I am a fee-only advisor that charges a fee on my AUM. Don’t all fixed indexed annuities (FIAs) pay commissions that I don’t take?
That is no longer the case. Some of today’s fixed indexed annuities are fee-based—in fact, they are designed to be part of your AUM and can be managed just like any other investment in the fixed portion of your client portfolios.
I write my annuity business with you. When one of my clients wants life insurance, I send them to this agent I know. Can I access life insurance through Quantum and keep that business with my office?
Absolutely. We would love to have a conversation with any advisor who is interested in learning more about the dozens of life insurance policy designs available from our 35+ carriers. Insurance has changed tremendously, and even some advisors who stopped selling insurance in the past have come back to providing life insurance strategies because of the many types of client-centric hybrid policies, riders and policy features now available.
Why are annuity sales up?
Probably due in large part to the volatile markets we’ve been experiencing as well as interest rate hikes and recession fears, annuity sales are booming right now. Per SRI Annuity Research, there is significant pent up consumer demand for products providing tax-deferred investment growth and guaranteed income. The last time annuity sales surpassed this level was in 2008, during the Great Recession.
I read that changes to IRS rules improved permanent life insurance policies like IUL (indexed universal life) and whole life. Is it true?
Legislation passed at the end of 2020 (Internal Revenue Code’s Section 7702) changed the law about the ratio of insurance required in relation to cash value on permanent life insurance policies, which caused most insurance companies to revise their terms to the consumer’s benefit. Now is the time to look into tax-advantaged permanent insurance policies for your clients and to review existing policies to see if you can find better terms for them. We can help.
Do you provide training for financial advisors?
Yes. We provide training on a daily basis as we develop illustrations and case designs for your specific client situations and needs. In helping you compare options between dozens of insurance carriers, we stay on top of the fine print and explain your client’s options—and the pros and cons—so you can understand and communicate clearly with them. Additionally, our operations team provides information and access to the types of training you will need in order to stay compliant with each insurance carrier.
But we also offer various formal and informal training opportunities in Scottsdale and other locations. We cover topics from how to get more appointment conversions at events, to how to increase the success of your radio show, to how to get more referrals for your practice. Training is a huge part of what we provide to our partners.
How much do you charge for value-add services?
Many financial professionals are surprised to find out that we have a full complimentary suite of services available for those that partner with us. This includes the content, design and development of custom websites, high-definition videos, brochures, logos and social media support as well as consultation and implementation of PR, radio and vetted client acquisition and lead programs. Strategic sales, marketing consulting and business processes development are also included—not to mention you get to travel to the golf and vacation mecca of Scottsdale, Arizona for training events and camaraderie.
Do you help advisors with Medicare?
The answer to this question is: Yes. In the last few years, we’ve spoken with many advisor partners who have found that providing Medicare solutions has kept their retirement clients very loyal to them. Offering Medicare coverage provides another compelling reason for clients to review their entire financial situation—including their Medicare coverage—with you on an annual basis.
Can Quantum help me with video?
Yes, we offer video services as part of our partnership. We have a high-definition video studio, scriptwriting, editing, on-air talent and the capability to create custom videos just for your firm. Video can support your marketing efforts in a number of ways. It can increase your search engine rankings and the amount of time people spend on your website. Research also shows that video is shared 12 times more on social media than written content. But Quantum doesn’t just create videos just for the sake of doing videos. A truly effective strategy starts with identifying your audience, determining the goal and where the video will be viewed.
Do you help your advisor partners with SEO?
The answer to the question about whether we can help our partners with SEO is yes—we can help you with onsite SEO. This includes keyword research, content writing, website design and development (on WordPress, one of the best platforms for SEO) and optimizing metadata on the backend to help you rank in search results for your firm name, your own name and certain longtail keywords. We can also help you consistently post new content, and share links back to your website on your company’s social media accounts to help increase your digital presence. What we don’t do is something called “offsite SEO” or “link building,” although we can advise you about how to go about it. Onsite SEO can help you rank higher through time, but you must be willing to stick with it for years and be comfortable with the long-form content and headlines (H1-H3 tags) that Google prefers.
Is radio really an effective prospecting tool?
Yes. We have found that for many of our advisors, hosting their own radio show has been the most important marketing tactic they’ve undertaken so far. Why? It’s all about 1) credibility, and 2) reaching thousands of prospects at a time. And for those listeners who won’t pick up the phone and call for an appointment during the show (many do), radio is also great way to talk about your upcoming events. One of our advisors recently had 89 attendees at an event after promoting it on his radio show. The majority of those attendees had investable assets of $250,000 or more.
Is radio or television better for advisors?
In our experience and in conversations with industry partners, we’ve found that radio is what drives leads—people are much more likely to listen through repetitious requests to “call now” or “visit-www-dot-something now” and feel comfortable taking immediate action. Conversely, frequent requests to “click or pick up the phone” can be obnoxious on TV. What television can do is elevate your brand, making all of your other marketing strategies—including radio—that much more effective. Marketers and ad agencies have spent millions on TV promoting brands for good reason—it’s an effective long-term strategy for companies which plan to be in business for years and want to be a household name in their market areas.
Is it true that Quantum creates custom websites for free?
Yes. Many advisors are surprised to learn that Quantum can write original content, design and develop unique, branded websites as part of our value-add services for our advisor partners. We don’t use templated, cookie-cutter content. The only cost to the advisor is a nominal monthly hosting fee, which includes free ongoing web updates and changes like adding new events, updating staff, posting new blogs and articles, etc.
Does Quantum help advisors with social media?
Yes, we offer this service as part of our partnership, because your clients and prospects search for you online and expect you to be there with current posts. Many of our financial advisor partners find that they just don’t have the staff or the time to create social media posts on a regular basis, and they don’t have the budget to hire someone to do it. For those advisors, Quantum curates recent content about financial topics and creates original memes for holidays for 2-3 posts per week. Once your compliance approves, we can even do the posting for you. Our social media support is designed to support your efforts and to keep you active on your social channels, broadening your digital footprint in search. We can also help coach you on how to strengthen your social engagement.