Announcer: 0:02

You're about to tap into the digital marketing strategies that separate thriving law firms from the ones struggling to keep up. Join James Campbell as we break down the roadblocks holding your practice back and reveal the insider tactics attorneys are using to scale past seven figures. From cutting-edge digital marketing tips to exclusive interviews with industry leaders, we're giving you the playbook to attract higher quality clients, dominate your market and build a firm that runs like a growth machine. Your next breakthrough starts now. This is the Marketing Lawcast.

James Campbell: 0:36

Morning everyone, and thank you for joining me today. My name is James Campbell, I'm the Chief Growth Officer for Integrity Marketing Solutions and I'm joined today by Amy Bloom from Beneficiary Liquidity Plan, and I'm excited to introduce this new and innovative opportunity for you to add to your practice. It's called the Beneficiary Liquidity Plan and we're going to get into all of this today to educate you about how to offer this to your client and why it's so important for estate planning attorneys. Guys, the BLP is a strategic tool that allows you, as attorneys, to offer to your clients a solution for ensuring their beneficiaries have immediate access to funds after their passing, helping them avoid delays and avoid financial hardships. Guys, this is a very important piece of what I believe should be part of the estate planning process. Guys, today we're going to walk you through how the BLP works and how you can integrate it into your estate planning service, into your practice.

James Campbell: 1:31

Let's go ahead and continue on, okay. So first off, as an estate planning attorney, guys, you understand the importance of protecting assets and ensuring a smooth transition of wealth. Guys, however, traditional estate planning often overlooks one crucial factor and that's the immediate liquidity for beneficiaries. Many clients assume that their family will have instant access to their assets if they create their estate plan, but in reality, they often face significant delays due to probate, administrative fees or waiting for a death certificate. And, guys, this can leave families struggling to cover things like funeral costs, mortgage payments, legal expenses or any other sort of urgent expenses that come up upon death. Guys, without immediate liquidity, guys loved ones experience sometimes some tremendous financial hardship. It is not what your client would want to have happen for them.

James Campbell: 2:31

So today we're going to talk about the beneficiary liquidity plan. And, guys, this plan is designed to fill this gap and it does so by providing fast, tax-efficient access to liquidity for your clients' beneficiaries. And, as an attorney, offering the BLP as part of your estate planning service adds tremendous value to your clients. The plan allows clients to strategically reallocate a portion of their non-liquid assets into a secure, accessible fund that their clients, their beneficiaries, can receive those funds within days instead of months or weeks. And, guys, today I'm going to introduce Amy and let her talk a little bit about the beneficiary liquidity plan and how it operates and how it works. So, amy, why don't you go ahead and give us a little bit more information here about the BLP?

Amy Bloom: 3:23

Sure, phil Graham is our founder and creator and he developed the BLP because he realized that there is a gap in the financial plan today and that gap is getting wider and wider because families are having a harder time accessing a death certificate and accessing funds that their loved ones have left behind. And accessing funds that their loved ones have left behind, kind of statistically speaking. Empathycom states that nearly 80% of families have to finance those final expenses for their loved ones out of pocket and about 50% of them never get reimbursed for those funds. So it really sets a family up and puts them in a very difficult position to be able to come up with money not only to pay those final expenses but also to pay family expenses and ongoing expenses. Maybe there's a mortgage, car payments and other types of things that the family has to pay for. So the BLP was founded on that premises and it does get immediate liquidity to the beneficiaries to be able to access funds to pay those expenses, typically within 24 to 48 hours.

James Campbell: 4:36

I love that, amy. So how do clients actually, how does it actually work? How's the BLP work Like? Where does where work? How's the BLP work Like where does?

Amy Bloom: 4:51

where do the funds come from? The funds? It's simply reallocating funds that the clients currently have from a non-liquid asset Maybe it's a 401k, an annuity, an RMD, it could be a checking, a savings, a money market account Reallocating those funds that aren't going to be immediately available and taking a small portion of those and moving them into the beneficiary liquidity plan, which gives them access to those funds without requiring a death certificate. And that's the key Without that death certificate, we can quickly and easily, through our patent pending claims process, pay those funds out immediately to the beneficiaries.

James Campbell: 5:27

I love that and there's no out-of-pocket costs for setting up the BLP.

Amy Bloom: 5:32

No, and the great thing about the product, james, is that there's no medical questions. Anybody 90 years and younger qualifies for this product. No medical exams, no medical questions.

James Campbell: 5:45

Younger qualifies for this product no medical exams, no medical questions, so everybody qualifies, which is awesome. That's fantastic. We're going to get to a little bit deeper, guys. Let's talk a little bit about your role as the attorney. How do you implement this into your practice, Guys?

