Michael Clementi Highlighted in Broker World Magazine

As I look at my life, I realize how many things I need to have insured just to live in the United States. If you currently own a house or rent from somebody, you need to have renter’s insurance or home insurance. If you drove your car to work today, then you need to have car insurance.

Lastly, if you have young children and want to make sure they are taken care of financially if you pass away, then you probably have life insurance on you and your spouse. We rely on insurance carriers to provide a financial benefit if we ever need to make a claim. If we need insurance on all these parts of our lives, then why are we not putting insurance on our retirement income streams?

The foundation of our parents and grandparents’ retirement model was built on the income provided by social security and pension plans. The income stream was protected and guaranteed, while the risk was put on the employer and government to deliver on their promise. All our parents had savings accounts which portrayed the message of growing your assets and focusing on getting a good rate of return on your money.

With this advice, they would potentially go out and risk all their money in the stock market. If the market crashed and they lost a significant amount of money it would not be a concern to them because most of their retirement income was coming from protected sources. These clients could afford that loss and move on.

Unfortunately, this retirement model for our generation is currently broken and completely flipped upside down. Pensions seem to be all but gone (or extremely difficult to come by) and the retirement benefits from social security have dwindled down dramatically from what previous generations received. So where is the rest of your income going to come from?

The answer is you.

Most of the risk now is on you–the consumer–to make sure you have enough money to last throughout retirement. Yet, this directly contradicts the message we’re all being conditioned to believe: Continue to focus on growing your assets as much as possible and get the highest rate of return on your money.​

I am here to tell you that the only way to have a successful retirement plan is to have an income plan that is guaranteed to life expectancy and will not lose any money to dips and fluctuations in the stock market. The strategy used to accomplish this goal is straightforward and used to protect and grow assets. It involves moving a portion of your money into a fixed indexed annuity (FIA) with a guaranteed lifetime income rider.

To view the full article, please click here: View Article in Broker World Magazine »

Recent studies have concluded that a majority of people do not use RMDs for their daily living expenses. Considering that the IRS requires these funds to be withdrawn at a certain time, even if you don’t need them, it is important to think about how you can take advantage of these funds as a retirement income strategy for your future. While that money can be allocated to essential expenses, what is the best way to use that money if you don’t depend on it immediately?

In this episode of Money Script Monday, Sean explores the different RMD options to consider in order to make the most of your retirement income strategy.

Resources Provided for This Episode

• Video Transcription
• Whiteboard Image

Did you know that you could increase your client reach in a passive way, allowing you to focus on your growing business? Advisors often run into frustrations with prospect marketing because tackling it on their own takes too much time to figure out, is hard to keep up with changes, is too expensive, and takes too much time away from their clients.

Through existing streams of marketing channels at LifePro, however, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel since the work is already done for you! By incorporating these established and effective passive marketing strategies, you can save and money while generating a consistent stream of active prospects.

In this episode of Money Script Monday, Jaime covers the marketing channels available through LifePro that can passively accelerate business growth.

Resources Provided for This Episode

• Video Transcription
• Whiteboard Image

We all know how it feels to go to the internet looking for answers to whatever questions we may be asking ourselves, just to be let down by confusing, opinionated, and ultimately unrealiable information. Unfortunately, if you have experienced this when trying to make a major decision, you know how frustrating and complicated this can be.

When it comes to your future, being lost or confused is the last thing that you should feel. Our mission aligns strongly with this sentiment, which is why our founder set out to prove that indexed universal life policies can come true and it’s possible to get the outcome you want from it. Over the span of more than a decade, we’ve been closely tracking all of the policies we’ve ever written and by looking to the past, we’ve discovered amazing ways to help you look to your future.

In this episode of Money Script Monday, Kevin points to the top three shared factors from over 15,000 actual enforced policies that distinguishes a successful IUL from an unsuccessful one. Access the full breakdown by visiting his article in World Broker Magazine through the link below.

Resources Provided for This Episode

• Video Transcription
• Whiteboard Image
• Kevin's Broker World Magazine Article

Advisory Services offered through LifePro Asset Management, LLC. The information presented here is not specific to any individual's personal circumstances. These materials are provided for general information and educational purposes based upon publicly available information from sources believed to be reliable—we cannot assure the accuracy or completeness of these materials.

Kevin Nuber Highlighted in Broker World Magazine

If you are in the IUL marketplace, then you hear it all the time—indexed universal life policies will never come true. The criticisms are usually the same. That the illustrations and projections are unrealistic and so unbelievable that they can’t possibly come true. They say caps and participation rates will be reduced and the client will end up unhappy. One can easily argue truth to these statements because an illustration can be manipulated in all sorts of ways to over promise performance.

Many years ago, our company founder Bill Zimmerman was tired of hearing these criticisms because he knew from his personal experience that IUL policies would perform. He set out on a mission to prove this to our advisors and their clients, and over the last 15 years, and tens of thousands of IUL policies later, we have found that if an advisor follows three simple rules, then the IUL illustrations should come true.

With Bill’s mission in mind we designed and created a system to illustrate policy performance in an easy-to-digest format

We have an entire library dedicated to IUL success stories. We’ve run annual policy review reports on most of our active IUL contracts that were written over the last twelve years. We have run a total of 14,842 of these reports, which are then sent to our advisors automatically.

