Craig Palfrey

For me, it is two things that we did. There were massive shifts during the start that we will keep and that have become already an integral part of going forward. We found that we were worried as we had those early weeks of COVID over here and our first lockdown that people wouldn’t move forward with their protection needs. So, people who needed life, critical illness, income protection, all the things that I know you guys do a lot of as well in the U.S. — we don’t seem to do as much, as a nation, over here. We are massively underinsured. But we were really worried about how we were going to do the medical stuff without being able to sit face to face.

So, one of our team members who likes protection and is on our technical team said, “Well, when you get the client to agree to it, why don’t you just arrange for me to have a Zoom or a phone call with them? And I’ll do the medicals online. I’ll have the providers’ stuff open, and I’ll actually input it live. Then, if the client asks a question, wherever the screen takes me, I can just ask all the questions.” And we were like, “Wow! Why did it take COVID for us to think of that? That’s just genius! Why haven’t we done that before?” What I noticed by the end of the year was that our protection was up 220 percent. I know some of that was probably because people suddenly wanted more insurance because of seeing people ill and all that kind of stuff. But I can’t help thinking, as I look back personally on my numbers alone, that I didn’t have to find the time to sit with a client and ask those uncomfortable questions about any drug use or sexual activity that they’ve done. It’s always uncomfortable. Just knowing that someone else had to deal with all that, I probably got more clients to say yes; I didn’t have to deal with that stuff. And I can only assume that has translated across the practice.

The second one that we’ll keep doing is, we had always told our clients that if they did their estate planning with us, when they were done, their kids got a free will. But we just sort of mentioned it, and then nothing. We were getting the odd bit here, the odd bit there. But when we were making our daily walk phone calls, we just took the time to remind people: “You’ve done your planning with this. Don’t forget; your kids qualified for a free will.” And lo and behold, suddenly clients were saying to us, “Oh yeah, do give my son a call. He’s had a child” or “Give my daughter a call. She’s had a child, and I don’t think she’s done it.”

Obviously, once you have that conversation, the next thing you know, you’re picking up other bits of insurance, which, again, now you can send to the new guy doing it as his main role, and you don’t even have to think about it. It was just that vicious circle. So, I’m finding that we are going to certainly be reminding clients that if they have done their full estate plan with us, their kids get free wills.

Gary F. Heuer

Definitely Zoom meetings. But in addition to Zoom meetings, we do a lot of estate and charitable planning. We often talk about if you have all your stuff in a box — your will, your house, your cars, your assets — how much of that is subjected to state taxes, federal taxes, income taxes to your family, to your heirs? And are you a giver to churches and charities and so forth? Do you tithe regularly? And we ask those questions because a lot of people have some organizations, such as hospitals and schools that they care about, maybe a bit more than the government and taxes. So, what we try to do is explain how we can redirect those assets to churches and charities. The bad assets that are heavily taxed to the children, let’s say IRAs as an example, individual retirement accounts, we redirect to churches and charities and create endowments that last forever, and they remember it. We replace it with life insurance and wealth replacement trusts.

When people see that, they’re like, “Wow, nobody’s ever talked to us about this kind of stuff before. We’ve always wanted to do this, but never knew how.” It’s really not that complicated. So, we implement estate planning and charitable planning, and it has been a huge success to continue that process with people because it is conversations that need to be had that a lot of times people are not talking about. A lot of advisors, we are finding, are dealing with the investment strategies, which is an important issue for sure, but they are missing out on the charitable side. They are missing out on the estate planning.

And then, when the moms and dads do pass away and the children sit down with us, and we say, “There’re no taxes on these assets; they’re going to be tax-free to you,” they’re like, “How did you do that?” And then they want to know for their families how they can implement that. Regarding a case that just happened this year, we had a client who had been a client of ours for over 33 years. She just passed away. And with all four of her kids, there’s been no probate, no estate taxes. All this money is tax-free to them. And they are like, “Oh my gosh!” They are all clients with us, and they really want to implement the same strategies for their families.

George B. Sigurdson

I think the big thing with COVID that is exciting is the fact that people were very conscious of their mortality and their lifestyle. It’s made everybody sit back and take a look at their life, assess their life, assess their relationships with their kids and businesses and just all kinds of stuff. I try to make sure that a minimum of 20 to 25 people a day know that I’m alive. I have phoned them, not necessarily to sell, but just to talk about how they are doing, what their kids are doing, what their business is doing and show sincere interest in them. It seems that every time you say, “I’m not calling you on business,” then they say, “Well, I’ve been thinking about this or thinking about that.” My September is just solid with appointments already, and it’s still August.

Craig Palfrey, CFP, MSCI, a 12-year MDRT member with one Court of the Table and nine Top of the Table qualifications, is one of the UK’s most recognized financial planning advocates. A coach, speaker and author of two books, he was shortlisted for the Director of the Year at the Institute of Directors Wales Awards in 2019. Palfrey is also a Diamond Knight of the MDRT Foundation.

Gary F. Heuer, FICS, is a 29-year MDRT member with 13 Court of the Table and five Top of the Table qualifications. Through his own personal experiences, Heuer understands the value of financial planning and has helped many families and businesses protect their loved ones by planning for their future. He is also a Gold Knight of the MDRT Foundation.

George B. Sigurdson, CLU, is a 47-year MDRT member with six Court of the Table and 20 Top of the Table honors. Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, he is the president of Sigurdson Financial Group and Sigurdson Financial Benefits, which manages the benefits and pensions for more than 200 corporate clients. He is a Gold Knight of the MDRT Foundation.