The New Large Case Team

It’s been a busy week for “moi”.

I got to meet my new team in Toronto and it’s been a crazy whirlwind of new faces, lots of training and lots of introductions. It’s a whole new world on the MGA side of things.

Normally my newsletters have been about me sharing information that I’ve known a long time. Stuff I’ve been doing for years in meetings, etc.

But at least for today and maybe the future, I’m going to take you on the journey I’m on, sharing the new stuff I’m learning, because I know you’ll benefit as well.

One of the first things I’ve learned about PPI is that they are really a large case operation. They have staffed the company with a lot of subject matter experts like accountants, lawyers and large case support personnel.

But this is the first time I’ve ever heard of having their own Advanced Underwriter on staff. There’s a gentleman named Romeo Vitagliano, who is by all intents is a large case underwriter at PPI. And, a genius from what I’ve learnt so far.

And, you’ll never believe what he does here.

You can actually take an application with PPI (not one of the carriers) and he and his team will underwrite the whole file, they’ll order doctors reports, etc. And, then they will provide you their decision.

Not only that, but they’ll also tell you which carrier is best to submit to, based on information in the application – the one that will get the best decision.

Then they’ll package it up for you so that a decision can fly through underwriting at the carrier without endless questions to get more information. Because Romeo and his team know what they’re doing.

And here’s the icing on the cake. You don’t even need to take a new application (for most insurers). They’ll accept the work that PPI does on the file and can use the application. And they’ll reimburse PPI for the costs of getting the APS, etc.

There’s more to learn on this program for sure, but can you imagine how much this could streamline your approach, could minimize heartache and optimize your time?

Now I know there are plenty of people with PPI on my email list and they’re probably saying: “Andrew, we already know all this stuff”.

I’m an outsider to all of this and I’m impressed at what’s going on here. So if you didn’t know, now you do.

Now, this isn’t for every case, it has to be large case which means $5,000,000 of death benefit or $75,000 of annual premium. But, that benchmark isn’t a tough hurdle in many of these instances.

So, if you didn’t know about the program, now you do.

What I wanted to talk about today is cover letters because I saw a great presentation on my second day at PPI that I thought was noteworthy by Jay Sankoff from Sun Life (who I’ve been told will probably be making a trip to a place near you this year). But, in case you don’t see him, I’ll steal some of his thunder.

He gave a great presentation on writing better cover letters for your large case business, and it’s worth understanding. He told me he’s working on a marketing piece, so stay tuned for that.

So, here’s what he said to do:

In the opening sentence, he said to explain the details of the insured and applicants. Then in the second sentence, explain the reason for the insurance (problem to be solved and/or reason why).

Then, explain how you determine the amount of the insurance (the math behind it, tax liability with calculations, income statement, personal networth, FMV of business, etc).

Then, explain how the client will pay for it (ie. Where are the premiums coming from). And, if you have an org chart, that is incredibly important.

After that, you can get into special situations, special health conditions, etc.

Here’s an example of how it should look:

“To the Underwriter,

Please find enclosed an application on Mrs. Jillian Jones and Mr. Jack Jones, ages 59 and 62. They are applying for $10M joint last to die (JTLD) coverage for estate preservation reasons.

Jack was a prominent lawyer for over 35 years making partner in a large Vancouver firm, while Jillian owned a growing real estate firm which she still owns 50% partnership. They have $1M JTLD inforce policy with x, which will not be replaced.

Together their assets include a $6M West Vancouver home, three condos in the downtown area worth a total of $5M, a home in Florida worth $2M, all mortgage free and other investments at RBC totalling $5M and Scotia totalling $3M.

Their estate tax liability is estimated to be over $13M based on their total assets of $15M+ grown out 20 years at 6%.

Jack has seen only his general practitioner (GP) over the last five years and is taking Lipitor to control his hypertension.

Jillian has seen five doctors over that same time period. A list of those physicians and reasons for those visits, along with a list of their properties is on the next page.”

There you go!

So, if you can see Jay when he’s in town, I’d recommend checking him out. It will be well worth your time.

And if you are with PPI and in Ontario, I hope to see you at the Symposium in Ottawa in a few weeks.

On that note, I’ll leave you to your Saturday morning.

Keep close to your email, because as I learn more, so will you.

Until next week,

Andrew