James Campbell: 5:58

It starts by, first off, educating clients about this gap. I think a lot of times attorneys are aware of this gap in access to funds from the time a person dies to when their beneficiaries actually have access to funds. There is a gap there. I think as attorneys, we're aware of that gap, but we never really had a tool to fix that problem. So it starts with you educating clients about that gap and then about the BLP and about how it solves those problems, and then you help clients book with Amy. Amy will be part of your advisory team and she would be the one that actually speaks with the clients your client and helps them reallocate those funds and get their BLP set up. So your job would be to educate them about the BLP in that gap and then use the assets that we provide to get them booked with Amy and then, after Amy, meets with them and gets their BLP created and she handles all of that conversation. Maybe we can talk a little bit about what you talk about in those conversations.

James Campbell: 7:03

But after that BLP is created, WisePath, Amy will send that BLP to you to review just to make sure that it aligns with the client's overall strategy. Okay, so that you have the chance to review it for your clients. Guys, this differentiates you from the other attorneys who do not talk about this gap. They just kind of, you know, cover their eyes, cover their ears and cover their mouth right when it comes to talking about this gap. So this allows you to provide a solution that other attorneys simply overlook and it allows you to expand your advisory team, working alongside WisePath Financial and Amy to help you get all these things taken care of and really upgrade your practice to that next level. So again, kind of going over some of the benefits of the beneficiary liquidity plan, Amy, on the screen here we see that there's immediate access and you spoke about that a little bit. But if you can kind of give a little bit of a history, how old is the company and where does that kind of stem from? Can you talk about some of these benefits of the BLP?

Amy Bloom: 8:10

Yeah, absolutely so. Homesteader's Life Insurance Company is the underwriter and our product is called the Genbridge product, and Homesteader's Life has been in existence for over 100 years.

Amy Bloom: 8:22

And the main product they write is a pre-need product. That's a totally different entity than what the Genbridge product is or the BLP, and they have a patent pending process. They actually pay out over 68,000 claims per year without a death certificate and with that pre-need product that they have, they already have an existing relationship with nearly every funeral home in the country. So our simple claims process is the funeral home director just sends an attestation stating that the client has passed and therefore we don't need a death certificate to be able to process that claim. With that being said, that's how we can get those claims paid within 24 to 48 hours. So great, great product. Homesteaders Life has billions of dollars in assets. It's an A-rated company, so they've been around for a long time. So your clients are in really good hands with a company that's been around for a long time and paying out claims for a very long time.

James Campbell: 9:30

Amy, tell me a little bit about the protection that it gives the family and some of the financial stress. I know you've heard stories of people that have not been able to pay the mortgage on an asset that the parents intended to leave to their kids. But their kids were unable to pay the mortgage and the house was lost and that wasn't even able to be distributed to the children. So what kind of protections are there? What kind of things does the BLP typically cover for people?

Amy Bloom: 9:53

Well, it really does avoid that financial stress. Remember, this is the worst day of your family's life, or your client's family's life, right, when they lose their loved one, the last thing they want to do is have to find ways to come up with money to pay those ongoing expenses and those final expenses. Maybe it's, you know, getting family members home with travel costs, Like you had mentioned. Ongoing, maybe mortgages, utilities have to be paid, medical bills have to be paid. It protects the family from that and, as I mentioned earlier, without that, if you look at the statistics right and 80% of the time the beneficiary has to fund that on behalf of their loved ones, it really puts them in a very difficult position. So the BLP definitely helps avoid that additional stress that really the family doesn't need during that difficult time.

James Campbell: 10:50

Yeah, I think that's one of the biggest things for attorneys, for you all to talk to your clients about and not just sort of cover your eyes you know what I'm saying and cover your mouth. Amy, can you tell us a little bit about the tax efficiency of the BLP and how that operates? A lot of our clients do a lot of tax work and I know April tends to be a busy month for them, so you talk a little bit about the tax implications with the BLP.

Amy Bloom: 11:17

Yeah, the great thing about the BLP is it does have a growth rate and the current growth rate is 3.35 percent, have a growth rate and the current growth rate is 3.35%. That is a tax deferred earning rate. So if you equate that, depending obviously on the tax bracket that your client is in, that's about a four to four and a half percent open market tax rate. So the 3.35% growth rate is currently paid out annually and on top of that, the benefits that are paid out to the beneficiaries is also tax-free or tax-deferred. Reason being it is a single premium guaranteed issue, whole life product and, with that being said, those proceeds are going to go directly to the beneficiary, tax-free.

James Campbell: 12:02

That's a beautiful part of this BLP and, I think, one that the more tax-savvy attorneys will be impressed with. And I wrote in here that the BLP is really customizable. It is tailored fit for the sort of unique estate planning needs. So, regardless of how the client, the stage of life or the assets that the client has, the BLP can offer can be tailored for that person. So there's no like set amount. Can you speak into that a little bit as well, amy?

