Month: January 2023

10 Tips to Help Build Your Online Brand in 2023

January 31, 2023
  1. You wear a lot of hats as an advisor. Are all of those hats represented in your brand? For instance, do your managed money clients know that you can also help them with their life insurance? If not, there’s a great reason to communicate with your current clients.
  2. Can your network tell your story? Your network is your biggest advocate and best source of referrals, so it’s important that everyone in your network understands what you do. They don’t have to know the details, but they need to know that you offer a range of insurance, annuities, and managed money solutions, so having a consistent brand message across all platforms and media is really important.
  3. Audit your social posts from 2022. Do they represent your brand and the markets you serve? If not, outline some topics that you’d like to integrate into your communications.
  4. Do your social profile(s) use wording that connects with potential prospects? Many of the technical terms we use aren’t familiar to people outside the industry, so think about using words that explain how you can help instead of listing what you do.
  5. Speaking of connection, integrate posts that share your personality and help people connect with you on a personal level.
  6. Make sure your LinkedIn title reflects both what you do at a high level as well as any areas of specialization. It’s important that people know you are a Financial Advisor, but if you specialize in helping business owners, consider adding to your title. For example: Financial Advisor ꟾ Expertise in Business Owner Solutions
  7. Ask a question – starting some of your social posts with questions can help generate engagement.
  8. Add a call to action to your communication. When appropriate, include a next step. For example, “Contact me to discuss your financial future.”
  9. Pre-plan your social posts – Taking a few minutes each month to plan out your social media posts will help you determine what you want to focus on for that month – not to mention it can help you with your overall marketing when you use social media to compliment your marketing efforts.
  10. Follow up on your posts – Make sure that you react in a timely manner to any engagement you receive on a post – sharing, comments, likes. Engagement with a post is just like any other lead; it can quickly go cold.

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Shake Up Your Client Meetings

January 31, 2023

Life Events
While some life events are obvious (marriage, births, deaths), there are some life events that your clients may not realize as being potentially impactful, so you may need to ask more specific questions. For instance:

  • What age is your client? Do they have an age-related event coming up such as needing to take required minimum distributions?
  • Have they paid off debt recently? How are they using the money they are saving and is that saving now reflected as income in their plan?
  • Have they changed jobs? Do they need help with their new and old qualified/nonqualified plans?

Goals
Goals can shift over time, so reviewing previous goals with clients can help them identify new updates. For instance

  • Have their investment goals (time horizon, risk, etc.) changed since you last met?
  • Have their financial priorities changed?
  • Has their income changed?
  • If your client is a business owner:
    • Has anything changed with their business that impacts succession or retirement goals?
    • Do they have a qualified plan, and if so, is it still sufficient?

Status Quo?
Are your clients’ current financial solutions still appropriate or do they have opportunities that they haven’t considered?

  • Have you reviewed their life insurance recently? In particular:
    • Is there beneficiary information still correct?
    • Is the ownership of the policy still appropriate?
    • Do they have any policy options coming up, such as a term conversion?
    • Do they still have enough insurance?
  • The shifting regulatory environment has impacted IRAs. This is the time to do an IRA review with your client, in particular if they don’t plan on using their IRA for income or if they are inheriting an IRA. While you may not be able to make a recommendation yet, you can still let them know that changes may be needed in the future.

Staying Connected
Most likely your clients have other advisors such as CPAs and attorneys. Offering to work with or consult with their other advisors builds relationships and trust.

  • Are your clients talking with their other advisors? Have they discussed tax-savings strategies with their CPA including gifting and qualified plans? If they need to consider a tax reduction strategy, is there a solution you can provide that might help?
  • Does your client know that you would like to work with other people like them? This is a great opportunity to ask for referrals. And if you’re working with CPAs, this is a chance to ask for an introduction to theirs.
  • Reviewing beneficiaries and powers of attorney with your clients can save your clients and their families a lot of frustration later. It’s also a potential opportunity to start working with other members of the family. We even have a Beneficiary Information booklet and an Emergency Contact booklet that you can leave with your clients.

What’s on their mind?

  • Are you providing your clients with a meeting agenda ahead of time to ensure they are prepared? It’s a quick and simple way to make the most of your time.
  • Do your clients have questions? Collecting their questions ahead of time can help you better structure your meeting/review
  • Have you asked your clients how they prefer to communicate? And don’t forget that if you haven’t let your clients know that you can text with them (via the Celltrust app), this is a good opportunity.

Make sure they know all their resources
Would your client prefer eDelivery of statements? Do they know how to access their account information? Take the opportunity to introduce them to the resources available to them – one of the benefits of working with you.

Update your records
Don’t forget to update your CRM tool with any pertinent information from your meetings. If they specified a communication preference, use whatever that communication vehicle is to send a thank you note.

