Working with Referral Partners

"I have a guy for that" is what every financial advisor wants to say when clients ask about long-term care. The question is, are you that person? Learn how to build and sustain referral partnerships that keep your calendar full of qualified LTCi opportunities.

Referral partners are one of the most powerful and underutilized business-building tools for long-term care specialists. But finding a partner is only the beginning, the real work is in training each other, respecting how they do business, and making the referral process feel effortless for everyone involved.

In this episode of the Buddy Study Podcast, we break down why LTC specialists are uniquely valuable to referral partners, how to identify the best partner pairings, and what a sustainable referral workflow actually looks like. Guest Linda Thalheimer shares her proven process for working with financial advisors, from HIPAA-compliant intake questionnaires to coordinated client presentations and commission structures that make the relationship a true partnership.

We explore:

• Why financial advisors, P&C agents, and estate attorneys make ideal referral partners for LTC specialists
• The top reasons professionals refer out long-term care and why each one highlights your value
• How to let referral partners stay in control while maintaining ownership of your illustrations and planning process
• Linda's approach to pre-presenting options to the FA before the client meeting
• Using a short intro video to scale your referral partner onboarding
• How getting an FA to purchase their own LTC policy can unlock their entire client base
• Why claims support and long-term service commitment resonate deeply with advisors
• How content creation, CE courses, and conferences can attract new referral relationships

This episode is designed to help advisors:

• Recognize and articulate their unique value as LTC specialists
• Build a repeatable referral partner workflow that scales
• Strengthen existing referral relationships with better communication and tracking
• Create a more sustainable practice with a higher floor of consistent activity

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome & Episode Overview

1:24 Why Referral Partners Need You

4:39 Underwriting as Your Biggest Value Add

7:54 Financial Advisors as the Ideal Referral Partner

12:59 Linda's Process for Working with FAs

18:13 Handling Different FA Working Styles

20:25 Finding New Referral Partners Through Clients

25:07 Educating FAs on Cost-Benefit and Self-Funding

32:17 Protecting AUM and the Claims Conversation

36:08 Staying in Touch with Referral Partners

38:42 Content Creators, Conferences & Other Referral Sources

44:01 Your Value as a Specialist and Final Takeaways

Watch the video version:

https://youtu.be/KhhNpWaAqb0

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🔎 About Buddy Study Podcast

The Buddy Study Podcast helps insurance professionals and financial planners master Long-Term Care Insurance through case studies, expert interviews, and carrier product updates. Our goal is to help advisors become more confident, efficient, and knowledgeable when helping clients plan for long-term care.

Transcript

Welcome & Episode Overview

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to another edition of the Buddy Study Group. And today we're going to cover a topic that, again, I like to cover at least once a year. A topic that I think is super, super important to long-term care specialists, and that's referral partners. So we're going to talk about number one, why I think referral partners are super important for long-term care specialists. I'll give you some of the tricks of the trade as to how to work with referral partners. We have Miss Linda on today, who's going to weigh in a little bit on how she works with her referral partners. I think she has an excellent process and also has a lot of referral partners. So we'll hear from her and kind of how some of the best of the best do it. And really, guys, this is a discussion about your value as a long-term care specialist. So it's all about how you can present that, convey that, and really use that to make the most of your referral partner relationships. So appreciate you being here today. Let's dive in. Um, I think the long-term care industry is an amazing industry to find referral partners for. It's a great industry if you are a specialist to have referral partners in. And I think the number one thing to

Why Referral Partners Need You

SPEAKER_00 1:24

really start to attract more referral partners and make your business more sustainable overall is to figure out why somebody is going to want to refer to you in the first place. And when you're out there networking, trying to find referral partners, I think that's a great first question to ask. You know, why are you looking for a referral partner for long-term care? Because that can give you an idea of the greatest value that you can really provide that referral partner and sort of a focus that you can give to it. And it's also uh a really great way to train the referral partner to tee you up, right? Why am I referring to this other person? I think all of those things are really important to make sure that you have a warm and educated referral that's sent over to you. So there's a number of reasons, but let me count kind of some of the big common ones that we hear when we're working with new referral partners. Number one, long-term care is like a full-time job. And that is somebody with some really good awareness and understanding of long-term care, even if they don't want to primarily work in it right. I don't have the time, right? I am specialized in my area of practice and to add long-term care as a solo venture for myself or even my team, it's just not sustainable for my business. So I would rather refer that to somebody who spends most of their time in long-term care and can really provide that tailored experience to my client. That's one of the most common. Um, another maybe look, I know what I know and I know what I don't know, and I don't feel educated enough to hold the full long-term care planning conversation. We get that one a lot too, right? Uh, I may have my life accident and health license, but when it comes to all of the things that long-term care planning involves, when it comes to understanding all of the products that are out there and when to use them and with who to use them, and when I get a spreadsheet, I don't actually know which carrier I would recommend. So, you know, I know enough to be dangerous, but not enough to actually take a client from beginning to end in the process. Another one is long-term care is tough to close. And all of these guys, as I'm listing them out, reasons why people might want to refer, these are also reasons you are valuable as a long-term care specialist to any potential referral partner, right? So long-term care is tough to close. We're selling something that someone may not need for years and years into the future. Um, you know, things can happen anywhere in the process that could defer, derail a case. Uh, it's hard to establish the long-term care need and to get clients to take that seriously enough so that they move forward with a decision, right? With a purchase. That one is a pretty common one as well. Probably the most common one that

