Insurance is about risk transfer and keeping our communities safe. Insurers sell policies and advise about risk mitigation – but the value-added services don’t have to stop there.
Do you ever think about going above and beyond for your community? It’s certainly a great way to engage with customers, generate new leads and improve client retention. Also, helping others feels “awesome.”
Life insurance provider, Foresters Financial, prides itself in its “culture of value” and “fraternal benefits society.” Insurance Business spoke to Jason Julian, assistance vice-president of National Accounts and Business Development at Foresters Financial about the importance of giving something back to the community.
Register for our exclusive CE webinar Cyber Insurance 101, and get covered on selling cyber
“At Foresters, we aim to provide value that transcends the purchase of an insurance product. We give what we call member benefits and we truly believe in doing more for you, your family and the community,” Julian explained.
“We like to breed ambassadors in the community, so we make sure people that buy our policies have the ability to serve their communities. We do that by offering grants to our members to help them with volunteering exercises, and we also donate emergency financial relief and assistance after tragedies like the recent US hurricanes, the Quebec flooding, and the BC and California wildfires.”
As well as encouraging people to become valuable members of their community, Foresters also tries to inspire people to make better life choices by offering life insurance incentives. This year, the company launched three new Non-Par Whole Life insurance products with some attractive features.
In its new Non-Par and Simplified Non-Par Whole Life products, it’s offering access to an Advanced Medical’s Expert Medical Opinion Program that can provide an authoritative second opinion on medical issues at no additional cost for an entire family. It also offers a Quit Smoking Incentive Plan, which gives non-smoker rates for the first two years of the policy.
“The Quit Smoking Incentive encourages people to stop smoking because they want lower insurance rates. It’s making a big difference and it seems to have generated a lot of interest. People do stop smoking, so it’s awesome,” Julian commented.
Another way Foresters plans to give back to the community is through its Advantage Plus scheme, which has been soft launched with its broker partners this month. This enhancement promises a donation to a policyholder’s charity of choice after death.
“We are going to be launching an enhancement to our Participating Whole Life insurance product, which is called Advantage Plus,” said Julian. “It’s a unique feature with a charity benefit, where we will give 1% over and above the face amount of insurance (to a maximum of $100,000) to a registered charity.
“Policyholders will get their regular death benefit, but they can also name a registered charity to receive 1%, so it draws on their personal charitable interests, which is a wonderful feature for our product in the industry. We think Advantage Plus is going to resonate really well because it feeds into the root culture of our company, which is all about giving something back and doing more for families and the community.”'
