[Rick Lee]

I've never cold called once in this job. I have accidentally gone to the wrong address a few times, asked for the wrong person and they still invited me in and I closed them. Yes, really. However, 100% of my appointments are set from lead cards these folks mail in. Now, they may not always understand what the card is about. After all, a lot of the messes I fix are due to people not reading everything they sign up for. But there's nothing predatory about calling a phone number someone has handwritten on a card and mailed in, then they agree to an appt. and often are very happy to see me and see if I can fix their mess. It ain't predatory because someone doesn't read their paperwork, though I explain things ad nauseam and often go back to walk them through their paperwork if I sell them a policy.

Let's see, what messes did I fix yesterday? A 74 yr. old man set an appt to see if I could beat the policy he had. He swore it was $100k whole life and he was paying $81/mo. for it. When he brought out the paperwork, it turns out it was a 10 yr. term policy and expires in four more years. So he'll go from $100k coverage to $0. No wonder that agent isn't returning his calls. Unfortunately, he had triple bypass surgery six mos. ago, so I couldn't help him.

First appt. was a guy who thought I was there for Medicare. When I explained final expense insurance, he showed me the policy he had. It was another one of those that requires him to document he's been tobacco-free for a year by the end of year three. He had never read it. So I showed it to him. He was already in year three and had not stopped smoking. I replaced that one, got him $4k more coverage for the same price and he can keep smoking. Or, if he quits, once it's been a year, I can rewrite him for a lower price or more coverage. He had to stop himself from hugging me, thanked me so profusely and said he was so happy he had met me.

Next one was a woman who had three ancient policies. They looked like the Dead Sea Scrolls or parchment paper. I combined them into one policy for a slight increase in price, but she's getting $2800 cash back. And her kids will only have one death claim instead of three to file.

It's pretty rare that I run into someone who hasn't made a mess of their insurance, which usually makes my job easy. All I have to do is show them what's going to happen, if it hasn't already, and convince them I can fix it. If I can't, as in the man's case above with the $100k term policy, I walk away.