Life and Health Insurance 101 with Lorena Tomasini

In episode 38 of Retail Checks and Balances, Kevin Spencer interviews Lorena Tomasini, owner of MALM Life and Health Insurance Agency, as she discusses the distinction between health insurance and health supplements, clarifying common misconceptions.

Tune in to gain insights into the life and health insurance field

TIMESTAMPS

[00:04:01] Financial protection through insurance.

[00:07:36] Common misconceptions about insurance.

[00:08:17] Protecting your finances with insurance.

[00:12:48] Life insurance age demographics.

[00:18:03] Hobbies and interests of guests.

[00:21:43] ICRA and health insurance trends.

[00:24:46] Life insurance policy trends.

[00:29:00] Importance of personalized insurance plans.

QUOTES

• "Always doing what's right for the client and not based on what you're going to get paid or anything like that. It's always offering a solution to the client that meets their needs." - Lorena Tomasini
• "It's about protecting your finances if something were to happen unexpectedly, that you don't have to owe the $50,000 bill at the hospital." - Lorena Tomasini
• "I think everybody needs to have that life and health insurance covered, especially in this modern day where anything can happen spontaneously." - Kevin Spencer

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Kevin Spencer

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kspencer007/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinspencer007/

Lorena Tomasini

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lore0125/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/malmins22

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenatomasini/

WEBSITES

Rod Plus Solutions: https://rodplussolutions.com/

MALM Life and Health Insurance Agency: https://www.malmins.com/

Transcript

Welcome to Retail Checks and Balances, a podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the bustling world of commerce and culinary delights to help you grow your business and win. Join us as we explore the fascinating stories, trends, and challenges that shape the retail and hospitality industry, from cozy corner cafes to sprawling shopping malls and everything in between. And now, here's your host, Kevin Spencer.

Welcome to Retail Checks and Balances. Today, we got a health guru, a life and health guru, correct? Lorena Tomasini.

Kevin Spencer

No, no, no, that's fine.

Lorena Tomasini

Sorry, I thought I made a mistake. Welcome to the show.

Kevin Spencer

Thank you so much for having me on, Kevin, and you pronounce my name perfectly. So good. Some people butcher you, but we got it. It's all good.

You always have to get somebody's name right once you practice. Yeah.

I just wanted to clarify it's life and health insurance, not because some people are like health and they think I'm going to talk about like supplements or something.

I'm sorry. Yes, that's why I corrected myself by saying life and health insurance.

Though I realize soon enough, we're not talking about, you know, going to the gym and things like that are important, but you know.

I hear you. I hear you for sure. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself and the journey to where you are today?

Sure, so my journey began in my career about 18 years ago when I was still in college and I worked together with my mom in this industry and she needed an appointment setter so I went with her one day after making one of those appointments. I'm like, oh let me see more detail what you do. My mom had done this for a very long time And I thought, oh, this is simple, you know, you help people and you fill out paperwork. I could do this in my spare time while I go to college. My major was in finance, business administration. That's my background there. And so I just decided to stick with it once I graduated. So that's how we got here today, after a lot of, you know, trials and and figuring out how to actually run a business, which is something very different than what you learn in school, which I think, you know, college is great. You do learn a lot of things, but like everything in life, you learn the practical, doing it day to day.

Great. And I'm assuming that your mother was a great inspiration to get you into this field.

For sure. And, you know, I'm very lucky to have had her there, especially in the beginning, guiding my steps, because in this industry, you know, there's there's a lot of compliance and a lot of responsibility in what you're doing, because we're talking about things that impact people, whether it's life insurance and impacting, you know, when somebody passes away, that family or that business. And then with health insurance as well, like making sure that their doctors are in network, their medications. And it's little things like that, that even 18 years today, I still use it in my in my day to day. And, you know, something that we always talked about is always doing what's right for the client and not based on what you're going to get paid or anything like that. It's always offering a solution to the client that meets their needs.

So I'm guessing if we roll a little into that, your area of expertise is based on in layman terms, what exactly?