Amy Bloom: 12:32

Yeah, absolutely, and James, we're actually rolling out a brand new online application system that includes a worksheet. Now, because a lot of times the attorneys a lot of times will know what those assets are right, but when I'm meeting with their client maybe I don't. I'm not privy to all that information. So what I would do is I would go through that worksheet that goes over funeral expenses, other financial costs attorney costs, accountant fees, executor fees, whether they want to go through a burial process with a celebration of life or cremation, whatever it may be. We can customize it based on what the client's needs are, and now we have that tool and resource available to really customize it directly to your client specifically. So that's a brand new tool that we have accessible. It does give various levels, whether they want a high end, a medium or a low end as far as what their anticipated costs are, but it really helps us customize it to that specific individual for where they're at at that point in time in their life.

James Campbell: 13:39

I love that, amy. You help them through all that process. It's not up to the attorney to have those full conversations, it's up to you, more or less, to have those conversations. Is that correct?

Amy Bloom: 13:50

It is. I do recommend that, if the attorneys have any idea based on their assets, now we also have to take into account what types of assets are those right? Right, if they're heavy heavy into property assets that aren't as quickly available for liquidity, those obviously are going to be something that we need to customize and look at a little bit differently than something they might be able to can access a bank account. If there is a home, that's the main asset, that may take months right before we can get any liquidity out of that. So I would expect maybe a little bit of insight from the attorney. Any information that they can provide to help me out with that will greatly enhance my ability to make sure I'm customizing correctly for their client.

James Campbell: 14:44

Yeah, great. So, guys, just as a recap here, for as the attorney, the BLP allows you to expand your estate planning services offer, have a new offering for your law firm, strengthen your client relationships by providing a truly comprehensive financial solution covering all their bases which I know that you want to do for your clients anyway and it also allows you to generate additional revenue through the review process of reviewing the BLP, and so we're going to talk about that a little bit more as well. Let's see which of your clients yeah, let's talk about which clients benefit from the BLP, like if they were to sort of identify. In my view, amy, I think everybody should be, should have this conversation, but are there specific people who maybe are you know, would benefit more than others?

Amy Bloom: 15:39

Um, this is kind of targeted towards. They kind of call it the rich man's plan. It's not really the rich man's plan. The reason we say that is because it is a single premium guaranteed issue product, which means there's no ongoing premiums, right? However, you know, with my experience and what I've encountered recently is, you know, we kind of targeted this towards the older clientele 70 plus initially and now we're going 60 plus but, quite honestly, I think we need to be offering this with 40 plus. Our maximum is 100,000. Our minimum is 2,500.

Amy Bloom: 16:19

So, even those families, younger families this is something we can incorporate with them, maybe at a smaller amount, and then grow it right, as you mentioned, right with annual reviews. That's an important time, because if we write a BLP today, that doesn't mean it's still going to be sufficient for what they have next year or even next month, right, we can't control what happens with our clients. Maybe they had a large inheritance that we weren't aware of, so we need to be able to customize this. So this is not going to be a plan, that's a one and done. Right, you're going to get continual revenue from additional amounts that need to be added in the event that this isn't keeping up with the assets and estate that your client has, so it is something that will be ongoing for them. As far as the attorneys, yeah, I love that.

James Campbell: 17:12

So we're going to get into a little bit deeper about how you, as the attorney, earn revenue and can create this revenue stream from the BLP, from adding that to your practice. A couple of things I want to talk about is this real life scenario, and I think a lot of this, a lot of the benefits of the BLP, rests on not requiring a death certificate, which in some counties can take weeks, months to get a death certificate and then be able to even start the process of getting access to bank accounts or filing for a life insurance payout or things like that, in which case those companies want to hang on to that money longer as well. So all of this stuff sort of hinges on a death certificate. So that's one of the big things to talk about with your clients, guys.

James Campbell: 17:59

There's a story Amy, you mentioned this in our previous conversation where the Cook County clerk had passed away unexpectedly and he was the only person authorized to certify death certificates and when there was, when he died, they had to get somebody else in there. This left thousands of families unable to access their loved ones assets and many Chicago families had to pay tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket for funeral home expenses and other things, and there's other stories like that. It's not just Chicago, but these kind of things happen all across the country, correct, amy?

Amy Bloom: 18:35

Yeah, absolutely. And if I might give a personal real life scenario, you know, I just lost my brother a few months ago and my brother was 59, you know, and this is one of the reasons why I said, we kind of target the older clientele and we need to really start rethinking that this needs to become part of the estate planning process. Early on I went through that rightosing my brother and he was diagnosed with cancer, so I actually had the ability to come in and help get his estate settled to a large degree, but we didn't take care of everything right and it took three and a half weeks to get my brother's death certificate, which that three and a half weeks when you're grieving the loss of a loved one feels like an eternity, and it was an eternity for me. And that's why so strongly believe in the BLP product, because I saw and went through what every family will go through and every one of your client's family will go through when they lose them. Every one of your client's family will go through when they lose them and you don't want to put those families in that position.

Amy Bloom: 19:46

I tell you what, if you can fill that gap that's in their financial plan, it will be the most rewarding thing that you can do, professionally and personally, I think. But I went through that and I 100% believe in this product. I see the need for it. It would have made my life and my sister-in-law's wife so much easier during that time. But he was a collector car guy. Right, we talked about liquid assets, not a very liquid asset whatsoever, so we couldn't have some quick sales to help cover those expenses. Fortunately, a small town that he lives in we were able to, you know, extend the payment to the funeral home and those types of things. But definitely something that you really really need to consider and it is the right thing to do for your client.

