Genworth Increases Crediting Rates, Vantage Point ROP Term Approved in S.C.

We thought it was newsworthy to relay to you that the crediting rates, or the current interest rates applied to permanent life insurance products held with Genworth (First Colony Life Insurance Company) have increased over this past weekend.  On average, the increases are about .40%

 

In our estimation, this increase is representative of the overall increase in interest rates in the US Economy.  This increase in interest rates will reflect increases in cash values on the current basis of exisiting policies and policies that are newly written.

 

Contact us for a quote to compare products!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Empire General, AIG, Jefferson Pilot, West Coast Life Insurance Company Updates from TMA

• Empire General discontinues Select Flex UL II and III
Empire General Life has discontinued sales for Select Flex II and III universal life products. Applications for Select Flex II and III signed prior to December 1 and received in the home office onor prior to December 9 will be accepted. This action has no impact on other Empire General UL products. Visit the Brokerage Services of Carolina, Inc website for the official announcement.

• New online annuity quotes from TMA's Annuity Center
TMA's Annuity Center now offers online quoting. Go to www.tmaannuity.com for SPIA quotes from American General, American National and Physicians, and deferred annuity quotes from Physicians. The quote section also provides application forms for American National and Physicians that are not available in the forms section. No log-in or password is required.

• AIG reminder to use quote request transmittals
Please remember to submit a completed quote transmittal form with all quote requests to AIG/American General to ensure the request is directed to the proper team.

• AIG discontinued rate class reconsiderations
AIG/American General discontinued rate class reconsiderations on pending business in June of 2003. Visit the Brokerage Services of Carolina, Inc website for their friendly reminder of this policy.

• Genworth requires signed illustrations for all UL products
To comply with the NAIC Illustration Model Regulation that so many states have adopted, Genworth Financial companies are requiring signed illustrations with applications for ALL fixed universal life insurance products, regardless of the state in which the policy will be delivered.

• Jefferson Pilot's OptiChoice annuities approved in CT, MD & SC
Jefferson Pilot's OptiChoice annuities are now available in Connecticut, Maryland and South Carolina. For complete product information, visit www.tmaannuity.com.

• West Coast Life's Lifetime Platinum 120LP approved in UT
West Coast Life's Lifetime Platinum 120LP universal life product is now available in Utah. For complete product details, visit the Brokerage Services of Carolina, Inc website.

• American General offers foreign travel coverage to Israel
Effective immediately, AIG/American General Life will provide insurance coverage to US citizens traveling to Israel if the following additional underriting criteria are met:
- $2.5 million maximum coverage with AIG/American General; subject to any other retention limits
- A $2.50 per thousand temporary flat extra coverage for five years will apply
- All underwriting classes available for coverage
- Products offered include: AGL Elite UL 2003, Platinum Provider Ultra 2003, AGL Elite Index UL 2004
- The Accidental Death Benefit Rider will not be available
- Regular underriting will otherwise apply
- Travel duration should not exceed two weeks for vacation or business purposes

• Lincoln Benefit's Savers Index annuity cap rates increase
Effective November 14, Lincoln Benefit Life's Savers Index annuity cap rates increased .50%. Visit the Brokerage Services of Carolina, Inc website for complete rate information.

• AIG state approvals
Visit the Brokerage Services of Carolina, Inc website for the state approvals from AIG as of November 10.

• Get the latest annuity rates and approvals
Visit the Brokerage Services of Carolina, Inc website for the most up-to-date annuity rates and approvals from TMA's Annuity Center.

US Financial Life - Smoker Term Life Insurance Policy

Smoker Term Life Insurance Quote - Common Sense Underwriting - How does US Financial Life Insurance Company underwrite "social smokers"?

Social smoker rates were designed for an applicant who qualifies for preferred smoker elsewhere, but has always been a light smoker.

US Financial defines a social smoker as a healthy, occasional smoker who always smokes less than one pack per day. They cannot have a long history of smoking; we consider less than 20 pack years (example: 1/2 pack per day for 40 years is 20 pack years). The applicant must be healthy with no medical condition that may be worsened by smoking (examples include lung disease, heart disease, diabetes, etc.).