My expertise is based on helping people figure out which is a good plan for them for their financial protection. So financial protection encompasses a lot of things, right? So when we're talking about life insurance, maybe we're talking about if you pass away, your family being able to maybe pay off the mortgage or replace your income, or you know, there's a lot of policies now that also have what we call living benefits, like in case of a critical illness like cancer, heart attack, stroke, how are you going to continue paying your bills, right? So you can use life insurance for all of that. And then we're talking, so how do you know out of so many different plans and companies and maybe your health, which is going to be a good fit for you. That's the hard part. That's what we do. And then with the health insurance, you know, when you go to the marketplace, you have like a thousand plans. How are you that you you're an accountant or you do finances or whatever it is that you do? Are you going to know which plan is really good for you and your family? So that goes back to, you know, the out of pocket, the deductibles. But more importantly, too, if it's somebody that has some health concern, right, that they want to keep their doctors or they take these medications, they don't want to be spending a lot on them. So that's what we do. We make it simple for people to understand these concepts. and you know help them really like this is why we're offering you this plan or this plan based on what you told me your needs were. So it's really tailoring solutions to people based on what they say that they want.

And that's I mean I've never I've met anybody who do both life and health at the same time you know when we meet people who do life and and you need to do health. So I'm guessing that it's a balancing act, more or less, in terms of doing both. Is it stressful? Is there

Anything that you want to share? Like any job, there's always going to be stress. But I think if you're organized and you have a goal in mind, that really helps. Because if I like right now, we're about to start open enrollment for health insurance, which starts in November. And if I was to have to be calling all my clients and figuring out their doctors and then giving them appointments, I would go crazy. Right. Because that's a lot. So we use a lot of automation to help us with that. And, you know, online forums and things like that, as well as calendars. Right. And then for life insurance, the same. I have a little questionnaire that people fill out. to really at least get the ball going and have them also think about what are their needs and their wants. Because sometimes we might think we want, you know, income protection, but it turns out what we're really looking for is lifestyle protection or mortgage protection. And that entails maybe more of a death benefit than what they were originally thinking. So, you know, a lot of it comes down to education and continuing education. For health insurance, we have to do that yearly. And then for life, we also have trainings with the companies that we represent. We go to their trainings as well. So that helps you keep things top of mind on how you can help consumers out there.

So when you talk about education, I think that's a key point in terms of managing those misconceptions out there about what insurances at the end of the day. It's a rip-off, I can save money, but what are the common misconceptions that you hear every day when you go to visit potential clients?

Yeah, so a lot of times when it comes to health insurance, people will be like, oh, I don't need this because I never get sick. And I'm like, good for you, but you never know when you're going to get food poisoning, which, by the way, is the number one reason why people go to the ER, is food poisoning. Even with the holidays coming up, it's something to think about. But really, it's about protecting your finances if something were to happen unexpectedly, that you don't have to owe the $50,000 bill at the hospital. You can owe part of it because you have a maximum out-of-pocket that's really protecting your finances, which is what it's about at the end of the day. You work to make a living, to pay your bills, to do all this, and something unexpected happens when people live paycheck to paycheck here. how are you then going to assume that cost, right? The other misconception I get a lot is with health insurance is, oh, I don't qualify for a tax credit, when a lot of people do qualify for the tax credit because that's based on their income and family size. So They think, oh, because I tried applying years ago and maybe their income was a lot higher and now it might be less. There's a lot of changes. There's also more tax credits being given to people at higher incomes due to the pandemic and some laws that Congress passed. So I always say let's review and see because that may not be correct. And, you know, even after 10 years of the Affordable Care Act being around, People think it's a government plan or they have all these weird things and I'm like, first let's take politics out of the equation here because they always come up with something political and I'm like, no, let's look at the reality. You have a pre-existing condition. which means that the only plans you can get is plans on the marketplace. And this is what they cover, you know, doctors, specialists, hospitalization, surgery. And more importantly, a big change was that there's no cap on what insurance companies can spend. Because before, if they spent like a million dollars, that's it. You were on your own dying of cancer at the hospital, right, with the bills on top. So and that's not just for people that don't have insurance through their employer. It's for both people that have insurance through their employer, but also people that don't, which is what we look at in the marketplace. So there's a lot of misconceptions there when we talk about life insurance. Oh, boy, where do I start? You know, that if I die this company won't pay the death benefit. Well you know that's only if you lie and it's only in the first two years that that might be an issue which is why we're very clear about being honest when we're asking you these questions that you are truthful like if I ask do you smoke You better tell me yes, even if it's vaping, that counts as smoking cigars. Man, think of a cigar that doesn't make yes, that's considered a tobacco product, right? So very important to be honest about that. And companies do pay. I had a lady that passed away two months after buying a policy from me, and the company did pay. Of course, they did their research because it was so soon, right? But people also underestimate how much life insurance they need. They think, well, I just have this $10,000 policy. And I'm like, OK, but you make $100,000 a year. How's your family going to keep paying for things and maintaining this lifestyle of $100,000? on a $10,000 death benefit, right? So it's just like common sense things. But again, people don't do this every day. So it's things they don't think about. And it's also a subject a lot of people don't wanna talk about, right? They don't wanna talk about their mortality. But I think if you have a family or you have a business, it's things that are super important to talk about. Like when we're talking about a business, We're talking about if you're in partnership with somebody, but what if something happens to you? Do you want the spouse of that partner to now come and take over the business who has no idea what you guys do in that business? Probably not. So that's when life insurance with like a buy-sell agreement is super important to do.