Underwriting as Your Biggest Value Add

SPEAKER_00 4:39

I hear from who I would consider the ideal uh referral partner pairing for long-term care specialists is I don't want to mess with underwriting. Long-term care underwriting is a bear, or they'll say the other B word, right? It's difficult at the very, very least. Um, going through all of the health questions that are involved, uh, going back and forth with pre-qualification with underwriters, with cases that are in underwriting, uh, you know, all of the APS's medical records. Either that is time consuming and difficult to the referral partner, or based on the relationship I have with my client, I don't want to open up a new aspect of the relationship like that, right? I do not want to deal with or hear about the health information of my clients because of the nature of my business and existing relationship with them. So even just having a long-term care specialist for the underwriting alone and making sure that, you know, we preserve a good outcome in the case through good field underwriting, through good correspondence with the carriers, that is of value. Um and and I think the last one kind of touches on some of the other elements, but um some referral partners prefer to focus on their one area, but have experts in any other conceivable area that their client could be inquiring to them about, right? Um, a lot of people, and I'm sure many of you guys included want to be able to say, I have a guy for that, I have a gal for that, right? Um, I it's not my primary area of expertise. So I want to get you to somebody who really lives and breathes this area that you're asking about, but this is a trusted person, almost like an extension of my team. So I think those are like the most common reasons why referral partners are even looking for someone in any given area, but specifically long-term care. And those are all areas where you are super valuable. I I know a lot of the times we kind of get stuck in this mental headspace of why would somebody want to talk to me? A little bit of imposter syndrome, right? Like, what am I actually adding to all of this? And those reasons and more are why you are valuable. You do so many different things in your day-to-day that others wouldn't care to attempt. And so for you to take that lift off and provide a value add to that referral partner's practice and of course their clients, knowing that they're taken care of at the highest level from an expert, that is why you are valuable to any potential referral partners out there. So I want to talk about a couple of good fits, and then I want to hear from Miss Linda on her process in working with referral partners because she does an awesome job of it. So I think the number one pairing,

