The insurance industry has changed, consumers have changed, the competition has changed, communication has changed...BUT MOST INSURANCE AGENTS HAVE NOT With mass marketing and over $1 BILLION dollars spent on advertising last year alone by a few of the biggest players in the insurance industry, there's not a day that goes by that your clients and prospects aren't bombarded with messages from your competitors. Unfortunately, most of those messages focus on "cheap insurance," "saving money" or depict the agent as "outdated and useless." Consumers are being taught that the only difference between insurance providers is PRICE and the entire industry is being commoditized by direct writers trying to push the retail agency force into extinction Retail agents want to know how they can compete with the giants of advertising and mass marketing to keep their clients and grow their agencies. The unfortunate answer is that you simply can NOT compete in the price wars and mass marketing being done by the big industry advertisers. IF YOU TRY, YOU WILL LOSE However, you CAN beat them by communicating with your clients and prospects in ways that the big companies cannot. You CAN use the new rules of communication and new methods to reach your clients and prospects that will set you apart as THE go-to insurance advisor in your area. Agents need to break away from the price wars and commoditization and start creating experiences and relationships with their clients that are impossible to replace. You're in a fight for your agency's life. Whether you realize it or not, change in the insurance industry is going to continue at a rapid pace over the coming years. The big discounters will continue to increase their advertising and banks and other large corporations will join in to try and make the retail agent as irrelevant as possible. Consumers will rely more on the internet and social media for their research and communication with insurance companies and agents. Only the strongest agents who find new ways to communicate their value and set themselves apart will survive. You can do more than just survive, you can thrive in the coming years by becoming a 21st Century agent and using 21st Century Communication tools with your clients and prospects. You can be known in your community as an insurance expert and a trusted advisor that people seek out and want to do business with. You can learn: 1. The 3 jobs of a 21st Century agent that are vital to your success 2. Strategic ways to bring new sales to your door without having to chase them 3. How to keep clients married to your agency for life 4. How to create top of mind awareness with clients and prospects 5. The seven questions that every prospect wants to know before choosing an agent 6. How to overcome price as an objection to doing business with you 7. The 6 new rules of communication and how to use them with clients and prospects 8. 7 tools of 21st Century Communication 9. The best way to use social media with clients and prospects 10. How to set up online and social media tools and manage them in a few minutes 11. How to make old-school communication techniques new and relevant again 12. The secret to getting clients to consistently refer prospects to your agency 13. How to attract client cross-sales instead of constantly having to chase them 14. The importance of touching your clients 24 times per year and how to do it 15. The importance of a communication calendar and the formula that makes it easy 16. How to create "social influence" 17. Two easy formulas for writing communication pieces that clients want to read 18. The two most important things to concentrate your time, effort and energy on No one is going to make you grow, make you improve or make you keep up with the consumers and the insurance industry. But if you don't, it's just a matter of time before you get left behind.

How to Save for Retirement and Use Your Savings TODAY Retirement Planning and Rapid Wealth Creation for the Family will teach you and your Family EXACTLY how to save for retirement. Saving for retirement and knowing how to save for retirement can be one of the most valuable skill sets a family has, and lead family members to a more rewarding life today while investing for tomorrow. The book will show you a straight-forward, logical way to save for retirement. It will show you a way to use that same savings money as though you had never touched it. You will learn how to put together a solid retirement, as well as increase your cash flow in the years leading up to retirement. You will literally get your money working in two different directions at once so that you can live better today while saving for tomorrow. Just by picking up this book and implementing the simple strategy outlined, you could easily save $100,000 to $200,000 over your lifetime if you are currently using credit cards or financing major expenses.

GAO-11-616 - Federal Crisis: Review of Federal Reserve System Financial Assistance to American International Group, Inc. In September 2008, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve Board) approved emergency lending to American International Group, Inc. (AIG)--the first in a series of actions that, together with the Department of the Treasury, authorized $182.3 billion in federal aid to assist the company. Federal Reserve System officials said that their goal was to avert a disorderly failure of AIG, which they believed would have posed systemic risk to the financial system. But these actions were controversial, raising questions about government intervention in the private marketplace. This report discusses (1) key decisions to provide aid to AIG; (2) decisions involving the Maiden Lane III (ML III) special purpose vehicle (SPV), which was a central part of providing assistance to the company; (3) the extent to which actions were consistent with relevant law or policy; and (4) lessons learned from the AIG assistance. To address these issues, GAO focused on the initial assistance to AIG and subsequent creation of ML III. GAO examined a large volume of AIG-related documents, primarily from the Federal Reserve System--the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY)--and conducted a wide range of interviews, including with Federal Reserve System staff, FRBNY advisors, former and current AIG executives, AIG business counterparties, credit rating agencies, potential private financiers, academics, finance experts, state insurance officials, and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officials. Although GAO makes no new recommendations in this report, it reiterates previous recommendations aimed at improving the Federal Reserve System's documentation standards and conflict-of-interest policies. While warning signs of the company's difficulties had begun to appear a year before the Federal Reserve System provided assistance, Federal Reserve System officials said they became acutely aware of AIG's deteriorating condition in September 2008. The Federal Reserve System received information through its financial markets monitoring and ultimately intervened as the possibility of bankruptcy became imminent. Efforts by AIG and the Federal Reserve System to secure private financing failed after the extent of AIG's liquidity needs became clearer. Both the Federal Reserve System and AIG considered bankruptcy issues, although no bankruptcy filing was made. Due to AIG's deteriorating condition in September 2008, the Federal Reserve System said it had little opportunity to consider alternatives before its initial assistance. As AIG's troubles persisted, the company and the Federal Reserve System considered a range of options, including guarantees, accelerated asset sales, and nationalization. According to Federal Reserve System officials, AIG's credit ratings were a critical consideration in the assistance, as downgrades would have further strained AIG's liquidity position. After the initial federal assistance, ML III became a key part of the Federal Reserve System's continuing efforts to stabilize AIG. With ML III, FRBNY loaned funds to an SPV established to buy collateralized debt obligations (CDO) from AIG counterparties that had purchased credit default swaps from AIG to protect the value of those assets. In exchange, the counterparties agreed to terminate the credit default swaps, which were a significant source of AIG's liquidity problems. As the value of the CDO assets, or the condition of AIG itself, declined, AIG was required to provide additional collateral to its counterparties.