So I like where you went there. So if I was to ask you the question, what are the age groups that really jump into life and health policies? What's the target age group that you think would be?

The age group, I joke around for life insurance, anybody that's alive. But we're really when you should be thinking about these things are sometimes when something happens, right? Like you buy a house or you have a child or you get married. Life events really trigger for life insurance. But usually I would say like, you know, 25 to 255 is when people are thinking about life insurance. Right. But then also the older generations. are thinking about life insurance because they're thinking about leaving something to the next generation. They're still healthy, right? Health plays a big part, but that doesn't mean that there's like specific plans for people that have health conditions so we can always you know it might cost more but we can always find try and find something right so i would say that 25 to 55 for life insurance and then but again that's not really a big issue if somebody's older than that And then health, that's your entire lifetime, right? Because even for things like hospice, people don't think about what health insurance they have is super important to make sure that's even covered, right? So that's all ages, right? Whether it's children, that are looking for a kid care or Medicaid, which is that's not something we do, but, you know, that's usually what children have, unless their income is very high for the family. And then, you know, along life, you might have changes, right? You change your job. So then maybe now you need to look at insurance on your own, right?

Oh, that's great. I mean, I think these are key differentiators in terms of why people should do business with you because your knowledge is there and the trends.

I hope it comes across. I'm trying not to use a lot of jargon in my talks here.

I think when it comes to business, When you have passion in what you do, it's going to transcend into people that you really care and you're seeking their best interests. Which comes to my next questions in terms of your challenges and lessons you've learned. What have you faced in your careers in terms of challenges and how have you been able to overcome them?

Yeah, challenges, you know, there's always going to be some type of challenge. Right. I would say, well, we transferred from from so I used to go to people's houses or visit them at their business. So what we call a road warrior. Right. Right. So then we opened an office for about two years by Tropical Park, and that went well. But then I thought, what am I doing day to day here? I'm sitting in front of my computer talking to people, waiting for them to show up, even though we confirmed their appointment for the eight o'clock appointment, and sometimes they won't show up. And that's just part of it. In any business, I think that's very common. So back in 2016, I decided we can do this over the phone because There's new technology, insurance companies are allowing us to do e-signatures now. So I decided to transition my business from in-person to completely virtual over the phone. I tried Zoom a few times back then and I'm like, this is too much because I have to then teach the person how to download Zoom and they have to have their hair ready to be on the Zoom. So I just said, you know what, let's keep it simple. Anybody knows how to use a phone, right? And so I transitioned to phone. Some clients at first were like, oh, I don't like this. If I can't see you, I don't want to do business with you. And I'm like, okay, that's part of it, right? Some of those same clients now are like, oh, I love this because I'm here cooking while you're helping me with my insurance. Right. So that that was a big change. And then it was a big change personally to say this is how I work, because sometimes I caught myself being like, oh, I just met you at Starbucks. And then I'm like, what am I doing? Right. When I say I do things over the phone. Right. So it was just maybe like, you know, a few months of really having that transition and not just for my clients, but for myself as well. So I think, you know, I think it's important to lean into new technologies and putting them into your business if they make sense, right? And then really figuring out what it is that you want and how you want to work and then just sticking to that. And then, you know, you'll eventually find your people that want to do that as well.