Financial Advisors as the Ideal Referral Partner

SPEAKER_00 7:54

and it's no surprise if you know me, if you've seen any of my other presentations, the number one pairing for long-term care specialists is financial advisors, hands down. There is no question. And there's a few reasons for that. There's reasons in your best interest, and there's reasons in the financial advisor's best interests, right? So in the advisor's best interest, uh I already touched on this, you know, I'm watching the securities market day in and day out. I'm fielding phone calls from my clients all day, every day about the tiniest little adjustment in their portfolio, right? I mean, these are high stakes, um, you know, day-to-day operations that I undertake. And any little adjustment can have 30 clients calling me in a given day. I'm too busy to focus on long-term care. I know it's important. Um, or maybe they don't know it's important at the end of the day, or they don't know it's as important as it is to their practice and their clients' overall financial health. But financial advisors work with highly financially qualified clients in most cases, right? Which is you got to have assets to protect, right? That's who we're looking for at the end of the day, is long-term care specialist people who have assets to protect, families to protect. So financial advisors are going to give you the access to the most well-qualified market in that area. Financial advisors are also people who do not want to dive deep into underwriting. That's kind of what I was alluding to. Um, when I say the biggest value you can provide to many is just being an expert on the underwriting side. Because at the end of the day, most financial advisors are not getting that deep into detail with their clients. Obviously, they know everything about them from a financial standpoint, everything you could ever want, but they don't often dive into the health information. So that can be scary for financial advisors. And FAs are gonna be the ones who help you find the money at the end of the day, whether it's an existing annuity that can be repurposed in some sort of existing asset. Where am I going to draw this money from? Am I going to use something like RMD money? Is it a savings account? Is it, you know, XYZ C D is going to mature or bond in three years that we can then use for a source of ongoing premium? The FAs help you kind of figure out that calculus to the planning picture that oftentimes we're not equipped or privy to enough information to be able to handle in the perfect way. So I think FAs, that relationship goes both ways in such a nice way that I think they're easily the number one candidate for referral partners and those you should be looking for and looking to network with. It doesn't have to be an FA, but a lot of these folks have areas of focus and want to have experts around them in each area where they're not, because at the end of the day, their incentive is to not let clients leak out to the person down the street who does specialize or is willing to work a case on any given product, right? So having a team of experts is highly valuable to those folks. Um but I think there are a number of different good financial or good referral partners, a lot of them obviously in the finance industry, um, because they understand this kind of referral process and the need to tee up and everything of that nature. Um but if anybody else has, you know, I've found XYZ market of professionals that I find to be good referral partners. Feel free to speak up and add that to the conversation because that's always helpful. But Miss Linda, thank you for being here today. Um, I have always admired the way you work with referral partners. I know you have a lot of financial advisor referral partners. And I think one of the most important things we could cover on this call today is not just why refer, um, how to show your value. But once you've got somebody who you've started a referral partner relationship with, the work doesn't end there, right? I mean, there is obviously a lot of setup, a lot of training of each other that you have to do that goes both ways to really make it sustainable and a success. And for the referral partner, it should feel like an easy process to go through that pre-educates the client so that you can work with them. So I was wondering if you could just give a few minutes of your thoughts on working with referral partners and a little bit of the process that you use, especially with your FAs.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Yeah. So I will say

Linda's Process for Working with FAs

SPEAKER_01 12:59

that that working with financial advisors makes your life so much easier. Um, because uh it takes away all of the concerns of your client. Uh, they're not going back to anybody. If they're going back to somebody, they're going back to the person who referred you, right? So um they reinforce everything you say. And um, and if they walk away for any reason, uh their financial planner reinforces go back to Linda, right? So, so it it just makes life so much easier in the sales. I mean, generally speaking, um, if somebody can afford long-term care, I mean your closing rates well above 90 with a with a financial advisor, right? Because if you train your financial advisor um who you're looking for, and and they referring that kind of client, then it's an easy sale, right? It's just a question of of making sure they're educated, making sure the financial planner is on board, working as a team and and then and then closing. So um, and I work different ways with five different financial advisors. Some financial advisors want to be involved all the way through. So they make the referral, they want to be on that first meeting, they want to be in, they want to sit and talk to their own their clients on their own, they want to come back to me. They, you know, so it it it is just a um so some company players want to stay in control. They are the quarterback, they want to stay in control. The only thing I don't allow them to control is the um are my illustrations, right? So they cannot say to me, I want a $10,000 premium and that's it, right? So if I'm gonna work with them, I need to know their health. I need to have them fill out a full HIPAA-related questionnaire. Um, I need them to share all their financials so that when I put together a table, it makes logical sense or you're wasting your time, right? So when, and then what you do with these people who want control, you you you keep them in control. So you say to them, yes, I'm um, this is the information I need, right? Because the last thing we want to do is to present something they can't have that's devastating. So understanding that they they're on your team, right? Because they don't want to disappoint their clients. Um so that medical underwriting is critical. Um, then they're on board, and then what I tell them is before we present to the client, let me present to you. So we meet before we get together with client, and and I go through the table that I have created and make sure, and and I'll say, This is this is my these are all the options, right? Something you'd never do to a client, you can do with the financial. These are all the options that are available. And let me go through them of why I'm choosing what I'm choosing. It reinforces your value that you have all these options, and you've even come down from here to here to this table, and now you're going to come down to here for their clients so their clients can make an easier decision, right? That's that that's a coordinated um agreement between the financial advisor and the long-term care specialist. So um create this table. I sit down with them, I explain it to them, we process. Do you and they may say, gee, I feel that's a little high. Do you feel they could go lower? Sometimes, you know, they, you know, we try to also make sure that I ask them about life insurance and annuities prior if there's some way we can do 1035 exchanges ahead of time that we can put into them. Sometimes it comes up a little bit later, but um uh we may modify things, right? So once they see the numbers, then they start thinking in their mind and they may ask for some changes or modifications, right? So um then we modify the table, then when we come back to the client, you know, we have four choices on this table, you know, for the client. Sometimes two, right? So we always give them a couple choices, um, but and we always compare it to the cost of care. So um, and the advisors typically on in this sense, and and they're uh they do the introduction, I come in, I do basically uh explain it, and they're actually the close. They're actually doing the final close for me. You know, this looks really good. I support Linda's decision. Um and I say, well, the next step is for us to sit down and complete an application, right? Or you you can I understand you want to go back and talk to Joe about, you know, about these tables, and um, and then once you meet with Joe, then we'll schedule time to complete the application, right? So having that financial planner there um can it it's a gold mine because um they're educated, they're gonna bring you quality clients. Um, you work as a team, you let them stay in control as long as you make sure that you're not wasting your time, right? You don't want to be an order taker.

