The total family’s financial security and steady income as well as your ability to be your own person – not having to answer to anybody else, and it provides you an identity and recognition in your community.

Doesn’t it make sense to protect those decades of hard work from the alphabet effect, the result of spending too many years fighting the day to day battles and not enough time considering the long term implications of your success?

Let’s face it, when you don’t plan for the long term future, you lose control of your farm’s destiny in the event of death, disability, or old age.

When something bad happens there is a whole series of problems that seem to be automatically triggered – like dominos that start falling each of whom knocks down the next and the next and the next.

And when you are in business with your parents or your children a lack of long term planning makes the results more personally devastating and much worse than if you just lost the money involved in the collapse of your farm business.

Farm insurance agents call the domino like problems cascading one on top of the other, the alphabet effect to help you visualize how a failure to plan for the long term future will effect you and your family.

First of all, attorney’s file the papers that begin the various legal proceedings. If everything has not been spelled out in advance – the courts take over with laws that were created to establish fairness in a hypothetical situation, not your situation.

Your friendly bankers will immediately begin to restrict credit. The good credit you’ve established over the years was only in part because of your assets. It was often in large measure based on your history of doing what you promised, pay the note on time, and since you are no longer here, the bankers have no choice but to …

Naturally your creditors want to be paid, sooner rather than later. And since they don’t want to be left holding the bag, like so often happens when the ultimate payment of the bills depended on the continued operation of the farm – they may press for payment in cash and as soon as your contract with them permits.

Debtors may begin to demand payment. People like the seed, feed, and fertilizer folks you’ve dealt with for decades – may not be willing to wait until harvest for their money. Because trade credit like this is typically unsecured and casually given, it may be pulled away instantly if the vendors feel threatened in any way.

Your employees start to get nervous. Your best people, those you had counted on to be there long into the future. The ones who know how everything works may start talking to your neighbors at your funeral about a new job down the road from your place. The worthless employees, the ones you would get rid of if you could – they will be there till the bitter end, along with their own special brand of meritocracy.

Family members need cash. Farm insurance agents report that most farms are supporting three groups of people within the same family. Your brother and his wife, you aunt and uncle, you and your family – you get the picture, so when something bad happens and the income stops it stops for everybody.

And if you are the one people have looked to for decades as the “founder of the feast” they and all your neighbors will say that it was your responsibility to see to in that their incomes did not stop, just because something bad happened to you or yours.

There are several more letters in this alphabet of doom – each one of which will reduce the value of your business and almost any one of which your farm could handle by itself. Together, they way the domino’s fall, they will combine to drastically shrink your farm’s worth, threaten it continued existence, and give everyone a much different picture of how successful a business person you were – for decades to come.

Who will be hurt by your failure to take long term planning seriously? You family, your employees, and your business partners to name just a few. What are your alternatives, how can you protect your family and your farm against the many forces you can not control? How can your farm business survive this crisis?

Farm insurance agents and common sense will tell you the answer, it’s taking the initiative and doing the long term planning that is your responsibility to do – for your sake and the sake of everyone that is part of your connected family farm business.

Technorati Tags: Farm Bureau Insurance, Farm Insurance Agents, State Farm Insurance Agents

Because term life insurance is pure protection, providing only a death benefit, it is like renting the coverage for as long as the policy lasts or as long as you pay the premium. If you die during that time, the policy will pay its death benefit.

However, as you get older you see that while the original reason you bought the policy has gone away, it has invariably been replaced by another reason, usually one with an even higher price tag and even more dire consequences if you do not have the cash to satisfy it.

There are lots of different bells and whistles insurance companies add to make their term insurance policies salable.

For example, some have premiums that are level from the day you buy it until the end of the term. Since every year the actuarial cost of protection increases, the real corresponding costs your payments would rise each year, compared to the levelizeded premium term life insurance policy.

When your premiums rise according to the actual actuarial costs, if there was any chance that you could be convinced that you no longer needed the insurance, you would drop it in a heartbeat and the insurance company would not make as much money – because the early year premiums are lower than the later year premiums.

There is a “guaranteed renewable” feature in most term insurance policies – before or at the end of the initial term. Insurance companies have been selling insurance to people for a long time, and they know that your needs for insurance will last for as long as you live, and they want you to keep paying for insurance far beyond that initial term period.

The renewable feature’s primary benefit to you is that you don’t have to pass another physical to show that you are still “insurable” in order to keep the term insurance policy in force for longer that originally intended. In every term life insurance policy I’ve seen, each time you renew, the premiums will be higher for the next period of years than the last – because you are older and, therefore, more likely to die.

Another feature, convertibility, is usually part of the policy as well. In my opinion the convertibility feature is vital and something you should clearly understand in order to make sure the policy is as flexible as you will want it to be.

Convertibility is a feature that could be critically important to you. It allows you to exchange this policy for another type of life insurance at any time before the expiration of the policy’s term. By purchasing a convertible term life insurance policy you remain in control, the policy can be converted to a permanent type of coverage at a later time, and importantly – without having to prove that you are still insurable.

Here’s where my wetting the bed analogy comes in. Generally people choose term insurance for protection when they need it as a permanent solution for a temporary obligation, such as mortgage protection, bank loans and security required by a vendor, or perhaps as income replacement when their children are young. These are times when the requirements for immediate cash protection to meet your commitments is paramount if you were to die – and term insurance may only possible solution that provides the amount of coverage you need at a premium you can afford.