OK. Outside of work, what are some of your hobbies and interests?

Well, I would say my main hobbies and interests are playing pool. So I play in some in a league like the APA, they call it American Pool Players Association. Yeah. So I play eight ball and nine ball there. And that's that's pretty fun. You know, it's something social to do. And if you're good at it, you you get better with time, you know. And yeah. Am I what?

Are you a pool shark?

That's always the question, right? Am I a pool shark? Of course! I would say so like they do it based on rankings. Right. And the highest you can be is a seven and I'm a five, which most girls, you know, they're like a four or three. So I guess that means I'm pretty good. Oh, yeah. Sure. Right. You know, it's something fun, fun to do. You know, again, you socialize and stuff. And then besides that, I play pickleball every now and then. It's something. But yeah, they say it's a growing sport here. So it's it's fun to do. And everybody's super nice in that community, I would say.

Right.

And being in Miami, they have some indoor courts, which help because, you know, the humidity and the heat here. Yeah. Way too much. So that that makes it easier to play, too. Yeah. And travel. You know, that's always a fun hobby to have.

Correct. And I guess that transcends to a work-life balance, right?

For sure. Yeah, that's super important. Like now when I was looking at making my calendar for November, I said, OK, some weekends I know for sure I need to leave open, but some weekends I didn't have available. You know, until what time do I want to work? Because we only have six weeks to help so many people. And so we can't be here like, oh, I'm not going to work, you know, Fridays or something like that. no you gotta leave it open right and sometimes help people that are not even on the calendar it is what it is you know um but i definitely like said okay like these days i'll work till like eight o'clock and these other days will be earlier and yeah i think it's it goes back to that you can't just let people like book you whenever they want you know what i mean like you have to have some control on that as well and then um delegating has been super helpful, which it's hard as a business owner to delegate, to be honest, like we're used to doing things our way. And it's like, if I'm not doing it, nobody else is going to do it. Right. So this year I've delegated a lot of like the looking up of the doctors and the medications. And then, of course, I double check it before our appointment to make sure that it's accurate, but that that's really been helpful in me not having to do everything. Yeah.

Oh, fantastic. So we talked a little bit about this, but, you know, in the beginning, but what do you think, and this is a two part question in terms of what are the emerging trends that you see in your industry, as well as, you know, where do you see it going in the next five to 10 years?

Yeah, so I think a big change or a big something that's going to become really popular in the industry with health insurance is going to be for businesses. Something called an ICRA. It's an Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Account. It's just a fancy way of saying that your employer will pay X amount, let's say $500 per employee, and then they can use that to go on the marketplace to buy their health insurance. Why is this a big change? And I think it's really important. For one, group insurance is usually very costly for the employer as well as for the employee. There's not a lot of options, like you're stuck with whatever one company they're offering you and the few plans that they're offering you, right? So this is your deductible, this is your out-of-pocket, this is what you need to pick, right? So with this, it gives the employees flexibility on going on the marketplace, which just means now they have, you know, instead of one company, now they have 10 companies to look from. So maybe they can find their doctors in one of these companies. They can also tailor their deductible and their out-of-pocket a little bit more based on the plan that they're looking at. And so this also helps the employer because now they're not spending a lot of money because now I have to meet 80% of the premium. And maybe I have some people that, you know, are costing the group more because of their health, right, or their age. So it's just a flat fee that I pay for everybody. So my expense as a business is more organized, right? It's more predictable because I know exactly how much I'm spending per employee, right? It's this amount and that's it. So that makes it that it's tax deductible for the employer so they still receive those benefits, right? And the employee is happy because now they have options because health insurance is one of the biggest things that people look at when they're looking to change jobs or they're looking, you know, do I want to work here, right? Do I want to continue working here is benefits. So I think that's going to be a big change. And you need people like myself that understand both the group side of health insurance, but more importantly, the individual marketplace, which is what people like to call Obamacare, right? It's the same thing. It's just insurance for individuals and families that are not offered insurance through their employer. And so the other trend that I see being really popular in life insurance is they're not only offering living benefits, which is what we talked about a little bit, like if somebody's diagnosed with a critical illness like cancer, heart attack, stroke, it's a long list of things, but now some companies are also adding, like for Alzheimer's, So they're looking at what's going on in our population, right? There's a big epidemic of Alzheimer's and dementia in older generations. So they're trying to, life insurance have one policy that meets a lot of these things. So you don't need to have A life insurance, a long term care policy, a critical illness policy, you can do a lot of things with one policy is not to say that a lot. Some people do need individualized policies, right? Depending on their needs. But for middle market America, it really helps them just have one policy that can meet multiple needs along life's curveballs, right? That it's unexpected things that nobody's here waiting to get a diagnosis or something like this, but it not only affects that person, but it affects the family, right? Somebody else might need to take time off work to help them. through through this time. And so that that's a big change that I'm seeing. I'm seeing a lot more consumers asking about permanent policies that build cash value to help them maybe supplement their retirement because they know that okay i have a 401k which is great but i need to pay taxes on that money when i take it out at retirement so what else can i do so i think um life insurance is a good way to help supplement that it needs to be properly structured it can't just be like anything right so i think those are some big trends moving forward fabulous and