unknown 18:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Right. If you're just an order taker, you have no value because it it's it just doesn't, it just I have never found an order taker works. Um then you have uh

Handling Different FA Working Styles

SPEAKER_01 18:13

people who just refer to you, right? So sometimes they start out this way, then they get used to you, and they say to make the referral and and you and and you take it from there. Um the key is to always keep the advisor involved, always make sure that it is a HIPAA compliant uh uh transaction. So if they are not on the application, they are not getting any um split, then you make sure that the client has given you the um the go-ahead to share the uh policy with the advisor. And um, and then you you know you say, you know, would you like me to send this uh the the um uh the policy to your advisor so they have it on record as well? And I'm you know, I think I've had one person who said no, right? So um, but you always ask and then you send it and it you know again builds that relationship with that advisor. Um uh I have um I don't know what this Google Docs and and I have one for advisors that is that that are constantly referring business so I can keep track of them. I know when I sent out the illustrations, when we've modified them, when we hit the appointment. Sometimes they'll just send me information. I'll send them quotes some some quotes based on the information they have, but we haven't met with the client. I keep track of that too. And then every few often I'll say, okay, let's go back through the the list of all the clients you've given me and let's see who's ready to come up for um a new appointment, right? So very important to keep them uh together. You also want to make sure that any referrals that are generated from these go back to the advisor, right? So if if somebody asks you for an estate attorney and they're from a financial planner, you refer them back to the financial planner for the estate attorney, right? It's it's their their client, their business. And you always want to make sure in your database you know exactly who referred who to you, so that you're always giving business back to the person that referred that client to you. They are not your client, they are shared client, and they are their client first. So you always want to make sure you respect that. Um

Finding New Referral Partners Through Clients

SPEAKER_01 20:25

in terms of getting new financial advisors, I mean, you can do it in networking uh situations. You can do it from existing clients. You know, you always should be asking your clients, are you working with a financial advisor? Has your financial advisor talked to you about long-term care insurance? If they haven't, um it may be that they don't sell long-term care insurance. So you can say to them, listen, if you if you're interested, you know, I love to talk with people financial people's financial advisors and work as a team with your financial advisor. Would it be okay if um uh, you know, when we're through with this, we can we can talk as a team and discuss why we're I'm choosing what we're choosing for you and and the plan, or after the policy's been all set, would you like me to send your policy, a copy of your policy to your advisor? Um and and some of my best, I have some of my best financial planners. I mean, this one who I have now is it 39? I have like 30 referrals from a financial planner that I got as a result of um a client. So it was a client's financial advisor, you know, somebody and um and I forget it was a referral from an old client. I think it might have even been from a uh a life insurance agent who referred, you know, it's like one of those, um, referred me a client. The client um said they wanted to talk to their financial planner before making a final decision. I said, that's wonderful, let's do it as a team. We sat down as a team and she said, let's make it, let's, let's make this a commit a commitment. Committed team and joined my team. Since that time, she has brought on two more financial advisors to her team. So now I have three financial advisors who are sending me business from her company. So I have another company. I had one financial advisor who I was working with in the firm. And then I was talking about, you know, new products. And I said, Do you think your firm would be interested in learning about new products out in the market? And she's, and so um over that, I think it was that last uh snowstorm. Um, I I uh I went out. It was supposed to be, you know, she wanted to know if I wanted to do a webinar. I said, absolutely not. Let's do this in person. And um, and went out. We did have a couple of people who webbed in because it was snowing, but um, and uh, you know, I had seven financial planners around the table and two online, and um, you know, reinforcing um why long-term care is important, what the new products are, and how to talk about long-term care and who's the appropriate client, you know, that that I think people financial planners forget. First of all, this has nothing to do with age, right? Nothing at all to do with age. It all has to do with finances. And so um, you know, we we think about uh, and if we're not thinking about age, we have to think about financial planners who are dealing with people who are doing retirement planning and estate planning, and they should be thinking about gifting uh, you know, 10 pays to their children, you know, what's the best gift in the world is to take care of your children when you're gone, right? So getting their kids long-term care policies. And and then we want to talk about um, you know, the people who can self-fund, right? Reminding them, you know, are you telling me that your clients who are so wealthy don't mind when the market drops? Right? You know, they really don't care if it drops a few hundred thousand, a million, that doesn't bother them. Or, you know, are your clients so wealthy that they they say, absolutely not? I'm not wasting my time on coupons, and I don't want to think about discounts. Like, don't give me a discount. I am gonna pay full price for my next car, for my next boat, for my next house and taxes, uh-uh, let me pay them all, right? I just do not want a tax deduction. I mean, wealthy people do not think that way, right? So there's no reason they shouldn't be thinking about long-term care. And it's and and reminding financial planners that long-term care is a need for a lot of people, but it's a want for those who can afford it, right? So we we just it's just a different term. They don't need it. Um, they can pay dollar for after tax dollar, and it's not going to destroy their estate, but is that really what they want? So, you know, it's it's all about educating our financial planners so they can um better identify clients to talk to and reminding them, yeah, I get it. It's all about the cost-benefit. So let's do a cost-benefit