Every week we see examples of policies that are performing as planned, but also policies that are not performing as expected. We have found that in almost every case where there is an underperforming policy, one or more of the three rules were not followed.

We have many IUL stories to share at http://www.lifepro.com/stories. You’ll be able to see successful policies that followed these rules, and policies that have fallen behind because they didn’t follow the rules. With this knowledge as a guide to follow you could have these same success stories that our advisors do.

To view the full article, please click here: View Article in Broker World Magazine »

Is your business expanding to the point where you have too much to do and not enough time to get it done? As a business owner, you may be getting bogged down by day-to-day administrative duties, trying to do too much at once – which can be detrimental to your company’s growth.

A virtual assistant (VA) is a professional who provides administrative and/or technical support remotely in order to free up more of your time to focus on activities that have the greatest impact on your business and income. By employing a virtual assistant, you're often able to save on overhead costs, like travel, office equipment, vacation time, and benefits. When hiring a VA, it is essential to execute the right process that can help ensure you’ll find the right fit for your business. There are a few simple yet essential steps that can make your hiring and recruiting efforts more effective.

In this episode of Money Script Monday, Sara shares expert tips and resources to keep in mind when bringing on remote staff that’ll help make the most of your recruitment efforts.

Resources Provided for This Episode

• Video Transcription
• Whiteboard Image

Kyle Tomko Highlighted in Broker World Magazine

The insurance industry has long been considered a black box, shrouded in secrecy, with endless (negative) connotations around carriers being a scam or even a rip off. Let’s be honest, we’ve all had a bad experience with reporting a claim or dealing with outlandish hold times and or customer service.

Worst part yet, this experience ranges across the insurance landscape and you can often be reminded when you see their name in the airport, on a building, or even on a ballpark/arena. To no surprise, insurance carriers are often misunderstood from the start.

In this article I hope to dispel some of the myths surrounding the annuity industry. My goal is to provide a conceptual explanation around how annuity companies make money. Along the way, we’ll tackle some of the more common questions like, “How does the agent get compensated?” and/or “How does my contract charge no fees?”

These are both reasonable questions for consumers to ask. But first, why exactly are annuities (from fixed to indexed) so popular right now? The answer is two-fold. Continued stock market volatility + Increasing interest rate environment = Annuity Opportunity Zone. Let me explain further.

From a business cycle standpoint our economy is nearing the end of an inflationary cycle, which means we’re headed towards a recessionary period. We’ve seen annuity rates and benefits continue to rise with the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes throughout the past twelve months. When interest rates rise it becomes more expensive to borrow money, which can discourage spending on big ticket items such as an estate, automobile, etc.

At some point the increased interest rates will lead to lower inflation, lower economic growth, and higher unemployment. The government does this with the hope that the demand for consumer goods and services will drop.

To view the full article, please click here: View Article in Broker World Magazine »

Brian Manderscheid Highlighted in Broker World Magazine

As clients prepare to meet with their financial advisors on planning strategies for the new year, this is the perfect opportunity to discuss how to potentially reduce their future tax obligations with a concept called, Strategic Roth IRA conversions.

Over the past year we witnessed the National debt surpass $31 trillion dollars with record government spending and deficits. Not only has our nation’s debt gone up substantially, so have interest rates which compounds the problem. With no end in sight in reckless government spending, or a chance of a balanced budget, the tax risk your clients face will likely get worse not better.

Fortunately, we can have a retirement tax escape hatch which your clients can utilize to avoid a ticking tax time bomb on their retirement accounts.

It’s no secret that, given the choice, your clients would rather have tax free growth, distribution and transfer than taxable benefits at potentially higher tax rates. Everyone wants a Roth IRA conversion, but simultaneously no one wants to pay the upfront taxes.

What if you could provide your clients up to three discounts on Strategic Roth IRA conversion taxes?

If structured correctly, your clients can use this strategy to enjoy tax-free income in retirement, leave a tax-free legacy to their kids and grandchildren while also minimizing their upfront Roth IRA conversion tax obligations.

The three potential discounts are the 1) tax rate discount; 2) market value discount; and, lastly, 3) tax base discount. First, let’s talk about the tax rate discount.

With the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act sunsetting in 2026, we’re in a unique situation where we know that tax rates will be increasing in 2026 for most clients. The way to paint this picture is by reminding them that they are going to go to bed December 31st, 2025, on New Year’s Eve and wake up the next morning on New Year’s Day, January 1st, 2026, owing more taxes.

To view the full article, please click here: View Article in Broker World Magazine »

Investment advisory and financial planning services are offered through LifePro Asset Management, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. These materials are provided for general information and educational purposes based upon publicly available information from sources believed to be reliable—we cannot assure the accuracy or completeness of these materials. LifePro Asset Management does not provide tax or legal advice. Please consult with your tax and/or legal advisor for such guidance.

When you think of the American economy, it’s hard not to imagine business owners, as they’re the lifeblood of the American dream. Successful business owners value the importance of protecting their assets, mitigating tax exposure to avoid paying unnecessary taxes, and having access to liquidity and capital. While we may not all be business owners, the good news is that we all have access to these strategies. One just happens to be properly structured cash-value life insurance.

In this episode of Money Script Monday, Laurence reveals the most common uses of cash-value life insurance, the way to structure a policy, and how to access your money.

Resources Provided for This Episode

• Video Transcription
• Whiteboard Image