A well-crafted fact finder is one of the most powerful tools an insurance agent can use to build relationships, close sales, and set the stage for future sales opportunities.
It not only helps agents understand their clients’ immediate needs but also provides valuable information that can be used in the future to re-engage clients, adjust policies, and offer additional services. This article will break down the sections of a fact finder, explaining how each can be used both immediately and for future sales discussions.
Here is a link to the fact finder I use, but many fact finders are similar.
What is a Fact Finder?
A fact finder is a structured document or questionnaire that insurance agents use to gather essential details about their clients. When I first started in the business I didn’t completely understand the power of the fact finder. Fast forward 16 years and I’m a firm believer as its one of the elements of insurance training that keeps you process oriented and positioned to win.
This information ranges from personal details to financial goals and risk tolerance. Fact finders allow agents to uncover a client’s priorities and tailor insurance products to meet their specific needs.
How Insurance Agents Can Use Each Section for Sales Success
Below I’ll go through each of the sections of the fact finder and discuss the immediate use and future use to help you better understand why you are collecting the information, even when it doesn’t seem relevant.
Personal and Family Information
The first section typically asks for basic details such as the client’s name, contact information, employment status, and family members. This is not just administrative data; it provides a strong foundation for building a relationship.
- Immediate Use: Start building rapport by asking about family and lifestyle. For example, knowing if a client has young children can open discussions about life insurance or education savings plans. Spouse and employment status can introduce the need for disability or supplemental health insurance.
- Future Use: This section is also valuable for follow-up opportunities. As life circumstances change—such as having more children or career transitions—you can reach out to offer new insurance products that better suit their evolving needs.
Health and Medical History
Gathering health information can seem sensitive, but it is vital for tailoring insurance solutions such as life and health insurance that requires medical underwriting.
- Immediate Use: If a client mentions a recent visit to a specialist or a chronic condition, you can address immediate concerns by recommending policies that provide comprehensive medical coverage coverage that is friendly to a specific pre-existing condition.
- Future Use: This information can also be used to adjust coverage in the future. For example, if the client’s health improves or deteriorates, you can revisit their life insurance or disability insurance to ensure they have the most appropriate coverage.
Family Priorities and Financial Goals
This section is designed to assess the client’s financial priorities and long-term goals. Common categories include saving for retirement, funding a child’s education, or estate planning.
- Immediate Use: Once you’ve identified a client’s top priorities (e.g., “funding retirement”), you can tailor your insurance products to meet those needs. For instance, if retirement is a priority, you can discuss annuities or life insurance with cash value that supports retirement income.
- Future Use: As the client progresses through life stages, their priorities will shift. If their financial goals change—perhaps they need to focus more on long-term care needs later in life—you’ll already have a framework for offering them new products. Revisiting this section at future appointments is crucial for maintaining client relationships and keeping policies up to date.
Planning and Retirement Notes
This section captures how well the client feels they’ve planned for retirement, their savings strategies, and their appetite for risk.
- Immediate Use: If a client expresses dissatisfaction with their current retirement planning or feels financially unprepared, you can offer life insurance or investment products that support retirement goals, such as Indexed Universal Life (IUL) insurance or annuities.
- Future Use: As clients approach retirement age or experience changes in their financial situation, their appetite for risk may change. Reassessing this periodically allows you to adjust their investment products or insurance coverage to better align with their needs.
Risk Tolerance and Investment Preferences
Understanding a client’s risk tolerance and investment preferences is key for offering products like variable life insurance, annuities, or investments within a retirement account.
- Immediate Use: If a client prefers low-risk investments, you can offer conservative insurance products like whole life insurance or fixed annuities. If they are open to higher risks, variable life insurance or market-linked products might be more suitable.
- Future Use: This information will be useful later as market conditions change or when the client enters new phases of life where they may want to switch to lower-risk options. As their financial needs evolve, you can loop back to this discussion and offer more suitable insurance products.
Assets and Investments
The fact finder typically includes a section where the client lists assets such as checking accounts, retirement savings, investments, and any existing insurance policies.
- Immediate Use: By analyzing a client’s current assets and existing insurance policies, you can immediately identify gaps in their coverage. If a client only has a savings account but no life insurance, you can discuss term or whole life insurance options to protect their family.
- Future Use: Assets and investments often grow and evolve. As clients accumulate wealth or their financial situation changes, revisiting this section allows you to suggest upgrading their life insurance or adding new products like annuities or long-term care insurance to protect their estate.
Funeral Planning
Many clients haven’t considered how their funeral expenses will be covered. This section asks about their plans for funeral costs and any life insurance they may have to cover their final expenses.
- Immediate Use: If the client has no clear plan for funeral expenses, you can discuss affordable life insurance products such as final expense insurance that covers end-of-life costs. This is often an entry point to introduce other products.
- Future Use: Funeral and estate planning are topics that may need to be revisited as clients age. You can return to this section to ensure their final expense or estate planning needs are being adequately addressed.
Family Priorities: Ratings and Rankings
In this section, clients rate and rank their financial priorities. These ratings give a clear view of what is most important to them and can guide your product recommendations.
- Immediate Use: Use the client’s top priorities to structure the conversation and focus on offering solutions that align with their highest-ranked needs. For example, if a client ranks “providing for family after death” as a top priority, you can highlight the importance of life insurance.
- Future Use: As family dynamics and financial priorities change, so do their rankings. By revisiting this section in subsequent reviews, you can adjust your approach and suggest new products as their priorities shift.
How Fact Finders Help Build Trust and Long-Term Relationships
A fact finder is not just a sales tool but a relationship-building tool. It allows insurance agents to position themselves as trusted advisors who understand their clients’ evolving needs.
- Enhancing Trust: By asking comprehensive questions and truly listening, agents show that they care about their clients’ overall financial health, not just closing a sale.
- Setting the Stage for Future Sales: The information gathered in a fact finder allows for easy follow-up conversations. Whether it’s a new life event, a change in financial goals, or shifting priorities, agents can revisit previous discussions and offer solutions that fit the client’s new situation.
- Ongoing Reviews: Fact finders serve as a foundation for annual reviews or check-ins. As circumstances evolve, clients may need to adjust their coverage, providing agents with opportunities to offer new products or services.
Conclusion
Using a fact finder as part of your sales process sets the stage for both immediate and future success. It enables you to not only meet the client’s current needs but also anticipate and respond to changes over time.
By collecting detailed information about a client’s personal, financial, and health-related circumstances, you can build trust, offer custom solutions, and maintain long-lasting relationships that result in multiple sales.
This ultimately leads to stronger client retention and more opportunities to offer valuable insurance products in the future.
