, there’s no money.

For many customers, their pre-need money is safe. Take the case of Donald Lavender, 82, a retired city administrator from Des Moines, whose wife, Delores, died unexpectedly in 2001 while the couple was flying home from a European vacation. The pilot radioed Des Moines’s Westover Funeral Home, which sent a representative to meet Donald at the airport. Delores’s funeral, purchased 11 years earlier, “went exactly the way we had anticipated,” says Donald. “There were no surprises. It was one of the best things I could ever have done.”

But even customers dealing with trusted funeral homes must study their policies. Otherwise, details—often buried in the fine print—can pop up to surprise at the worst moment.

Before You Buy…

Think it over
Both AARP and the Funeral Consumers Alliance advise against pre-need contracts in most cases. Instead, consider depositing money in a separate interest-bearing account at your local bank. On your death, the person you name as the beneficiary of this “pay on death” account (also called a POD account or Totten trust) has immediate access to the money. Just be sure to name a trusted relative or friend, not a funeral home, as the beneficiary.

Bring a magnifying glass
Check the fine print carefully so you can determine what’s covered. Some plans exclude flowers, clergy honoraria, death certificates, newspaper notices—even the opening and filling of graves. Prepare a list of uncovered expenses and inform your survivors.

Ask about refunds
Be certain the contract can be fully transferred to another funeral home, or the funds can be refunded to you—in case you move or change your mind. Find out if there’s a penalty for canceling the policy or for missing payments.

Follow the money
Know where your pre-need payments are being invested. If they’re to be used to buy an insurance policy, make sure the company writing the policy is highly rated. If payments will go to a trust account, find out what bank or institution will be holding the funds.

Plan for change
Ask what happens if your circumstances change. What if something you requested, such as a specific casket, is no longer available? What if the funeral home changes ownership? What if your family decides on a simpler, less expensive funeral?

Review your finances
If you are close to being eligible for Medicaid, you can put some of your money into an “irrevocable” pre-need funeral plan as a way of spending down your assets.

Talk to a lawyer
Most important of all, have an attorney or trusted adviser review any pre-need contract before you sign.

One of the most common complaints about pre-need involves the casket bait and switch: the customer asks for a specific casket, but when the time comes, it’s not available and the funeral home offers a lesser-quality model. In 1999 Katie Smith, a retired practical nurse, pre-paid a Chicago funeral home for her service. She chose a lavender casket. When she died in 2006, the mortuary insisted that a lavender casket had to be special-ordered and would take ten days to arrive. “I didn’t want to hold up the arrangements that long,” says Katie’s goddaughter, Alicia Hill, who reluctantly accepted an “iridescent pink” casket. Alicia believes her godmother would have been disappointed.

Another problem occurs when customers try to cancel their policies: many states don’t require that funeral homes make full refunds. Also, customers who try to transfer their policies to other funeral homes sometimes have problems. “We’re a transient society,” says Robert Biggins, past president of the National Funeral Directors Association. “There’s no reason a person’s pre-need funds shouldn’t [be able to] travel with them.”

When Pat Cairns bought her pre-need policy from a Cleveland funeral home in 1995—she and her husband, Arthur, 88, now live in South Carolina, but Arthur owned a burial plot in his home state of Ohio—she didn’t realize she was locking herself into using the services of only that one business. “They gave me the paper and said, ‘Check this, check this, check this,’” she says. “Stupidly trusting them, that’s what I did.” Eight years later, the couple realized how impractical their decision had been. “I don’t think either of us could handle—emotionally, physically, or financially—having our spouse’s body sent from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to Ohio,” says Pat, 82. But when she called the Cleveland funeral director to cancel the policy, “he said, ‘You know, these are noncancelable.’ ” It took more than a year’s battle just to get a partial refund.

Even worse are cases involving outright fraud. Most states require that pre-need sellers deposit 70 to 100 percent of their customers’ pre-need payments into trust accounts, which are supposed to remain untouched until the money is needed to pay for the service. (In states that allow pre-paid funerals to be funded by insurance policies rather than trusts, those plans are regulated separately, under state insurance laws.) With industry profits on the decline, though, some morticians find it too tempting and easy to dip into pre-need funds for other purposes. “You’ve got this pile of money, and maybe you think, ‘I’ll take a little bit out and put it back later,’ ” says Slocum of the Funeral Consumers Alliance. “But, like a domino, that can knock down the whole pile.”