Over time the original loans get repaid – so you borrow more, kids grow into teenagers – now it’s their college education you want to assure. And as retirement nears – money is still going to be needed by the survivors, to meet expenses, pay taxes, etc.

In other words, term life insurance is a permanent solution for a temporary obligation. And it is a temporary solution for a permanent need.

The question most people ask is, in order to work out the right type of insurance for their specific situation – where can I get both the advice and input I need and the cost effective solution to the challenge of finding the right policy for me right now?

In my opinion, the right answer to that is one that makes the most sense both for you and your family but your business as well.

It’s finding an insurance agent who has spent a lifetime helping people like you. He or she will have insights and experiences to share that you can benefit from.

Remember, when you buy life insurance, commissions will be paid to someone – an online service, a web only company, or a flesh and blood agent. There is nothing you or I can do about that.

So, why not get your money’s worth by using the help of a trained professional you trust who has to look you in the eyes for as long as you all shall live?

Technorati Tags: Farm Bureau Insurance, Farm Insurance Agents, State Farm Insurance Agents, term vs whole life insurance

They seem to have a special knack – you might even call it a philosophy of communication that gets their prospects – the farmers and business owners who depend on them, to open up and tell them about their hopes and fears for their family and their business.

The best of them ask the most in depth questions and get answers to them, without seeming aggressive or pushy. It often comes across to their clients and prospects that they have an interest in them along with a natural curiosity that always makes them want to know more.

And they are masters at creating a relaxed atmosphere for everyone – an environment that encourages openness.

Successful farm insurance agents always seem to know which questions to ask in order to get to the root of the matter – to learn clearly what’s important to the business owners and farmers they serve. They know how to involve their prospects in the conversation.

They know that selling in the 21st Century is collaborative – it is not a monologue sales pitch.

The result, more often than not, is that the prospect ends up creating the solution – makes the buying decision themselves. Their clients come to their own conclusions regarding the best actions to take for the security of their family and business.

Successful farm insurance agents involve their prospects in a way that makes it natural for them to tell them their deepest secret fears and desires. When they demonstrate their willingness to listen, these successful business owners open up completely.

Farm insurance agents I have spoken with tell me this is not magic – it’s just their way. They tell me that their attitude about questioning is what allows them to establish a line of communication with their prospects.

Successful farm insurance agents know that people want to tell you everything – if you are interested in listening, if you are not challenging them, if you are interested in opening up a line of communication – not just pitching your favorite product du jour.

Successful farm insurance agents know theirs is not a relationship that presents a challenge to the other advisiors – they complement one another and because the farm insurance agent gains so much personal insight so quickly, they are positioned as an advocate for the farmer with these other advisors.

The example that comes to mind is trying to push a shopping cart full of beach stuff through deep sand. After about three steps you’re stuck. The harder you push the more stuck you become. So, being the clever resourceful person that you are, you go around to the front and begin to pull it.

Bingo, it moves easily – the same way as a business owner moves through the process of helping their farm insurance agent understand them better. Ask them whatever you want to know and they’ll respond if they believe you are really interested.

Once they are invloved telling their story the agent has their attention and vice versa. Only then can the conversation become a collobration that results in action being taken.

Remember the expression. “I’m rubber and you’re glue – anything you say bounces off me and sticks to you” from when you were a kid? The successful farm insurance agent understands that their role in an interview with a farmer or business owner is to be the rubber.

They are a virtual mirror. A mirror held up to the prospect’s face – to allow them to see themselves more clearly – to better understand what he or she feels is important – that they want and deserve for their family, their business and themselves.

Farm insurance agents understand that their role is to understand their clients inner most hopes, dreams, and fears.

The problems discussed have become the client’s problems. The solution is the client’s solution and it will be very difficult for anyone to upset the decisions the client has made and derail the actions being taken.

Technorati Tags: Farm Bureau Insurance, Farm Insurance Agents, State Farm Insurance Agents

Our web site offers information of value to you, whether you are a farm insurance agent yourself, whether you are considering becoming one, or if you are a farm/business owned wanting to know more about them.

Here are some recent posts that we’ve found that you might be interested in.

• Financial Services Oversight Hearing on the Implementation of the … – Cameron Findlay, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Aon Corporation on behalf of The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers. Panel 3. Dr. Alan S. Blinder, Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Co-Director of …

• fema, mema to offer insurance agents icc workshop - any interested insurance agents who want more information on the increased cost of compliance (icc) portion of flood insurance policies are invited to attend a free workshop on filing claims under the program.

• ag addresses southeastern insurance association – attorney general martha coakley was the keynote speaker yesterday at the annual meeting of the metrosouth independent insurance agents association. the meeting was held at the shaws center in brockton. attorney general coakley spoke …

• Irda may change commission structure of insurance agents – Money … – Irda may change commission structure of insurance agents, Currently, Life Insurance Corp. of India, or LIC, the country?s biggest insurer by premiums, pays commissions based on the tenure of the policy, Money Matters.

• UNUM PROVIDENT UK US INSURANCE POLICIES: Insurance News … - StreetInsider.com (subscription), MI – 3 minutes ago. MAYFIELD VILLAGE, Ohio–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Independent insurance agents who want to grow their business by harnessing the power of the Progressive name need . …

Technorati Tags: Farm Bureau Insurance, Farm Insurance Agents, State Farm Insurance Agents

As the sponsor of the contest, Farm Bureau Insurance has earned 11 national awards from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge.

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