James Campbell: 20:37

Yeah, that's great, amy, and I'm sorry you lost your brother. I'm sorry you had to go through that, but this is what we want to avoid for future clients, right, and? Even your past clients to go back to them and speak to them and bring this up and let them know that there's a solution for this gap, a bridge for this gap.

Amy Bloom: 20:55

The great thing about it is it doesn't cost anything. It doesn't cost your client anything and we always say if it doesn't cost anything to fix the problem and fill that gap, why wouldn't we fix that for them, right?

James Campbell: 21:09

Absolutely, absolutely. So, guys, recap a little bit here the process and then we're going to get into how this creates a revenue stream for you. The process Initiate the conversation about the BLP with your client. Just discuss it, discuss that gap, discuss the relationship that you have this advisory team to help fill this gap. Maybe it's part of your estate plan. Right, where other attorneys can't do it, you do it and it's just part of your comprehensive estate planning process.

James Campbell: 21:35

You get the client scheduled with Amy. Amy will tailor the plan to meet your client's needs and be with them and let them know that they can do reviews and updates and then implementation. After they get their uh, they'll get their plan created with amy and reallocate those assets, get that created and then the plan gets sent to you and you review that blp, blp and then you get paid by wise path and we're going to talk about that a little bit about how that payment process works. And Amy you just mentioned this a second ago. But some of these frequently asked questions you just said there's not a cost to set up the BLP for a client, so there's no fee premium fee for them to pay, correct.

Amy Bloom: 22:16

No, there isn't. All we're doing is basically taking money out of their left pocket, that non-liquid asset, and moving it into their right pocket, which is a totally accessible and liquid asset.

James Campbell: 22:29

And then a lot of attorneys will ask well, how does anybody get paid on this? Like, if they're just moving it from their left pocket to their right pocket, how is there any room for the attorney to get paid for a review, for an example?

Amy Bloom: 22:45

Well, like any life insurance contract, there's commissions that are payable right.

Amy Bloom: 22:52

Because most estate attorneys are not insurance licensed, we have found a way to be able to pay them through the billable hours right them through the billable hours right, and that's by going over that contract with the client, letting them know.

Amy Bloom: 23:13

One way to help grow your practice is to build that relationship with the beneficiaries, and that is something that we talk about, which, from a financial advisor standpoint, it's about retaining assets, but from an estate planning attorney, it's also about building your clientele right. With that, you want to build a relationship with the beneficiaries, and how we do that is we send a copy of the policy to the beneficiary because we want them to be aware that this policy exists and that if something does happen to their loved one, to contact us immediately so we can get that money as quickly as possible into their hands. So your role as the estate attorney would be to go over that BLP plan with them once we issue the policy, so they're aware how it works, but also building that relationship with your client's beneficiaries and bringing in new potential clients and recurring income to your practice as well.

James Campbell: 24:10

Yeah, I love that. So, and one of the questions I think we mentioned we answered this earlier but how quickly are funds available to the client and guys? That's within 24 to 48 hours, and that's why it's important to have for the client to know that they have Amy as a resource, they have you as a resource, that the beneficiaries realize that they have you and Amy as a resource and have the BLP, Because as soon as they can get that brought up and have that conversation, get that signed off by their funeral home director, the funds will be delivered to them. Anything to add on that, Amy, in terms of delivery of funds and things.

Amy Bloom: 24:47

No, typically it's within 24 to 48 hours and the funeral home is also paid within that timeframe, so it helps the funeral homes get the money quicker as well, which also speeds up the process, right? If that funeral home knows that they're going to get their funds immediately, and then the beneficiaries as well, it helps speed up that claims process.

James Campbell: 25:11

Yeah, for sure, because of that. Yeah, and one question I'm sure that you have is how, or the attorneys will have is how does this integrate with my current practice? And, guys, this is where IMS comes in, where our company comes in to provide all of the marketing materials, the technology and the support and tracking to help you funnel clients into the system, to promote it as a new service within your practice and to get paid for reviewing those documents. So this is how your law firm oh, oh, go ahead. Amy, do you have something to add to that? Go ahead.

Amy Bloom: 25:46

Yeah, I was just going to say you know, let me do the heavy lifting. This is all I do is BLP. I know the product inside and out. Let me address those questions. I want to make it as easy as possible for you to integrate with your practice without having to take a lot of time. Leave the heavy lifting to me. Don't get into the details. Keep it kind of high end. Remember, your client trusts you. Whatever you ask them to do, they typically are going to do right If it's something that doesn't cost them anything and you say look, I really believe you need to fill this gap. I never had something to do that before now, but now I do. So I want you to meet with Amy and go over that. Let me handle the heavy lifting on your behalf.