How do you measure success in your work? What gives you that comfort that you've been successful when it's from a deal perspective or moving forward?

So I always have goals of like how many people I want to help during open enrollment. So meeting that goal, it's a measurable goal, right? But I think the other way that I measure success, and it's funny because it happened to me just the other day, I helped this client and she referred me to her sister. And when I was talking to the sister, I didn't realize that my initial client was on that phone call. And so explaining to her sister, like, oh, no, because based on this deductible, you should get this plan. And I'm like, wow, she understood. I did a good job explaining to her the deductibles on the out-of-pockets. So I think, you know, when you get that type of feedback right away, you're like, wow, they really understood. So, that's a good way of measuring success, but I think at the end of the day is just knowing that you're doing right by your client, because unfortunately, in our industry people hear insurance and they think, you know, we got a bad reputation sometimes, which is unfair, I think, as like being a pushy salesperson or, you know, that type of stuff. But I think if I can sleep at night knowing that I did what was right for my client, offering them options and not choosing for them, like I will never tell you this is what you need to get. No, these are your options and you pick. Life insurance is a little bit different because we're not going to be giving you 10 different things, right? But it all depends. So I think that's success. And then I would say managing my own time is really important as well to have time to travel and do other things that I want to do that are not just sell insurance, right?

Okay. So before we wrap up, I mean, is there anything you would like to share? I have some rapid-fire questions that I like to make fun.

Okay, sure. So before we jump into those, and that now I'm nervous what these rapid fire questions are, but I would say, always try to make an informed decision about whatever you're doing. Because I see too often people saying, Oh, my neighbor has this plan. So I want that plan. Or my cousin told me to put this and I'm like, No, because this is based on you and what your needs are. Your needs are not the same as your cousins. and your income and your family size might not be the same as your cousin, so the plans might all be different. So, and while I do a lot of videos for social media explaining basics of insurance and things like that, make sure if you're gonna find somebody on social media, look them up, make sure that they're actually licensed agents, because too often they're just offering financial advice, but they're not licensed, which we're not allowed to do. And so, you know, a good way to find who to work with, networking organizations are good, asking your friends and family, hey, who does your insurance and reaching out to them. And then asking questions, right, is always really important. So again, going back to making an informed decision and not just what you hear on the news or what you hear from your friends and family, unless that's what they do, right? So like everything.

It's very refreshing. So ready? Coffee or tea?

Coffee.

Mountains or beach? Beach. Fiction or nonfiction?

Nonfiction.

Favorite book, movie or song?

Anything by Norah Jones or John Mayer.

Okay. Early bird or night owl?

Early bird.

Yeah. Great. That wasn't too bad, right?

That wasn't too bad, right? Like at 10 o'clock, I'll be falling asleep, you know?

Lorena, thank you so much. This has been very entertaining and very educational. And I think it's something that my listeners would love to hear because you don't get people who want to do this because of, as you said, some of the restrictions you have and compliance issues you have. So I really appreciate you reaching out and I'm happy that we were able to share.

Thank you so much for having me on, Kevin. I hope I clarified some information for a lot of your listeners out there.

I think you did. I think everybody needs to have that life and health insurance covered, especially in this modern day where anything can happen spontaneously.

So thank you so much. Thank you.

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts, so we'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Until next time, friends.