Educating FAs on Cost-Benefit and Self-Funding

SPEAKER_01 25:07

analysis, you know, let's let's do that, right? Is it better to invest? Is it better to get some long-term care? And um and I, you know, from that meeting, I have two financial advisors from around that table that have made appointments for their own long-term care. And what does that mean? Once those two are sold, I'm gonna get every single one of their clients, right? So that's what you want. You're you're really developing the relationship with a financial advisor where they like you and trust you enough to use your services personally so that you can then um, you know, you know, get their their the uh assist all of their clients. And then they do it with that added confidence of saying, hey, I use Linda's services as well. I got a long-term care policy. This is the policy I got. This is the same policy that I'm recommending that you get as well. And it just, you know, it just accelerates and and it becomes very easy um uh to make sales, right? So that's really what it's all about.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Yeah, I don't know if you guys can see why I asked Linda to give some thoughts, but that's you know, probably more than I could stuff into this whole presentation. I mean there are there's a lot of big takeaways from that, Linda. I would say one of the other big ones that you kind of touched on was financial advisors have their clients' innate trust. It's one of the things that can actually derail some of your long-term care cases because that innate trust is so large, but we don't yet have the trust of the financial advisor that they're going to defer to the advisor on everything, even if what you've said makes complete sense. You've you've given a presentation that could go into the long-term care specialist hall of fame. That innate trust is so hard to break. You can't sidestep it, right? Uh having that advisor on your side gives you the benefit of that innate trust instead of it being your unbeatable opponent in some cases, right? So that's that's why I think this pairing is so big. But I I also love what you say about respect how they work, right? You can you can control everything but my illustrations. That's what that's what I am here for. That is kind of like one of the the centers of my value. And if you trust me with your business, this is the one piece that I need your full trust and I need full control in. I think that's a great piece of it because it also respects the fluidity of how these folks do business, right? You can be as involved with me and it with these calls as you want to be, uh, or as not involved as you want to be. And one of the things that I remember you do, I don't know if you're still doing this, but since you have a lot of FAs, a lot of referral partners, you have to scale that, right? And one of the ways I think you do that is through uh a quick uh five-minute video introduction, right? You can't be all places at all times, and you can't always leave it up to the FA, especially those who don't feel as confident starting the conversation, that they're going to properly educate and start the process and introduce you, right? So I think that's one of the ways you've mentioned like you could put a laptop on the desk or put it up on the projector and show this five-minute video before getting them to me, and this will take care of most of what you need to make the introduction, whether or not you add anything to it.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Absolutely. Absolutely. And and and guide them, tell them the only thing that they need to say to their client is that we're not surprised when we grow old. I have your financial plan going out to age 90. So when I started that financial planning meeting, I asked them, how long do you make your financial plans out to? And most of them said anywhere from 90 to 97. Certainly not long enough on my financial plan, but I didn't say anything. But anyways, I didn't. Um, but uh, and I said, then I said, Are any of you surprised when 90 to 97 year olds need some home care, assisted living, adult day health, hospice, nursing home? And of course, the answer is no, no, no, no, no. No one is surprised. And we all know that that that care is super duper expensive. And is there a better way of funding long-term care than dollar for after tax dollar? Right? That's that's all they have to say to their clients. And then it's I work with a specialist and and let's get you some options so you can look at, you can see whether or not they make sense. That's simple. Um, I'm gonna send you a link and just fill out the questionnaire and it will go to Linda and uh and then we'll schedule a time for all of us to get together. That's it. What was that? A minute, and and we've got an appointment, right? And and that's all it takes. And then I get the uh questionnaire, I have the HIPAA compliant questionnaire on my website, um, and and on there. I also have financials so that um it just makes my life easier if if they're giving me an indication of how much they want to spend. You know, it's funny, the financial planner may say, Oh, we can spend ABC, and the clients have their own perceptions of what they can afford. So the the financial planner may say, Oh, yeah, they could spend $10,000 a year, and and the client saying we can spend three, right? So you need to, you know, keep in mind um, you know, what where the clients have come from. In my questionnaire is is for those of you who have seen it, I ask questions of how long do you feel that you would want to be able to afford to pay for long-term care? And some people say two to three years, and some people say five years, and some people say more than six years, right? So I use that as a guide, and I will always show that level of care that they want to be protected, but then I explain to them about the you-shaped concept of long-term care, that it's not bell-shaped, right? So 40% are gonna use two years or less, 16 are gonna use five years or more. So um maybe we want to leverage these policies better. And and we talk about that while we may think we may only need two or three years of care, and the probability is that we will, the question is what if we guess wrong? Right? And and is that okay? And is there a better way to to to plan a policy so that we can hit a catastrophic loss, which is not outside of the realm of possibility, because so many of us know that people need long-term care for long periods of time. And um, and and so that all you know moves in. And the more you talk about uh this type of information, the more value you bring to the financial planner, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:12

