The Steps to Sell Your Structured Insurance Settlement for a Lump Sum

If you have recently been awarded a structured insurance settlement and you find that you are unable to make ends meet now then you might be the right person to sell your settlement for cash now. How this works is that a special structured settlement company will buy your settlement now for cash so that you can afford to pay all of your bills. Obviously this is going to cost you and you are not going to get as much money as you would have if you were to wait but sometimes this is still a better choice for you depending on your unique situation.

The main reason that people choose to sell their structured insurance settlement is that they have an immediate need for the money. Usually they are in a situation where they feel that they can not wait longer in order to be able to use the payments as they come in. Instead they are able to get a cash payout immediately from a lump sum.

The main problem with people who have one of these settlements is usually that they have a huge amount of bills like medical expenses that need to be paid. Sometimes people accept these payments for other reasons like family vacations but this might not be the best choice for you. Of course this is your choice to make but remember if you give up your structured settlement that you will not have that as income in the future.

There are also some great investment opportunities that you might want to take advantage of when you need the additional cash. One of the best reasons to sell your structured insurance settlement is to be able to pay all of your current bills without worry. However do keep in mind that this can be a bad thing if you are injured to the point that work is going to be hard for you in the future.

So when you want to sell your structured settlement there are some steps that you have to take. The first thing that you should do is research. Find a company that is known for being fair and giving the best price. You do not want to feel as though you have been ripped off afterward because you got less than you should have with the lump sum.

Another step is to contact an attorney who can give you advice and make sure that you are not being ripped off. Plus the attorney can help you to find a buyer that is willing to pay the most so that you can make the most of your lump sum. Whatever you choose just making sure that there are no hidden fees or things in the contract that you are not aware of is a good idea. You can find out this information easily online and if not there by placing a few phone calls to various companies.

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Insurance trade marketing - price objections to overcome five strategic steps

Despite millions of dollars spent in insurance company advertising, many business owners still base their insurance buying decisions price. 
 
Why do business insurance buyers focus so much on the price?  Because...
 
It's a business purchase decision, which means there's very little emotional involvement and someone else (i.e. the boss) will verify that a good choice was made. Even if the purchaser would like to make an emotional decision, he can't.  It's a complicated, confusing purchase and most buyers don't want to appear ignorant, so they focus on the one thing they know. Price is comfortable because it's the currency for all other transactions. Value-added insurance is hard to envision if it hasn't been experienced in the past. Your buyer thinks of insurance as his last claims experience - period. The value gained by investing in a better insurance program is difficult for buyers to measure. Business purchasers are time starved. They won't take the time to educate themselves to understand insurance options if they don't expect the gain in benefit to exceed the burden and time lost to learning.
Ready to overcome these barriers? Here's how:
 
1. Evaluate your policyholders' needs so you can build an offer that hits their hot buttons.  

In the words of James H. Gilmore, author of The Experience Economy, "A company's goal should be to learn more about what each customer needs so that it can close the customer sacrifice gap, which is the difference between what individual customers settle for and what each wants exactly".
 
If you take the time to learn your customer's pain points and hot buttons, then you will know how to structure your offering so that it is worth more to your purchaser. You may find that some items with high perceived customer value, have low delivery costs. You won't know without research. Customer research isn't cheap, but it's a necessary element of long-term profitability. You'll want a survey to identify general perceptions and focus groups to dig in to key issues. Segment your policyholders as narrowly as possible for developing your research and your offering. It's easier to tailor value-added offerings for smaller segments with homogeneous needs.
 
Use your research to determine how to communicate your offering so that it's easy for the purchaser to measure the monetary worth of the value gained by working with you. Industry specific examples, case studies and testimonials are essential for helping insurance purchasers envision something they've never experienced.
 
2. Create a unique value proposition (UVP) that is client-focused and differentiating. 

A while back, Progressive Auto Insurance did something unheard of in the insurance industry. It provided its customers with price quotes from the competition. Then, it counseled customers to go with the company that could save them the most money - even if it meant not choosing Progressive. Why did they do it? Because it was unique, it generated attention, and it cultivated an amazing amount of customer loyalty. This is an example of differentiation in action.  What can you do to surprise and delight your customers?
 
3. Pave the way for sales with brand awareness.
In Brand Leadership, authors David Aaker and Erich Joachlmsthaler discuss a causal relationship between brand and stock return. They cite Equitrends brand power research, which found that firms experiencing largest gains in brand equity saw their stock return average 30 percent. The authors suggest that the brand equity / stock return relationship might stem from brand equity's tendency to support a price premium, which contributes to profitability. They state, "When a high level of perceived quality has been created, raising the prices not only provides margin dollars but also aids perceptions."
 
