Tipping Point

Dear Editor:

Life Insurance Sales Illustrations – A Call to Action

  • We have reached the stage where a life insurance sales illustration is hardly worth the paper it is printed on.
  • Yet thousands of agents are confidently presenting these illustrations to frequently unsuspecting clients.
  • I have yet to discuss this issue with anyone in the industry – home office or field – who doesn’t agree that the current situation is a mess.
  • But everyone also agrees that no single company can try to institute change by, withdrawing from the illustration game.
  • Sooner or later, surely, the whole house of cards will come tumbling down.

—  Daphne Bartlett

1988 – Article from: The Actuary June 1988 – Volume 22, No. 6

  • The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell

 

  • I’d like to take that one step further.
  • What I noticed was there is a requirement for in-force illustrations, and people may have thought they bought one thing and whenever you have to give them an in-force illustration with a current disciplined scale, they’re going to realize they bought something else.
    • I think many companies will have serious problems with policyholder retention.

—  Mark J. Greene, FSA. MAAA, Supervising Actuary, New York State Insurance Department

1995 – SOA – Illustrations and Nonforfeiture Values, rsa95v21n123 – Society of Actuaries – 14p