Amy Bloom: 26:33

What happens a lot of times is if you're not comfortable with the product, you tend to get off track a little bit and then you get into some details that really aren't important and then that kind of results in a non-sale. Keep it on the high end. You have a gap. Let's fill the gap. By the way, I'm not the expert here. Let me hand it off to Amy. She will help you with that and she'll get everything up and running. The other thing to keep in mind as far as how it integrates with your practice is remember if we can get money quickly in your client's hands, it also helps get that trust moving and everything rolling along so you get paid a lot quicker as well. So it does benefit you in more ways than just growing your practice and adding additional revenue. It also gives the family money to be able to spend on your services, helping them get through probate or the trust process or the will process. So remember it helps you in that regard as well.

James Campbell: 27:37

Yeah, I love that, guys. That's a great point that Amy brings up is to look at your practice from every possible way that you can expand growth, especially growth and revenue. This is something that you can add to your practice where it's not costing you money. We need to be looking into it. It also fills that gap, just to give a little bit of clarity on how the law firm earns money. So you send the client over to Amy. Amy helps the client produce the BLP. The BLP is sent to the beneficiary, to the client and to you.

James Campbell: 28:04

You're going to get paid to review that plan at a tune of $400 per hour and the hourly rate or the hours committed to that BLP is scaled to the size of the BLP. So, for example, if we sign a BLP that is, I think, $25,000 or $30,000 in that range, you're going to get an hour's worth of work about $400. If it's $60,000, you're going to get about two hours of worth of work, which would be $800. So if people put $100,000 in there, you can see that your hours are going to scale. The rate of $400 per hour will still be the same, but the number of hours that you're paid for will be scaled to the size of the BLP. Anything to add on that? Amy, I'm pretty spot on on that, aren't I?

Amy Bloom: 28:55

No, yes, yes, you did a great job explaining that.

James Campbell: 28:58

Okay, great, good, making sure I'm not messing that up. Next question is is there a cost to enroll and to add the BLP to your practice? And, guys, there is not a cost to do this. You do have to qualify. So I'll invite you to book a discovery call, talk with me a little bit and fill out the form and let us know a little bit about your practice. We want to work with attorneys who are focused on estate planning, where it's not just the side project of their firm. How do you learn more and get started? We're going to get into that in a second. You can book a discovery call to talk with me, fill out the form that we're going to go over, give you that link in a second so that you can kind of get this process started of getting enrolled and having these assets added to your practice. And that's the next question is what resources are available for my firm, and I believe I have a slide up or I have the next slide, ok, so I'm going to go over just real quickly, guys, some of the resources available.

James Campbell: 29:57

There is a handout for you to have to give to your clients and review with your clients. It has a QR code for them to scan to go ahead your clients and review with your clients. It has a QR code for them to scan to go ahead and book that meeting with Amy. So you'll have the handout. There's also a landing page to add to your website. I'm going to show you that landing page in here in just a little bit. On the landing page is a video and the booking calendar and information about the BLP. You can add this landing page to your website. So if you're a client of ours and you want to enroll, we'll add it for you and implement all of the email marketing that goes along with it. If you're not a client, we're going to give you that landing page that you can link to from your website. And if you have a web developer and want to hard code that content into your website, by all means go ahead and do it. You just have to use that same booking link, the same video and the same content that's been approved.

James Campbell: 30:46

Okay, so all of the assets are going to be available for you for free. All you have to do is qualify, okay. So why is this important, guys? Why should you be adding this to your practice now, guys, estate planning is about preparation, not reaction. So you are planners. You're great at taking care of your clients. I know that this gap is something that we don't want to talk about, but we need to bring it up, and now you can, and your competitors are still not doing it so you can also protect your clients from financial uncertainty. This is a way to really save them and save their beneficiaries, and be the hero to your clients and really ensure that their legacy is preserved and their loved ones are cared for without delay. Ok, so, guys, take a look at some of the resources available.

James Campbell: 31:36

On the left hand side, here You'll see the beneficiary liquidity plan handout. I think I can give you a closer look at that if I click this button here. Nope, that's not the right one. So you kind of see it over here. On the left, the beneficiary liquidity plan. It goes over how it works, who it's for the role of you as the attorney, and then there's a QR code for them to book their meeting with Amy. And then on the right here we have a picture of the landing page. Let's go ahead and watch the video that's on the landing page here I want you guys to see. This video will be added to your website. It's fantastic and it really does a great job explaining the BLP. The booking calendar on there as well is part of the landing page and there's content down below. Let's take a real quick look at this video.