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New Performance Snapshots for Q4 2022

January 31, 2023

To help you review the Illuminations fund strategist and SMA portfolios you’ve utilized for your clients and determine if there is something new and a better fit, performance snapshots have been updated for Q4 2022.

While we know we should not make recommendations purely off of performance, lists such as these are a great starting point to look at alternative solutions to help our clients better meet their financial goals.

Important Notes: Some performance information was not yet available at the time this document was created. This document can be found on the ESI Illuminations site as well as the NL Agent portal. To ensure the link below works correctly, please log in to the NL Agent portal first. 


Click here for the ESI Illuminations Fund Strategist Portfolio Performance Comparison 1/1/22 – 12/31/22 

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Secure Act 2.0 Update

January 24, 2023

Join us for important updates resulting from the Secure Act 2.0. changes to the 10-year rule, who will be impacted by the rules, and the potentially substantial tax implications for those beneficiaries.

SECURE ACT 2.0: What You Need to Know!
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
3:30 p.m. ET

Click here to register.

Featured Speaker:
Brandon Buckingham, J.D.*, LL.M.
Vice President, Advanced Planning
Prudential Financial, Inc.
Moderated by:
John McElhiney
Regional Vice President, Retirement Strategies
Prudential Distributors – Annuities

IRS REG.105954-20 The SECURE ACT went into effect January 1, 2020, fundamentally changing the tax and distribution rules for beneficiaries of IRAs and other qualified retirement accounts as we knew them. The IRS recently caught everyone by surprise and flipped the understanding of the 10-year rule on its head when it applied the “At Least as Rapidly” doctrine to certain beneficiaries of qualified retirement accounts which will create new and potentially expensive tax pitfalls for some taxpayers. This presentation will discuss the changes to the 10-year rule, who will be impacted by the rules, and the potentially substantial tax implications for those beneficiaries. Having an understanding of the new rules will be critical in preventing potentially expensive mistakes in 2023 and beyond.

SECURE Act 2.0: On December 29, 2022, SECURE Act 2.0 was signed into law, building on The SECURE Act of 2019. The legislation should help strengthen the retirement system and make it easier to save and invest for retirement. While 2.0 brings some welcome changes, as with any legislation, 2.0 adds some additional complexities that will need to be expertly navigated to take advantage of many of the new rules, as well as avoid potential tax missteps.

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Updated Sales Support Maps

January 24, 2023

Several of our Illuminations Strategists have updated their sales support maps, including 3D Asset Management, American Funds, Fidelity Institutional, Morningstar, Russell Investments, and Symmetry Partners. All Illuminations Strategist sales support maps can be found on the Illuminations site under the Platform tab.

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New Social Posts Available

January 24, 2023

If you are scheduling annual reviews or offering beneficiary reviews, there are new social posts in the Hearsay Social Library to complement your campaigns. To view these new posts, click on the Filter button and then choose Annual Review or Beneficiary from the available Tags.

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Save the Date for the ESI 2023 Kick Off Call!

January 17, 2023

Please join ESI’s Executive Leadership Team for our 2023 Kick Off call! We’ll take a quick look back at the activities and results of Q4 and then discuss what’s ahead for 2023.

If you have any questions for ESI’s Leadership Team, let us know! Submit your questions to ESIBusinessDevelopment@nationallife.com by February 8th, and we’ll answer them during the call.

ESI 2023 Kick Off Call

Monday, February 13, 2023

1:00pm EST
Click here to register.

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ESI Field Advisory Committee Welcomes New 2023 Co-Chair

January 17, 2023

Chartered in 2006 as a subcommittee of NLG’s Agent Advisory Council (AAC), the ESI Field Advisory Committee (EFAC) is charged with working closely with ESI Leadership to address the opportunities and challenges faced by ESI Reps in their practices. In serving as the voice of the Field, EFAC has engaged in providing Rep perspective and feedback on topics ranging from Firm policy and solutions, to products, business efficiency, and growth opportunities. During their recent annual meeting, the Committee addressed its regular membership update, with the results voted on and ratified unanimously in the meeting that followed.

To learn more about EFAC’s mission, please visit: https://www.nationallife.com/agent/tools/contact-us/efac To contact your ESI representatives: ESIFieldAdvisoryCommittee@nationallife.com

Your EFAC Representatives as of January 2023 are:

Chair – Nico Riverso, New Jersey
Co-Chair – Dominic Citera, New York Metro

Scott Maitland, Pacific Northwest
Tyler Degeneffe, Green Bay

Paul Sortino, Baltimore
Dan Wolodkiewicz, Midwest

Michelle Lawrence, CPA, PFS, Northern New England
Gary Liskow, Long Island

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