Then why did one applicant who smoked 1/2 pack per day receive preferred non-smoker, yet another was 1/2 pack per day and received preferred smoker - what's the difference? One was 40 years old, healthy, 1/2 pack per day for 20 years - he would receive preferred non-smoker. The other was a 58 year old 1/2 pack per day for 40 years. He has now reached 20 pack years (1/2 of 40 years), so he would receive preferred smoker rates. Most applicants over 50 will not receive preferred NON-smoker, but some may qualify for "super standard" non smoker rates.

Remember: Your probablility of delivering a non-smoker policy to an occasional cigarette smoker increases the younger the applicant and the fewer the cigarettes smoked.

Interested in US Financial Life Insurance Company's Products? Contact Brokerage Services of Carolina, Inc by visiting them online at www.BrokerageServicesOfCarolina.com or calling 1.800.223.2762

What is a BLOG? What is an RSS Feed?...and why would it matter to me?

What is a BLOG? What is an RSS Feed?...and why would it matter to me? These are questions that are all buzzing around that I'd like to address.

What are BLOGS?
BLOGS are an easy, fun, free way for anyone to keep a dynamic website. They are the websites of the near future that will eventually replace HTML based websites. BLOGS were originally a novel way for one to keep an online journal (yawn), but have grown in popularity over the past few months.

BLOGS are basically "websites". They are user friendly; allowing anyone and everyone to have their own website, post comments, and maintain as a group.

BLOGS are a way to keep your BLOG readers up to date with what is posted on the BLOG. Many entities use BLOGS to keep their business patrons up to date with "what's new".

Where can I get a BLOG?
Google Blogger Blogs (I know, I know, it's a mouthful) are the most well known, most popular means of establishing your online calling card/newsletter with a BLOG. To open up and create your own BLOG by way of Google, go to www.blogger.com , create a user name and password, and start blogging! Be warned, though, that Google owns your blog if you use their service...total freedom and ownership of your own blog can be obtained by using "Wordpress" (www.wordpress.org) - Wordpress is more complicated though and requires that you have a website hosting account.

What is an RSS Feed?
An RSS Feed is a product of your blog in simplest terms. You post to your online blog journal, and the posts become part of your built-in RSS feed that Google provides for you. An RSS Feed is an easy way for your readers and subscribers to receive notice that you have posted new information to your blog. To access your RSS Feed and pass on to your would-be reader/subscriber base, login to your blogger.com account, look for the "settings" tab, then look for the "site feed" tab. There you will find your "site feed URL" which will look something like: http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Why do I need this?
Predominately because of SPAM. SPAM is taking a chunk out of our every day lives. It is estimated that the average American processes 2,700 pieces of advertisement in one day! That's 112 advertisements per hour! What's happening is the important bulletins and information, though, is sometimes not making it through to you - even with email.

RSS Feeds enable YOU to pick what news you want and when you want it.

Keeping sharp with topics pertaining to your field of work:

Interested in keeping up with topics related to "business"? You may want to "subscribe" (this is all free by the way) to the Yahoo newsfeed at http://news.yahoo.com/rss by plugging this URL address into your feedreader - need a free feedreader? Here's one I like: http://www.sharpreader.net/SharpReader0960_Setup.exe

Interested in keeping up with topics related to "life insurance"? You may want to subscribe to the Brokerage Services of Carolina RSS newsfeed at http://brokerageservices.blogspot.com/atom.xml by plugging this URL address into your feedreader - need a free feedreader? Here's one I like: http://www.sharpreader.net/SharpReader0960_Setup.exe

More info to come as it comes to me...just subscribe to our what's new RSS Feed and stay in the know!