Announcer: 32:23

You love your family and your goal has always been to leave this world without leaving them with a financial burden. Maybe you created an estate plan or purchased a final expenses policy. While both are popular options, there's just one problem your beneficiaries won't receive the money to fund your final farewell until at least a few weeks after you're gone. Why? Because it takes from two to six weeks to receive the death certificate that must be submitted to start any benefit process, and then it can take months to receive funds from policies such as life insurance and annuities. So who will have to pay your final expenses out of pocket? How will your loved ones cover their travel costs or the reception when family and friends gather to honor your life? Sadly, these questions often lead to the kind of financial chaos that causes disagreements and family fractures that may never heal. But you have the power to prevent that. With a simple beneficiary liquidity plan, you can secure a benefit that's paid within just 24 to 48 hours of your passing. Think of it as a bridge that supports your family's immediate needs until your estate can be settled properly and fully, as you intended. How does it work? You simply allocate a small portion of your assets into your beneficiary liquidity plan, no need to come up with additional funds. Your BLP is structured like a tax-deferred, tax-free CD at the bank, so you receive interest on your money and your asset continues to grow. And, best of all, everyone up to age 90 qualifies for this solution Everyone To begin the process. Our advisory team will help you fill out the simple application. There are no health questions, so everyone qualifies, as promised.

Announcer: 34:07

When your final day dawns, your BLP becomes liquid immediately upon being signed by a licensed funeral director. Your beneficiaries receive their funds within 24 to 48 hours. No waiting anxiously for your death certificate before your loved ones can plan your service or pay for any expenses incurred. During this time of sorrow, you have taken action to alleviate troublesome issues that families don't even know they'll face until it's too late. To recap, a beneficiary liquidity plan does what other instruments can't. A living trust may express your wishes, but nothing can happen without a death certificate. That power of attorney you think will empower someone to address these issues dies with you. Your joint account assets freeze until a death certificate is presented. Your family will need your guidance even after you're gone. Putting your beneficiary liquidity plan in place shows them that you have thought of everything and everyone. It ensures that the legacy you leave behind is one of composure and compassion.

James Campbell: 35:21

All right, all right, great guys. I think that landing page and the assets that are available for you are really fantastic, will help you promote and tell the story. All these assets can be available to you. All you have to do is enroll in the BLP network, so there is an enrollment form. There's no cost to add this, but then add the provided marketing materials and promotional materials to your process. We do have emails, drip campaigns. There's a webinar with a script that goes over the BLP, very similar to what you saw with Amy and I today.

James Campbell: 35:53

For you, revenue stream to your clients or to your practice OK, not to your clients at a revenue stream to your practice. That previously you didn't have. And just as a little bit of a side note here, guys, you can go to our website, ims rocks dot com. Dot com. Slash, apply hyphen BLP. Or you can text BLP to my cell phone. That's my cell phone number on there. Just text BLP, I'll get in touch with you and help you get this connected. Guys, just remember that IMS is a full service marketing agency. We work exclusively with estate planning and elder law attorneys, helping them grow their practice, and a lot of times that growth depends on generating new leads, like new qualified, ready toto-go estate planning prospects. But growth also comes in many other forms and I think that one of the growth models that you need to pay attention to is adding this BLP increasing your average fee, increasing your protection that you provide to your clients and your brand and the uniqueness that you provide versus others. Amy, any closing thoughts on today's presentation?

Amy Bloom: 37:11

No, like I said, I truly believe that this product is needed by everybody. I've heard a lot of horror stories out there about even joint accounts being tied up now with a husband and wife both on the account. Don't take for granted that just because we've been working this way for so long, without a product like the BLP, don't get confused and think that it's okay and it's right because it's not Offer the BLP. I will help you every step of the way. Any questions that you have. Your clients are going to be treated very well. I worked in the property and casualty insurance industry for over 36 years and I've worked with clients, so they're going to be in good hands. Don't fret about that. I'm here for whatever you need. Reach out, but I want to see you succeed, you succeed and we succeed.

James Campbell: 38:08

Amy, thank you so much. And for those of you that want to stick around for Q&A, I'll be available here for Q&A, amy. If you can stick around, great. If not, if you have to jet, that's fine too. But stick around. If you have questions, we'll put them in the chat and we'll address those here in the Q&A. Thank you so much. Thanks, amy. Thank you so much. Thanks, amy. Guys, thanks for sticking around. There were a few questions that came through. Let me just take a look at those.

James Campbell: 38:42

Kyle asks us here let's just get through here made in advance of death with no insurability. How does the underwriting work? In short, what's the process? And he also asked what's the payout? Amy, if you're still listening, if you can talk a little bit, I think I may know the answer to this. But there is no qualification, or you know, it's not less than 90 years old, kyle, so doesn't necessarily play into the insurability. So they get qualified if they're less than 90. Amy, you can chime in if I'm wrong on that. But Kyle also asked how quickly are the death benefits available? 24 to 48 hours. So it depends. If that fell on a weekend, right, they may have to move that over. Oh hi, amy, you did, you did jump on here I did.

Amy Bloom: 39:33

I did make it, yeah. Yeah, I think Kyle's question was I guess I'm thinking how soon are they payable? By his previous question, which is how far in advance of a death? This product isn't really meant for end of life, it is meant for the estate planning process. There are better products out there for end of life types of situations. It doesn't mean if we were in the process of completing this contract and a client passes away, we pay that contract out. We actually had this scenario where somebody did pass away, actually before the policy was even issued, and we paid it out immediately after it was issued. So the client's beneficiary still received those funds within that 24 to 48 hour time period.

