Self-realization represents the prospect and the client understanding about insurance. When they say that they have a lot of insurance policies with me, I always ask them these five questions:

1. “In your opinion, what is the insurance policy for?” Even now people still tell me, “Oh yeah, if I to go to the hospital, then I don’t need to pay. Everything is covered.” That’s how you can link it to the misconception about medical insurance and also the critical coverage.
2. “Were your insurance policies designed to take care of your current needs, your ongoing needs or your future needs?” Because with some of the plans you have, probably you can only take care of your current needs but not your future needs.
3. “How was the sum assured derived?” They might say, “I don’t know. My agent planned everything for me.” Or “I don’t know. My friend just joined the business. I just support my friend.” It’s very common. We have to give them a better understanding.
4. “If your insurance was not built with purpose, or if it’s only budget-based, can you guarantee that if something happened to you that your insurance policy will be able to help you, to protect you financially?” The answer might be no. Because to begin with, when you plan this insurance, when you have this insurance policy, you plan it based on support and based on budget. How can it be so precise, when you want to make sure that if something happened to you, it must protect you financially? And not just for you; it’s also for multiple generations. So this is something that you want to let them know, that their existing insurance plan might not be good enough for them. I tell them, “That’s why I’m here today, to share with you whether whatever insurance policy you have is in line with your dreams, your goals and your financial obligation.”
5. “How sure are you on whether your current insurance planning will be able to protect your loved ones or not?” A lot of insurance, when they plan it, is probably just to protect themselves, but never protection for the children or for the spouse because the amount of the coverage is too small to protect the whole family. We want to avoid this kind of blind spot that most people have when it comes to insurance planning.

This is a sample of what I do when I reach out to a prospect. A lot of them, when they read their own insurance policy, get very confused and do not understand. They ask, “What is it for? When something happens to me, how does this insurance actually help me?” So I put it with pictures, with a number. I give them your assisting plan plus your dreams. I ask nowadays, not just about the worry they have, but also about their dreams, their goals. “What do you want to achieve in the next 30 years? What dreams do you have that you want to visualize for your children to have that kind of money when you are not in the world anymore?”

For these dreams, you need to have proper planning to make sure the dreams come true. I even include the goal — which is their happiness, what they want to achieve and what it will cost — and they can compare with their existing current policy how much they have. And what I need to do right now is help them to fill the gap, because not every client or prospect that you have who actually buys insurance can fill in the gap immediately. Not everyone has the capability, especially when it comes to their financial resources. But what you need to do is go step by step.

It is very good for you to do a follow-up. If your client dreams of coverage of like $10 million — maybe they want to use it for inheritance, for a legacy — but now maybe they can only top up from $2 million to $4 million, then next year you can reach out to them again.

So pre-book the appointment. Let’s say you do a review the 29th of August. Normally I like to do a review every six months. I think there are times when you might see that there are some changes in their life, or maybe they have extra income. Or maybe they have extra money. They just sold their house, and they received so much money. Then you can actually start talking about this kind of planning.

Let’s say six months down the road, your team makes an appointment. You tell them, “I know that your goal is $10 million, and we have covered $4 million so far. What we need to do next is to go up another $2 million or $1 million. Whichever amount you feel comfortable right now, I can help you to do.” This is a very good system for you to monitor all the cases that you have opened and monitor all the cases that you are supposed to follow up with.

Sometimes, we have so many clients. You have a few hundred clients, and you get confused with which ones you want to follow up with. Just remember one thing: If you don’t follow up with your clients closely, other agents will follow up for you. That’s why we have to have a follow-up system to make sure that when your clients need more protection in the future, you have some system to show whether it’s the right time for them to fill the gap.