100%. Um couldn't couldn't have said it better. Um,

Protecting AUM and the Claims Conversation

SPEAKER_00 32:17

completely agree with everything you said. Um, you know, it's also in the FA's best interest to have a long-term care specialist, or at the very least, be very educated about long-term care. I've said this before, and it's not like this this is the first thing you want to bring out in the conversation. But if a client needs care, you know, we ask a lot about what is the first asset that you will take from to fund professional care if you need it. And oftentimes it's going to involve something that you're being paid paid on for assets under management, right? Your AUMs are probably going to be one of the first things that they draw on if they need care. Like I said, it's not how I'm going to advertise my services, certainly, but they need to understand that concept and how important the protection you provide is to the sustainability of their business overall. I mean, AUMs are just about everything for FAs and how they're commissioned. So um that's important for them to know as well. I save you in those situations. The protection we provide can save you in those situations because that provides as big a drain as anything. You help with the legacy planning, you help with so many corners of their business.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

And the last thing you want to be aware of is um to to to talk about claims, right? And if you're not gonna be there for claims, you want to know that you have resources that are going to be there for claims, that you are not a transactional business. Financial planners are not transactional. They and and and neither can you if you're gonna be a part of their team. Um, and that's one of the huge advantages of being a specialist as opposed to just being a general agency, right? And I tell them, you know, you know, sometimes, oh, well, you have a general agency. And I like, and and and what's the turnover of those people in the general agency? And when your clients go into claim, who are they calling? And what is the value that that these general agencies are going to bring to the table? The sale has been made. There was no motivation for them to help your client at that point. But when we're in a team and we're the specialists, and this is all we do, even if we don't do claims ourselves, um, you need to know your resources out there. I mean, so so I have a claims department, Linda. Yet Jenki has a uh claims, right? Amada has some claims with their with their home care. Um, so know that there are additional resources you can bring to the table as a long-term care specialist. That um that you're there to make sure that the promises you're selling are going to be kept, that you're going to make sure that there's somebody out there who's going to be able to handle it when you're gone. That resonates tremendously with.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

They're afraid, right? They're afraid of what happens when the rubber meets the road with this stuff. And I'm sure that's why a large percentage of financial advisors don't dip their toes in the water without an expert or otherwise, right? Um, because you have to see this stuff through. These are harder plans to see through all the way to the end, as opposed to my client has passed away. Here's a death certificate. Now let's get them paid, right? I mean, it requires expert touch um like no other product. So that's that's definitely huge. It's a fear in the back of almost everybody's minds that that works or thinks about this side of the industry. And Linda, you've been so generous with your time. I know you got a jet, but I I if I could borrow you for one more question that David asked, what do you do to keep in touch regularly with your

Staying in Touch with Referral Partners

SPEAKER_00 36:08

FAs?