James Campbell: 40:26

Yeah, great. One question I got and it was from an attorney that I had a meeting with last week. Amy, I'm going to ask. But he asked well, what about prepaid funeral expenses? He's been sort of before he knew about the BLP. He was sort of helping people try to bridge that gap with prepaid funeral expenses, but he doesn't like things that's like just with that one funeral home and so he saw the advantage of the BLP being it could be if they move or whatever else happens, you know we can go to a local funeral home. Is that correct?

Amy Bloom: 40:59

Yeah, most of the pre-need or final expense plans are irrevocably assigned to the funeral home. That means those funds go to the funeral home and they don't go to the beneficiaries. The BLP is not that way at all. There is no irrevocable trust to the funeral home. The only role of the funeral home is to submit the claim to homesteaders for processing. If they do have any charges, now, sometimes it may be a funeral home that prepares the body, but maybe they're not doing the actual service or ceremony. Whatever is owed to that funeral home they put on the claim. So if we have a $20,000, which, by the way, is our average policy size is $20,000, and the funeral home says we're owed a thousand, we're gonna auto deposit into the funeral home's account the thousand dollars and then the 19,000 is going to be sent directly to the beneficiary and that is currently being overnighted as a check. We don't have the ability to auto deposit at this time. That's something that's being worked on right now.

James Campbell: 42:13

Cool, very good, and I saw your answer where you mentioned that the client has $200,000 in annuity and we move $20,000 to a BLP. They have $180,000 in annuity and $20,000 in a BLP, so their assets still equal $200,000 in annuity and $20,000 in a BLP. So their assets still equal $200,000. Right.

Amy Bloom: 42:33

Yeah, that's what we talked about. There's really not a cost. All we're doing again is transferring assets from a non-liquid product An annuity is one of the most common or a CD or money market type of account. So the client still has those assets. It's just that they're reallocated from a non-liquid product into a liquid product and that's the whole point of having this. It does fill that gap that the client has and again it's there.

Amy Bloom: 43:01

It's very difficult. If you're an estate planning attorney, you kind of know what your client's risk levels are and you know we talked about in Chicago, illinois, where the Cook County clerk passed away. I'm currently in Florida and in Florida we had a data breach and they were unable to issue death certificates. So you're really putting your client in a precarious situation and really an unknown situation determining how long it could take to get a death certificate. I mentioned my brother passing and he was also a tradesman, which he was a commercial plumber and I wasn't aware, but in the trade unions it took 90 days before my sister-in-law could access any of his money. That's three months on top of the three and a half weeks. So I mean it's an extremely long time.

Amy Bloom: 43:58

So again, like I said, it would be one of the most rewarding things that you could do if client calls you or the beneficiaries call you and say we need money, how do we get that money, and you can say, oh my gosh, we have a plan in place to be able to do that and to help you with that. So not only are you going to increase your revenue in your practice, you're also going to potentially add new clientele on by building that relationship with beneficiaries. You know there's $180 trillion that is going to be transferring that wealth transfer we talk about just doubled from even eight years ago. It's now $180 trillion and a lot of that is going to be going to millennials and women and that really needs to kind of be the focus for drawing in new clients, because your clients may be changing to women down the road, because men have a shorter lifespan than women and a lot of that wealth is going to be able to retain those assets, retain your clients and keep growing your revenue in your practice.

James Campbell: 45:15

Yeah, it's so important. I think that we have to be able to adapt and recognize where there is a need, like I said before, not covering your eyes and being like, oh, I'm just not going to talk about that gap. You know, I did my trust and got that taken care of. But if we can bring this to the forefront, I think it really for those firms out there and I know they're planning a term for their clients they want it to go well for them and for their clients' families and all of that and they have a heart for that. So this is something we can lean into, create a revenue stream and serve the clients. So, amy, thank you so much for your time today. Is there anything that we didn't talk about that we should have? Maybe I should check the questions real quick in the chat, let's see. Okay, I got a question Are these assets accountable asset for Medicaid qualification purposes?

Amy Bloom: 46:11

Not this product. Now, the product can be assigned to a funeral home. However, because of the values, right, if our average policy size is $20,000 and you do assign that to a funeral home which state by state that varies, right, what the dollar amount is and that might be excess of the limits of what's required, and then any funds above that would be asseded back to the state. So, essentially, if whatever is allowable so say it's $5,000 or $6,000 that can be assigned to the funeral home, you're gonna lose. That 14,000 is probably gonna be issued back to the state because of the laws there. A way around that would be potentially to maybe have two separate policies one that would work with the assignment or requirements per state and then one that goes to the beneficiary so that can be sent to the beneficiaries.

James Campbell: 47:12

Is this something that you would need to maybe have communication with the attorney about before you meet with the client? If we're talking about Medicaid, if we're concerned about Medicaid qualification, is that something that you would talk about or is it not really playing to that?

