What is so great about FLEXGUARD? Everything!  FLEXGUARD provides a means for many families and individuals, who have not had access to appropriate or affordable insurance protection, to have basic hospital/surgical coverage at an affordable price.  With three standard benefit levels from which to choose and several great optional riders, we have something for everyone!

In addition, FLEXGUARD is literally easy to write with one application and one bank draft for everything.  Three benefits levels and numerous benefit riders are simple for prospects to understand and Agents to explain. Prospects’ responses to our additional riders have been outstanding, indicating higher persistency rates and renewals in the future. Many Managers are reporting higher closing rates on leads, and huge sales increases to old prospects, who had previously declined coverage, and to lapsed customers. Why? Inclusion of doctor call coverage was cited for these increased sales. According to the Kansas City Star on April 27th, “41 percent of uninsured adults say they were unable to see a doctor when needed during the previous year; 56 percent said they did not have a personal doctor or other health care provider.”

FLEXGUARD is a hot new product that can help new Agents get outstanding income immediately; and as you know immediate income for any Agent helps keep adrenaline pumping and enthusiasm in high gear.  Consider an Agent who nets one FLEXGUARD sale each day with a monthly premium of $250. At 150% advance commission for the first month, the Agent receives $375 on each sale.  Multiply that by 20 sales for the month and the Agent takes in $7,500 in commission.  Do the math for succeeding months with renewals and the Agent ends up with a healthy $144,750 in gross commission at the end of the year.  Allowing for individual persistency, it’s still not too shabby for one FLEXGUARD sale per day!  FLEXGUARD adds a knockout punch to our market, and allows you to quickly take your earnings to a whole new level! How high is high? We don’t know yet!

Enthusiasm for FLEXGUARD is running very high nationwide.  Ron Seroka, Branch 90 Manager says, “I think this product has no equal on the market.  This plan is completely flexible and has expanded our benefit packages in a way our competitors cannot, especially the option to write stand alone cancer and critical illness applications either as a rider on the FLEX, or even as a separate policy.  This flexibility in benefits gives us so much more to offer in ways that are attractive to the market.  Closing rates are higher because the product makes sense to the prospects in our market.”

Using FLEXGUARD, many Agents are reworking GSP1 leads with greater success.  According to John Hamilton, leading Manager from Branch 61, “The two greatest objections I faced in the field were ‘no coverage for doctor’s visits’ and ‘not enough miscellaneous coverage.’  But look at us now!  With the advent of FLEXGUARD, we have completely wiped out those objections.  With these additional benefits in place, we believe our persistency on this product will at least double.  We have extremely high expectations for FLEXGUARD.” 

The untapped market for FLEXGUARD is immense.  According to the Wall Street Journal, sixty million people no longer have health insurance through employers. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are currently 45 million uninsured Americans, and over 8 million of those are children.  FLEXGUARD’s optional Outpatient Physician Charges Benefit which doubles the amount paid for doctors’ visits – is a tremendous benefit for families with young children. 

Many uninsured families have the means to purchase health insurance, but have chosen to forgo coverage because of exorbitant premiums.  Others have lost coverage as many employers completely drop coverage for employees or drastically increase employee contributions. FLEXGUARD is the perfect solution for so many reasons! It’s a product which can also help attract new and vibrant talent to our sales team, and one which can dramatically boost your underage sales figures.  As John Hamilton says, “Now it’s up to all of us to get it done, and we’re ready to roll!”

Like so many of our Branches, I’m excited about the potential of FLEXGUARD, and you should be too. You are with UA at the right time, with the right products and in the right markets. But you should also consider additional marketing opportunities. While individual FLEX sales have taken off in a big way, so too will Worksite Marketing sales. State approvals for Worksite FLEX are also rolling in, and the opportunity for Worksite FLEX is huge. Examine the facts: on May 31st, The Wall Street Journal reported that the nation's 45 million uninsured have become "the insurance industry's hottest new growth market." The Journal states, the insurance industry has realized that many of the uninsured "are the same relatively healthy Americans they used to cover or administer to in employer health plans," but have lost or opted out of expensive coverage. This is no longer a problem faced only by small businesses. The Detroit Free Press reported on June 8th that “soaring health care costs will contribute to [a major automative company] cutting 25,000 jobs.” On June 6th, the Los Angeles Times reported that companies are increasingly offering "leaner policies as a way to cajole uninsured workers to get coverage or to help struggling employees keep it." Don’t delay – learn all you can about UAatWork’s Voluntary Benefits/Section 125 marketing efforts too, because interest is obviously at an all-time high.

Agents and Managers who understand our Underage Market know we perform real and valued services. Rising employee contributions to employer plans are "having ripple effects" that can destroy personal finances and lead to bankruptcy, as reported on April 29th by USA Today. For the "middle-class people who become ill with critical or life-threatening illnesses, it can completely ruin their financial health.” According to CongressDaily on May 6th, Congress has not enacted any significant legislation to reduce the number of uninsured since 1997, and "most experts do not expect that to change any time soon." So, these problems can be expected to worsen, and our opportunities to help others will grow exponentially. Best of all, because of our advance preparation, we have the solutions to provide to individuals and businesses alike.

UA will continue to introduce innovative and unique portfolio additions to our Senior, Life, Underage, and Worksite Markets, whether in large or small supplementary plans. With more to come in the future, be assured we will continue to enhance your earning opportunities in many ways. And as always we’ll be there when you and our customers need us most, as the company that does what it says it will do.