That’s what happened in Salem, Missouri, when Jane Spencer Turner inherited two debt-ridden funeral homes. Rather than depositing pre-need money into trust accounts, as she was supposed to do, Turner used the funds to try to stabilize the business, according to her attorney, James Bowles. “She never intended to cheat anybody out of anything,” Bowles says. Missouri attorney general Jay Nixon, who prosecuted Turner as part of a larger crackdown on death-care-industry abuses, took a less charitable view. While Turner’s customers lost more than $200,000, Nixon says, “Turner was driving a Mercedes.” In 2006 she pleaded guilty to unlawful merchandising practices and received an eight-year prison sentence.

Depending on state law, customers often have little recourse when their pre-paid funeral policies disappear. Lawsuits are an option. But, as in Turner’s case, if the funds are gone, they’re gone. In Russellville, Kentucky, funeral director Tim Hanna took off in 2005 with more than $300,000 in stolen pre-need funds. Until then, Hanna was a respected citizen of the town. “We’d see each other in the drugstore; we’d stop and have a conversation,” says Ashley “Cocoa” Kees, whose disabled mother, Sheila, 54, had prepaid her funeral with Hanna’s company. Hanna is now behind bars, but Cocoa’s family has received only $32—their share of proceeds from the sale of Hanna’s automobiles—in compensation for Sheila’s policy, which cost her $3,000.

And big funeral chains don’t necessarily offer more protection than the smaller family-run businesses. In Hawaii, state officials accused RightStar, a conglomerate of cemetery and funeral companies, of bleeding at least $20 million from pre-need accounts. “Money was wired or taken out or transferred,” alleges Attorney General Mark Bennett. In addition, he claims, RightStar illegally canceled $2.8 million worth of pre-need contracts. “The people weren’t informed,” he says. “Many were still sending money.” (RightStar’s attorney didn’t return calls.)

Even with mounting evidence of widespread abuse, the federal government has done little to regulate pre-paid funerals. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and then-Representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) twice introduced legislation to protect pre-need consumers, including giving them the right to transfer their policies from one funeral home to another. But Congress never took up the measures.

The only federal agency currently concerned with protecting pre-need customers is the Federal Trade Commission. And it’s not doing much. The FTC focuses mainly on funeral homes’ compliance in providing itemized price lists to customers. But price lists can’t protect customers against pre-need fraud: “At this very moment some cash-strapped funeral director is diverting pre-need funds for his personal use,” declared the industry newsletter Funeral Monitor in April 2007. FTC attorney Monica Vaca says the agency is privately reviewing possible rule changes.

The resulting lack of federal oversight leaves regulation of pre-need policies up to the states. A few take a tough stance. New York, for example, requires funeral directors to deposit 100 percent of pre-paid money in interest-bearing trusts that are refundable to customers at any time. The only exception: irrevocable contracts, designed to shield the assets of consumers who are spending down their assets to qualify for Medicaid. Such contracts are not refundable in New York but can be transferred to another funeral home. New York’s tough oversight, though, is an exception. Most states “operate with a loosey-goosey patchwork of regulations” that enables “unscrupulous” behavior, writes Chris Raymond, editor of the National Funeral Directors Association’s newsletter.

Funeral-industry leaders say they support consumer-friendly laws, though their definitions of friendly vary wildly. Service Corporation International, a $1.7-billion-a-year empire based in Houston that owns 2,000 funeral homes and cemeteries, insists it should be allowed to withhold and keep a certain percentage of the cost of each contract—rather than depositing that money into a trust account—even if a consumer chooses another funeral home. “When a customer makes arrangements with us, they’re essentially saying, ‘My plan is to do business with you in the future.’ That’s an implied commitment,” says Tom Reichert, the company’s managing director of North American sales.

One might argue with this logic, but then one would be up against the vast power of the funeral industry, a formidable lobby and a generous contributor to political campaigns. As a result, state-level reform efforts have faced stiff resistance. Consider what happened in Hawaii, which has some of the weakest pre-need regulations in the nation. Outraged by the RightStar scandal, a group of Hawaii lawmakers introduced a bill raising the mandatory percentage of pre-need funds to be deposited in a trust account above the current 70 percent. The bill never received a hearing: it was killed by the committees overseeing consumer protection.

Instead, the Hawaii legislature passed a bill written by Governor Linda Lingle’s administration in consultation with members of the funeral industry. Lingle’s measure did include some consumer protections. But it didn’t increase the percentage of funds required to be deposited in trust funds, a key point of industry contention. Jo Ann Uchida, a Lingle administration official, explains that the tougher trust requirement was omitted from the legislation to stave off industry protests, which would have killed the measure.