Create a high level of perceived quality through consistent marketing and communication programs. One specialty carrier was able to decrease its marketing budget by 35 percent while at the same time tripling its revenues and boosting brand awareness within its target market. This company started by calculating the cost per exposure and cost per lead for each of its marketing activities. Here's what the company learned:
Tradeshows and golf sponsorships had extremely high cost per exposure and cost per lead. Advertising had low cost per exposure, but high cost per lead (it was hard to identify that any leads were generated) Direct mail had moderate cost per exposure and the lowest cost per lead - plus prospects and marketing activities could easily be tracked throughout the sales cycle. Published articles had lower cost per exposure than advertising and high cost per lead (again it was hard to track leads)
The company drastically revised it marketing approach attending four tradeshows per year instead of 28, sponsoring five golf tournaments each year, instead of 22, eliminating the bulk of its advertising, and allocating the majority of its marketing budget to direct mail and published articles. 
 
This company used a 'pull' marketing approach, marketing directly to the policyholder prospect. Because the company operates with a limited number of agencies, it was able to co-brand many of the marketing efforts with its appointed agencies, so everyone benefited.
 
Sending direct mail to policyholders may not work with your business model. Nevertheless, you can take a combined approach - 'pulling' policyholders through published articles in their industry trade journals, and 'pushing' brand through a direct mail campaign with appointed agents. The key is to eliminate activities with high cost per exposure and high cost per lead, and replace them with activities that generate strong return-on-investment. Expenses are controlled, but a perception of quality is established making it easier to command a higher price.
 
4. Groom your internal culture to deliver your marketing promise.
 
The mantra at Disney is, "Marketing creates the brand but training brings it to life and keeps it refreshed from customers and employees alike." If you've experienced Disneyland, you've seen the mantra in action. Disney delivers its marketing promise! If you're not already aligning your hiring, training, policies and procedures with your marketing promises, you need to start now - your retention rates depend upon it. Consider these statistics from Frederick Reichheld in The Loyalty Effect:
It costs five times as much to acquire a new customer as to retain one Most companies lose 20-25 percent of customers each year If attrition is cut five percentage points, a company can add 25-75 percent in profits to it bottom line.
Imagine...Fred Smith's insurance company promises excellent service, but when he phones with a coverage question, he's placed on hold for five minutes. Frustrated, he tries the use the Web site. When he submits the question form, it errors out. He can't tell if it went through.   Could this be your company?
 
Too often, the gap between the marketing promise and the actual customer experience is huge! While a small glitch on the website and an extended hold time may seem like small infractions, they're monumental if you are a policyholder with an alternate expectation.If you sell cut-rate product, then cut-rate service is expected. Think Costco - no one minds the lines there.   But, if you sell quality, every moment of the customer experience must be quality, or you'll lose the customer at renewal. 
 
5. Strategically focus your retention efforts to optimize pricing.
 
Enlist your actuary or financial analyst to identify and profile the revenue and cost to service for each of your customer segments. You can look at a number of segment types: by size, by industry, by agency, by policy type, etc. 
Plot your customer segments onto the following grid, to determine how much time and money should be spent to retain each segment:
 
High Revenue/Low Cost to Service
Allocate biggest $ for retention Develop agency incentives Refine service to better meet needs Build relationship
High Revenue/High Cost to Service
Execute low cost retention activities Find ways to reduce cost to service
Low Revenue/Low Cost to Service
Find ways to increase revenues -  i.e. up-sell or cross-sell Execute low costs retention activities
Low Revenue/High Cost to Service
Increase pricing or decrease cost to service Consider ending the relationship
According to the Direct Marketing Association, retention rates tend to stabilize after the second purchase. The first purchase is a test. A two-time buyer is buying with full knowledge. This means that a two-time buyer (or someone who has renewed a policy once) is the best target for retention, cross-sell and up-sell efforts.
 
In their McKinsey Quarterly article, Race to the Bottom, Andreas Florissen, Thomas Vahlenkamp, Boris Maurer and Bernhard Schmidt caution companies to carefully consider the 'willingness to fly into a competitor's arms' factor when looking a customer value, retention spending and price optimization. They say, "If a customer is the kind that switches easily, retention efforts are better directed at others, since the likelihood of success is small. Managers must understand that it is better to lose fickle customers than to keep them at unrealistically low prices - an approach that cuts margins earned from all customers, even those that are less price sensitive.
 
In closing, there are several ways to change a price:
 
1. Change the price tag (the obvious)
2. Change the quantity (deductibles, limits)
3. Change the quality (coverage, service level)
4. Change the terms (service levels, payment terms, policy length)
 
The key is to be creative and strategic. Frame your price and provide your agents the tools they need to sell it. Make sure every value-added service is itemized with a monetary value. For example, if three accident prevention consultations come with the policy, assign a value for those. Make it easy for the buyer to rationalize a higher premium. Discuss short term vs. long term, and the importance of investing in an insurance partner that will improve experience ratios over time. Point out coverage that is different than the competitors so it's clear that an apple-to-apple comparison cannot be made. Finally, remember to include testimonials, case studies and success stories in the sales presentation, so your prospect can visualize the benefits of you as his partner.
 
The buyers who are throwing up price objections are also spending $3 on their lattes and $300 on their sunglasses. You see - price isn't really an objection - it's a convenient excuse when desire and understanding are lacking.