SPEAKER_01 36:09

Actually, so I have a monthly newsletter that that goes out to all my FAAs. That's what that's that's that's the biggest thing is I have a newsletter that goes out. And um, and for those that have uh birthdays, they get birthday cards, right? So um, so that's that's those are the two things um that um that keep me.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

Not all too different from client outreach, right? And and client touch keeping.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

Yeah, and and actually, you know, my goal is I still don't keep as much in touch with my clients as I would like to. And I'm hoping that um with AI, I can start to um, you know, do even better. I do send e-birthday cards to all of my clients. Um, so anyone in my database who has a birthday gets a birthday card through through one of the e-programs. But um, but I do would like to to do more for side, you know, in terms of anniversaries of long-term care policies, you know, 10-year anniversaries or something like that, or you know, 70-year-olds or 80-year-olds or whatever, I think there's a lot of potential for um, you know, continued relationships with clients. And and I'm just so busy that I just don't have have time to do that. So the uh somebody asks how I um commissions, it's it's very individual. There are some financial planners who do who they they are in uh just investment advisors, so they get no commission at all. Um obviously my favorite, but um there are the vast majority are 50-50 splits. I do 50-50 splits. It is worth the 50-50. Um uh it's a volume play. And and think about it, it's so much more efficient. I mean, how many times do you go back to a lead to close them, right? I can't lose a lead because I've got a a quarterback who keeps bringing them to the table, right? I mean, you know, that is absolutely worth 50% of any of any um commission. And um, and I try to so some of them I just 1099 at the at the end of the year, um, and some of them are on the apps. So that's very individual um in terms of how they they work it.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Speaking of busy, I know you're busy, I know you have uh a place to be in a few minutes. So I will I will let you go. Um really appreciate the time, super valuable, lots of things lots of insights. I would have forgotten to brought up. So thank you so much for just taking the time with us today.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

Thank you. Good luck, everybody. Take care. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

So, I mean, Linda perfectly

Content Creators, Conferences & Other Referral Sources

SPEAKER_00 38:42

encapsulates why I think financial advisors are the most valuable source of referral partners. Um, yeah, I I'd be interested as well, Elena, to your question if anybody has um had any success from offering CE courses. I think that's a pretty good way to find yourself some new referral partners. Um, but just in thinking of other um sorts of ways to attract and and and other referral partners that um you may want to work with. I'm just thinking about Buddy INS and one of our most recent referral partnerships that has gotten off to a pretty fantastic start is content creators in the financial industry are a super great referral source if you find the right match. So uh I think this partnership really started from uh, you know, the the top of the chain of that referral partnership has a large audience in a podcast that they do about all sorts of elements of retirement. And long-term care is definitely not their specialty, they are more, I believe, based in Medicare uh planning at the end of the day, but they needed a long-term care expert guest. And Mark was a guest on the podcast, gave a lot of great information, and that turned into a referral partnership. You know, uh, if you have any sorts of long-term care needs or this information was helpful to you, illuminating to you, and it's got you thinking about your own situation, here's how you can contact Mark, right? So everybody has a podcast nowadays. Um, you know, everybody, I'm I'm sure people's pets have podcasts nowadays. Everybody's got one. Um, and I think obviously you want to partner with those who have a decent-sized audience at the end of the day so that your message will be heard. Um, but that's also your opportunity to distribute that recording, help their audience, have what you talk about every day reach your own audience, another way for them to hear from you, right? Um, I think that's a really good avenue for referral partner sources. I I also think if you're making content yourself, you're automatically kind of putting that broadcast out to any potential referral partners, right? If you make short form videos or you have a podcast of your own, or you're, you know, like Linda was saying, writing a newsletter, you have a blog, whatever it may be, that's a great avenue to attract potential referral partners. And it's an opportunity to demonstrate your stuff outside of a client meeting every single day. I also think referrals don't have to just be to other clients, right? You can ask any client that you're in front of, hey, do you know any professionals that could use a long-term care expert that helps their clients? You know, you've seen the nature of this, it's very specialized work. And if there's somebody that you work with, a financial advisor or XYZ, right? I am always looking to help those people, and I think I'm well equipped to do so. So passing on the word would be appreciated, right? I think that's a super great way to do it. Um, folks have mentioned potential CE courses, lunches, um, going out and networking. I mean, conferences are great. I mean, I can go to the booth and I can get a stress ball from my favorite carrier, right? I can get all the swag. I can learn what's new uh about each product with the carriers. But I think the most important thing about any given conference and how you can really judge it being worth your time is take a look at some of the conference lists ahead of time. Mark is um hands down the master at this. He's going through the attendee list if there is one and identifying are there people here who I would want to start a conversation with? Does the conference app allow me to connect and even book time with these people and and meet up, right? And and you know, just exchange what we do and see if there's uh, you know, a potential for us to be able to help them, right? I think that's how you make the most of conferences is networking and trying to find referral partners at the end of the day. Uh that's if you are trying to stay busy at a conference, that's the number one way to do it. And that's the number one way to kind of gear your conversations. But overall, I think uh we all know how to do it, right? I I think I'm not sharing too much new information here. Uh, you know, Linda has a lot of great information as to the why and how she does it. Um, but at the end of the day, I think. Think we