Sarah Robinson, Hawaii state president of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, offers a blunter explanation. “Basically, [the funeral] industry wrote this bill,” says the consumer advocate. Robinson notes that funeral companies and their lobbyists gave $11,000 in contributions to Governor Lingle in 2005, and lesser amounts to key legislators.

Uchida insists campaign donations had no influence on the bill-drafting process. “Our usual practice is to try to unveil an initiative with the industry.” The administration does not, however, extend that courtesy to consumer groups, she says.

Meanwhile, back in Memphis, customers of Forest Hill are still reeling from owner Clayton Smart’s summary cancellation of those 13,500 funeral contracts that were supposed to be guaranteed. Some clients paid the extra cash that Smart demanded. Others, like Donna VanDyke Tacker, 63, were so ticked off that they went elsewhere rather than pay Smart’s company any more money. Just before Christmas 2006, Donna’s mother, Viva, died unexpectedly. Forest Hill demanded an extra $4,600 before the company would bury her. “I’m not paying y’all another penny,” the retired florist recalls telling an employee. Instead, Donna walked away from the pre-need plan completely and paid $5,440 to another funeral director in Mississippi for her mother’s funeral.

Some Tennesseans wonder why owners Smart and Smith couldn’t have been stopped earlier. “Had the state exercised a little more oversight, I don’t think we’d be in the position we are in now,” says attorney Kevin Snider, who has filed an unresolved class-action lawsuit on behalf of Forest Hill customers. State officials did spot the risky investments in 2005. But it took another year to complete an audit, which the attorney general’s office says was hampered by its being short-staffed and Forest Hill’s poor record keeping. “Sometimes we’re hamstrung by due process,” says Assistant Attorney General Gill Geldreich. Last January the state finally filed a lawsuit to freeze Forest Hill’s assets and appoint a receiver.

Almost a year after Smart canceled the contracts, the law caught up with him. Last April he was arrested in Oklahoma; then he was extradited to Tennessee to face theft, conspiracy, and money-laundering charges. He also faces criminal charges in Michigan, where officials seized control of 28 cemeteries he owned, after an audit showed that $70 million was missing from trust funds. (Smart and Smith declined to be interviewed. But Smart did leave a brief phone message just before his arrest saying, “The truth will eventually bear out.”)

Now under the control of the state of Tennessee, Forest Hill has agreed to honor future pre-need contracts, and it plans to refund the additional fees Smart demanded from his customers. But that doesn’t help people like Donna VanDyke Tacker, who is out the extra $5,440 she paid to a different funeral home. And there are the countless other pre-need victims across the nation who paid thousands of dollars for policies that are now or will end up being worthless.

For Carl Brewer, the retired housepainter who was asked to pony up an additional $3,510 on a supposedly fully paid policy for his wife’s funeral, the final insult came in the mail. In March 2007 he received a standardized customer-satisfaction questionnaire from Forest Hill asking him to rate his experience. “Would it have been helpful for you to have planned this funeral in advance?” the survey asked.

Enraged, Carl tossed the form aside. Even today, he seethes when he thinks about that time. He was supposed to be grieving for his companion of 63 years. Instead, he was forced to sign away a good portion of his future earnings to pay for the funeral he thought was already paid for. “They get people in their moments of sorrow, when they can’t think straight,” he says. “That is highway robbery without a gun.”

Barry Yeoman, based in North Carolina, is a regular contributor. His last article, “Katrina: The Untold Story,” appeared in the September & October 2007 issue.

Technorati Tags: burial insurance, death insurance, final expense insurance

Having a loved one pass away is one of the most difficult days we

experience as a family. The last thing we want to do is add to their

grieving, and pass on an $8,000 to $12,000 funeral bill with no means

to pay it off.

Most people don’t want their spouse, siblings, or kids to reach into their own

pockets, or sell off investments that they have worked hard for and need for their own retirement and living expenses.

With insurance rates at all time lows, and funeral expenses going up,

the sooner you plan, the less expensive it is, and the sooner you

will have the peace of mind of preventing a financial hardship

upon your family.  

Do you ask your family or kids to pay your rent or mortgage? Do you expect them to pay your cable or electric bill??  Then why would we expect them to pay for our final expenses??

Ask yourself, what’s harder?  Will it be more difficult now to come up

with $40-$60 a month for a few years, or your family coming up

with the $8,000 to $12,000?   