Amy Bloom: 47:27

We don't really I mean we don't really have the resources to do that. Again, there's other products that are better meant for that purpose and that's probably going to be more your pre-need or final expense plans and it's not uncommon to have both right, you can have that final expense plan or that pre need plan and have that irrevocably structured to the funeral home, but you're still going to have the family expenses on top of that. So it's not uncommon to maybe have a six, seven, $8,000 final expense plan and then also have a $12,000 or $10,000 BLP on top of that to help cover the family expenses. You know, one story we didn't talk about and unfortunately I think estate attorneys need to be aware of it, is we're starting to see more and more lawsuits coming out in litigation towards estate planning attorneys because they're setting up trusts but the trusts aren't being funded and we had a case where mom and dad passed away wealthy couple. They had two mortgages on some very expensive homes. The kids did not have the money available when mom and dad passed. They could not access mom and dad's assets and they lost all their properties which was their estate, a good chunk of their estate. Those homes went into foreclosure.

Amy Bloom: 48:57

So it is important as an attorney, to protect yourself. And in the event you do offer this product to your client and they say, no, I have a client sign off for them. I used them all the time in the property and casualty industry and when a client sees that they have to sign off on something, number one, they will circle back 90% of the time and say why exactly am I signing off on this? And if they don't decide to purchase it, it's something you've got for your file. We talked about it. You said no. If your family comes back and asks me why didn't I offer you a product Now, I have protection against any litigation that potentially could come against me. Yeah.

James Campbell: 49:39

Yeah, great, and we always have to be able to cover ourselves, you know, in those situations, because one crazy client or one bad situation can upend years and years of hard work that we've put into growing the firm. So let me just check the chats one more time, let me just make sure nothing else came through. Oh, we've got one more question. Can you speak more on the annual distribution that was mentioned in the presentation? I'm curious if the benefit is fixed and the BLP grows over time. I'm curious if the benefit is fixed and the BLP grows over time. If the BLP grows over time, of how much is typically getting kicked?

Amy Bloom: 50:20

off annually as income and how is that determined? Do you see that question? Yeah, I do. I'm not sure about the annual distribution. There's not an annual distribution. It's a life insurance contract that's paid out upon death. Let's see if the benefit is fixed.

Amy Bloom: 50:35

The 3.35% interest that is earned that we mentioned, that can change quarterly. It. Hasn't it actually started out smaller? There's comparable products out there that are only paying 0.5%. So we're well above what other carriers are offering. And we started off at 2% but we increased it to 3.35% interest and then retroactively went back. And anybody that was receiving 2% we actually went back and paid them the 3.35%, which is unheard of in the industry and we don't see that changing anytime soon. So that will stay in effect.

Amy Bloom: 51:18

That is paid out annually. If that's what you're talking about, michael, that is an annual distribution to the account. And actually what you would see when you issue a BLP policy and again I'm going to use that $20,000 example, because that's our average policy size is, when that policy comes in, the client takes $20,000 out of their annuity or money market, puts it into the BLP. The policy is actually going to come out for $20,100 roughly and what that is is it's paying that 3.35% up front and it will be paid annually and they will see that in every renewal. There's also a schedule in the policy that will show them what their distribution amounts look like and what their cash value amount potentially would look like at that point in time as well.

James Campbell: 52:06

Potentially would look like at that point in time as well. Awesome. Hopefully, michael, that helps out with that question. And again, amy, one of the things I want to go ahead and mention is that, for those of you that are still sticking around and interested in getting this set up or that, book a meeting with me, to kind of qualify.

James Campbell: 52:26

Amy says she's happy to do a group meeting, just sort of like a private meeting, where we can sort of work out the details and make sure you have all the assets. It's one of the things my team will do is make sure you have all the marketing assets. There's emails that go out to promote this and sort of help you have a value add to your practice. And again, no cost, guys, we just we wanna help, help people and we think this is a gap that needs to be filled and for our clients to be able to stand out. So, guys, great meeting today, great training. Amy, thank you so much for dedicating your time and committing to this and helping our clients in the estate planning profession at large cover this gap and solve a problem for clients that you know really needs to be addressed.

Amy Bloom: 53:09

Yeah, you're welcome. You're welcome. Thanks for having me, James.

James Campbell: 53:12

Yeah, my pleasure, guys, go ahead, book that meeting with me. Ims dot, ims rockscom, slash BLP hyphen apply. Okay, um, you can book there. You can also check the chat and um, I think April has a link in there for you to book. So great job, I appreciate you being here. We there for you to book. So great job, beverly, I appreciate you being here. We'll see you next time and appreciate you all. Have a great day God bless.

Announcer: 53:34

That's a wrap on this edition of the Marketing Lawcast. Thanks for joining us Head over to imsrockscom. If you're ready to skyrocket your firm's marketing, don't hesitate to book a free strategy call with our team right on our website. Here's to your success.