Self-promotion has always been prohibited in posts but sales professionals were permitted to invite a poster to contact them through DM in response to a post or question on this sub. However, that practice is tacky, has gotten out of control, and is difficult to moderate.
Effective immediately: Self promotion is no longer permitted in any form.
Flair options are now live. If you want to generate business on Reddit (which I doubt has ever been significantly successful) then flair up, provide a meaningful answer, and the poster will be smart enough to contact you if your answer was helpful on insightful.
I believe that if someone has shown they are valuable and knowledgeable, people will reach out to them directly for answers. I’ve helped a few individuals here just by explaining what they have.
I also think getting a life insurance license is way too easy, especially given how complex these products are. It’s not just about the numbers on an illustration—many agents don’t fully understand the math or the mechanics behind the products they’re selling. These details matter because they directly affect what carriers can change contractually.
To truly know what’s best for someone, you need a deep understanding of industry history. This includes knowing how carriers have reacted to different economic periods and how these actions affect current and future policyholders.
Big carriers sometimes offload entire blocks of business to private equity or reinsurers to reduce risk. Understanding which carriers do this and why is crucial when choosing a carrier. There’s so much more to consider.
I could go chronologically or alphabetically on the number of cases I walk into that have been… Um … handled by someone who doesn’t know their head from a hole in the ground and have to fix it.
What bothers me most are the “marketing programs” selling people the dream of making unlimited money. These programs mostly push Indexed UL and “teach” others to do the same.
I’d like to see these “teachers” or “mentors” explain how caps, participation rates, and bonuses are determined. Do they understand the hedge budget and how it relates to a cap? Do they know how the interest rate environment affects cap rates? Do they grasp how the return on the carrier’s general account portfolio influences their hedge budget, which then impacts the cap rate?
Moreover, how does all of this connect to the carrier’s history of managing inforce policies? Are they willing to neglect current policyholders just to drive new sales?
This is already happening with some carriers pricing “new money rate” IUL products. I think it’s too early for this. Yes, rates have gone up, but so quickly that I’m skeptical about the long-term viability of pricing a new money product in today’s environment. If rates plummet again, those new money products will become obsolete almost instantly.
Pricing a new money product now is just about capturing as many new sales as possible and showing higher cash values—basically, made-up numbers.
What scares me most is how easy it is to get a life insurance license combined with how easily people are influenced by a 90-second TikTok video.
For the record, I do own an overfunded IUL and believe in its potential with a long-term focus.