Your Value as a Specialist and Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_00 44:01

know how to network. We we know how to kind of start that conversation to get ourselves a referral partner. But a lot of this is to give you guys that view that you don't often allow yourself to have of yourself of how valuable you are, you know, to these potential referral partners, how difficult what you are doing day in and day out is to mere mortals, and how you can really be a cornerstone piece to somebody's business and bring an entirely new store of value to their client base, right? I think if you're working with other financial professionals, they are looking for any way possible to reach back out to every single client that they've worked with and all the potential new ones and the ones that didn't work out for other things and say, I'm connected to an expert that can open up a brand new area of planning and security for you. Uh, and this person works in it every single day. They're very good at the difficult things that others can't or don't want to do. And here, they've even prepped me with something to give you to kind of start you off on that education and to meet them, right? Um, just if you understand that you are valuable, that long-term care planning is important, and you have the bandwidth and ability and the skills to be able to help, that's the most important thing to take into the conversation. Bar none, right? It's just confidence at the end of the day. And I think once you take in some of those relationships, understanding how to best work together, how to be flexible to their day-to-day and how they work with their clients, if you're able to mold into their process so that it feels very easy and very secure to be able to send you referrals, that's how you can make a living off of five referral partners, right? At the end of the day, if they feel confident and they are educated enough by you to understand that, hey, a very large amount of your client base should be talking to me and there's opportunities in it for you. Um, you know, the sky's the limit. I think that's where some of the best practices are built, are by really good, highly trusted referral partner relationships that give you a constant stream of at bats. It's all about at-bats in this business, and these are high-quality at bats with high likelihood of closing at the end of the day. So I really want you to kind of keep that, keep all of that in mind as you're going through your day-to-day because referral partners help down months uh, you know, have a higher floor, right? You don't want a down month to be zero at the end of the day. You don't want the down month to be uh, you know, zero to five new meetings. You really want to have your calendar full with that bats. And um even having just a few really solid referral partner relationships is the number one way to do that. That's how um most people run into trouble, right? I just can't generate enough activity. So I think it's uh a super, super underrated kind of um you know, business building piece that doesn't get talked enough, talked about enough, and uh understand the nature of the industry that your referral partner works in. That'll give you a sense as to how their clients are used to, you know, um consultation from them. Like Chris says, uh, I created an email for a couple of my PNC agent friends to send to their clients. I think that's great. And it's you know, part of it is understanding the industry. PC is um, you know, can tend to be pretty transactional, right? So part of the training there is here's why long-term care isn't transactional, here's why it might not be a fit for you to take on solo, but here's why it's a perfect fit to introduce people to me at the end of the day, so I can handle all of that for you and you don't have to worry about them going down the street. You know, P and C were selling things that sometimes are compulsory, you know, or um there's a more sort of immediate visceral need, right? You don't want to be left with nothing if you get in a car accident or you're you're liable for XYZ or you have a flood in your house, right? Um, so it may be a type of sale they're not prepared for, but totally understand and appreciate an expert for estate planning attorneys. I totally agree. Super, super good match, you know, long-term care fits in with legacy as well as anything, right? It's making sure you don't drain that legacy. So I with this guy, I just wanted to kind of get the gears turning. I always want to remind you about how important you are to the financial world and everybody you come into contact with to talk about your business and how you can help day in and day out, and just kind of give you some of the um, you know, drill down best practices and how to um, you know, gain those referral partnerships, but most importantly, how to keep them and keep them extremely healthy and extremely productive. So I hope this was a valuable session for you guys today. Appreciate all of the questions in the chat and all the suggestions and what you guys are doing. Um, you know that this is always a place where we can share those approaches, or our Facebook group is another great place where you can share what works for you or ask folks what's working for them. Um, you know, I want us all to grow together. And if one person takes away one thing, it's a victory, right? So appreciate you guys showing up uh and just contributing to the conversation. We'll keep the ball rolling next week with you guys. Until then, be well and we'll talk to you soon. Bye, everyone.