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Car insurance - steps for making a claim

A car accident can be a painful and traumatic event. People will be shocked and often unclear thinking. If you are involved in a car accident, you must consider your condition as well as the events which occurred because you most likely have to make a car insurance claim.
To prepare for the results of a car accident, the following steps should be followed to make a proper claim:
(1) After an accident your heart race and you are can be disoriented. You need your thoughts to gather and reflect on what you do. When you are injured, and the car is no danger as in brand, your mobile phone and a call to 911. If no emergency as serious injury, call it you the police. Check whether someone is hurt. Ask people to stay the accident the witness and speak with the police.
2. Swap contact information including telephone numbers, license plate numbers and car insurance information with the other driver in the accident involved. When the police share comes to all the information you remember about the accident, so that they an official report that write insurance companies can be given. Make sure that you tell the police that you want to create a report. If the officials do it since the accident on the property of an operation such as a car park store took place then questions the shop owner or a security guard, something to write. If you have a camera, take pictures of the crash site, which includes vehicle damage.
3. Contact your insurance company, even if you're not on error. Also, compensation is based on the extent of the error you have evidence to support your claim. Most insurers are free a toll claim number. Make sure that you have your policy number available. If the other person is in error, make a claim. You are entitled, which insurance company to process your claim and to resolve disputes. Your insurance policy the other driver insurance provider will point out that you make a claim and search of balance. You need to make a list of all items damaged.
If the other driver does not have insurance, you have to negotiate you directly or go to court. Some experts suggest that if the other party is corrupt, you should use two insurers claims file.
4. Once you have made all the paper work for insurance companies, she are sorted from the claim. May be you've got to the other driver to talk to suppliers about your memory of the accident. Your insurance provider will tell you which statement is required. Before you give your statement, write what you remember about the accident.
(5) A claims adjuster will review your damaged car in order to assess the cost of the loss. It is also examining if the damage can be repaired, or if you need financial compensation. If you are financially compensated, you write the insurance company check box minus the deductible.
A car accident can be a very emotional time in life. It is important to remember that you need to hold you together so that you, as well as a car insurance claim submission can make the right decisions in terms of your physical well-being.

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Gewerblichen Sachversicherung Eigentümer - was sollten Sie tun jetzt Winter hier ist?

Here winter with a vengeance in some areas has arrived in the United Kingdom. We see storms lashing the country out of very strong winds and heavy rainfall. We have already flooding in England, Wales and Scotland. During the long-term weather forecasters predicted the next three months always an impossible task weather, they seem to agree, is that we are no. in mild winter.
If you need to have in force a commercial landlord, and a commercial real estate owner insurance you steps some, at this time of year to try and prevent or at least to reduce the damage that your building can occur. At the heart of this is that you should not, of personal injury, you threatened be his steps, so you must not have roofs and walls climbing, but you must take an objective view of your building and it is building and the potential risks of insurance for you.
While this is no exhaustive list, these are some of the steps that you can take to ensure that your company insurance company does not come back to you and say, that you not proper maintenance of the building, which they are insured.
Water is one of the largest sources of claims through a roof. The problem is that this small can begin, and you are not even aware it. Continue over a period of weeks, the water penetration into the building as the rain continued.
Stage you would have asked originally posted, declare to your insurer (if direct) or your broker, certain details of the actual construction. If your building covered with slate or tiles and is opened, then this think what insurers standard be. You have any area roof that flat, or the "on wood felt", then this is what prove to insurers as non-standard is. It depends on the insurer and the percentage of the roof, which is flat whether insurers will apply all the specific conditions. For example, if the roof is less than 20% is its construction then is generally OK. Although you need to check your text.
More than 20%, and this typically results in a condition applies, that you have a competent (i.e. a roofer or generator) contractor your roof examine and correct damage, either annually or semi-annually.
So, in the context of your winter-check, you must ensure that your inspections to date are. Given where we are in recession, with the construction still craft suffer the brunt of the plc-economic miserable, the UK are rather than ever get to be a contractor and free of charge to do the inspection.
A word of advice is the contractor, to questions, some digital photographing of the roof. This allows you in two ways. The first one is, if the contractor recommends work, they can show you physical evidence this more as an unscrupulous contractor trying to pay you that do not get for work. Secondly, you can then the contractor you this email can keep questions and you they prove their bill insurers that they had carried out regular inspections.
Another problem is the water by a building of backed-up roof gutters and drains. Unless you have protection, you are unlikely claims, damage to the building had to get away. It is for a set range of risks or causes, such as storm, fire and theft insurance commercial building. Water for the debris (such as leaves) in gutters leak is not insured peril. So, you should if you do it, can check that your gutters are clean, or if this is too difficult, you can a local pipes and contractor to come and clear your gutters and drain.
One final point, which will affect not really storms or high winds, pipes is Berry. The most internal pipes in buildings today are retarded correctly. You must, if you can give the building, an once over and check whether all lagging available. In the course of time building movement or even bugs lagging may cause pipes "fall". Since we get colder days and nights in the a growing probability of pipelines split or expired as water freezes and expands. When it melts, the water is the fastest way of the pipe because it generally under any form of pressure.
Any form of commercial insurance is insurance to cover the unexpected event, it is not a maintenance policy. If you are in doubt please contact your broker and ask them, what action you must take, what you should do match to your insurance policy.

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