Many have procrastinated way too long!  By the time we are 65 or

older, insurance costs just get harder to afford and qualify for! 

Our age, and health condition determine these costs.

The time to act is now!  There are no free funerals.

The government only pays out $255 to our beneficiary.

Your family is important to you and protecting them is your top

priority. It’s always a good idea to look ahead at how they’ll be

taken care of should anything suddenly happens to you. Now there is an

affordable way to guarantee your family will have the cash they need to cover bills and other expenses after your death.

Term vs. Whole – you decide.

Term insurance is what it sounds like – it ends!

Most Term insurance “ends” at the worst time, when our parents

or you reach 70-80 years old. 

Since we are no longer in great health, and older, our rates to renew

or convert has quadrupled , or worse our health condition disqualifies

us and we are left with no way to protect our families.  

Most seniors are “persuaded” towards term insurance, because

the “rates” are lower. The risk is really on the seniors due to the

above, as we live longer, the risk to the insurance carrier of

paying out claims declines.

Plainly speaking, one must “die” before the “term” ends, to

receive benefits.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have to

die early just to receive term insurance proceeds!!

Whole Life is, what it sounds like – stays in place your whole life!

As long as premiums are paid, this insurance will not end.

Cash values can build up, in case of hard times, it can be used to

pay the premiums. This is “very important” as many find themselves

paying for nursing home care, or increased medical bills make it

difficult to pay other bills.

By having cash value, most companies today allow the use of the

cash value to pay the premium to keep it in place without any

hardship on the individual and secure insurance for the purpose

intended!

For this reason “whole life” is a few dollars more expensive than term.

The lifetime guarantee, is priceless.

Technorati Tags: burial insurance, FINAL EXPENSE LEADS, FINAL EXPENSE TELESALES, Insurance Leads, Insurance telesales, Selling Final Expense

Having a loved one pass away is one of the most difficult days we

experience as a family. The last thing we want to do is add to their

grieving, and pass on an $8,000 to $12,000 funeral bill with no means

to pay it off.

Most people don’t want their spouse, siblings, or kids to reach into their own

pockets, or sell off investments that they have worked hard for and need for their own retirement and living expenses.

With insurance rates at all time lows, and funeral expenses going up,

the sooner you plan, the less expensive it is, and the sooner you

will have the peace of mind of preventing a financial hardship

upon your family.  

Do you ask your family or kids to pay your rent or mortgage? Do you expect them to pay your cable or electric bill??  Then why would we expect them to pay for our final expenses??

Ask yourself, what’s harder?  Will it be more difficult now to come up

with $40-$60 a month for a few years, or your family coming up

with the $8,000 to $12,000?   

Many have procrastinated way too long!  By the time we are 65 or

older, insurance costs just get harder to afford and qualify for! 

Our age, and health condition determine these costs.

The time to act is now!  There are no free funerals.

The government only pays out $255 to our beneficiary.

Your family is important to you and protecting them is your top

priority. It’s always a good idea to look ahead at how they’ll be

taken care of should anything suddenly happens to you. Now there is an

affordable way to guarantee your family will have the cash they need to cover bills and other expenses after your death.

Term vs. Whole – you decide.

Term insurance is what it sounds like – it ends!

Most Term insurance “ends” at the worst time, when our parents

or you reach 70-80 years old. 

Since we are no longer in great health, and older, our rates to renew

or convert has quadrupled , or worse our health condition disqualifies

us and we are left with no way to protect our families.  

Most seniors are “persuaded” towards term insurance, because

the “rates” are lower. The risk is really on the seniors due to the

above, as we live longer, the risk to the insurance carrier of

paying out claims declines.

Plainly speaking, one must “die” before the “term” ends, to

receive benefits.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have to

die early just to receive term insurance proceeds!!

Whole Life is, what it sounds like – stays in place your whole life!

As long as premiums are paid, this insurance will not end.

Cash values can build up, in case of hard times, it can be used to

pay the premiums. This is “very important” as many find themselves

paying for nursing home care, or increased medical bills make it

difficult to pay other bills.

By having cash value, most companies today allow the use of the

cash value to pay the premium to keep it in place without any

hardship on the individual and secure insurance for the purpose

intended!

For this reason “whole life” is a few dollars more expensive than term.

The lifetime guarantee, is priceless.

Technorati Tags: burial insurance, FINAL EXPENSE LEADS, FINAL EXPENSE TELESALES, Insurance Leads, Insurance telesales, Selling Final Expense