Best,
ash

Ashley Brooks, CLTC
Marketing VP
Brokerage Services of Carolina, Inc.
www.BrokerageServicesOfCarolina.com

Important News For Agents Doing Business With Brokerage Services of Carolina, Inc

Dear friends and associates,

As you know, Brokerage Services has always made an effort to stay abreast of current topics and issues having to do with the Life Insurance Industry - we keep our finger on the pulse of Life Insurance like nobody else!

You also may know that we are extremely interested in keeping up to date with technology and keeping the Agents who do business with us up to date in that regard.

!!!Today, we are excited to announce that Brokerage Services is officially joining the bandwagon of RSS Feed Users as we have syndicated our online content for all to use!!! RSS Feeds are the next form of:

#1) Finding information
#2) Communicating Information as it happens.

RSS WILL SUPERCEDE EMAIL IN THIS WAY IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE (Don't you wish you knew about EMAIL before IT came out and became mainstream?!)

With that, I'm sure you have some questions:

What is an RSS Feed?
An RSS Feed is a way for you to get messages from Brokerage Services or whoever syndicates the information for distribution. RSS Stands for "really simple syndication"...it is a stream of syndicated data delivered to your RSS Reader (see below for reader).

Why not just use Email?
We want our message to get through to you - to make a beeline to your computer desktop like no other message.
Email spam has become such a problem that more often than not, our messages that we try to relay to our patrons are tagged as spam.
Email mass mailing is impersonal...RSS feeds from Brokerage Services are a specialized way for us to relay current information, sales ideas, etc to you the agent.
Email mass mailing can cause problems...how many times have you gotten the same email from the same sender 6-7-8 times! RSS ensures that you get the message once.
RSS kills 2 birds with one stone...it alerts the agents who do business with us that there is new information by way of our BLOG. It makes the communication process easier for us at Brokerage Services also because the subscribers to our BLOG RSS Feed automatically get the "what's new" info as it is posted to our unique, online BLOG.

Enough of the jibber jabber - It must, at least be interesting...how do I Implement an RSS Feed?
For your convenience, I have researched and found the best, easiest to use RSS news reader. Below is the direct link to download the Feed Reader you will need to read the BSOC newsfeed. If the link does not work for you, visit www.sharpreader.net and download the reader. Here is the direct link to download Sharpreader: http://www.sharpreader.net/SharpReader0960_Setup.exe

After you download and install Sharpreader, you will need to input the newsfeed of your choice. Below is the RSS Feed produced from the Brokerage Services Google Blog that you will need to input into your SharpReader RSS Reader:

http://brokerageservices.blogspot.com/atom.xml ------>Open SharpReader, choose "file", "open RSS Feed", check the "subscribe" box, and click "ok". You will then be able to see the latest posts and what's new bulletins being put out by Brokerage Services of Carolina, Inc. Look for our what's new post in your new RSS Reader on a frequent basis (new posts will automatically be downloaded to your reader).

The Internet is quickly filling with RSS Feeds. They allow you to stop having to SEARCH for information you are interested in keeping up with - RSS Feeds will deliver that information TO you. Keep on the lookout for that little Orange "RSS" box on any given news website you may be partial to. This is THEIR RSS feed. If you're interested in Sports, subscribe to the CNN Sports RSS Feed...if you're interested in Business, subscribe to the Yahoo Business RSS Feed (for example's sake). Here are some RSS Feeds that you may be interested in subscribing to (besides the Brokerage Services RSS Feed):

1) http://news.yahoo.com/rss
2) http://news.google.com/intl/en_us/news_feed_terms.html
3) http://asp.usatoday.com/marketing/rss/index.aspx?POE=FOOTER
4) http://brokerageservices.blogspot.com/atom.xml

If you are at all interested in creating your OWN RSS feed, perhaps for your clients, please don't hesitate to ask for my assistance.

Good day to you and happy Feed Reading!

Best Regards,
L. Ashley Brooks, CLTC
Marketing Vice President
Brokerage Services of Carolina, Inc.
www.BrokerageServicesOfCarollina.com
RSS Feed: http://brokerageservices.blogspot.com/atom.xml
(800)223-2762 | (803)254-2215