Helping You Serve Your Clients in These Unique Times

I’d like to bestow continued best wishes from our First Protective team to you, your families and your clients. Even as we all continue to adjust to the unprecedented circumstances associated with the COVID-19 spread, I am heartened as this situation proves once again that adversity does indeed bring out the best in so many people. I’ve been moved as I’ve witnessed the selfless outreach Americans everywhere are exhibiting daily, helping their neighbors, acquaintances and even complete strangers deal with these uncertain times.

Many of you have heard me speak about the noble cause and the essential mission we are all engaged in as insurance and financial services professionals. Never has that been so apparent as now, when so many Americans are concerned about health, welfare and financial security. We should all be honored to serve in professions that enable us to help them solve these issues, particularly amid the heightened uncertainty we all face today. First Protective continues to stand at the ready to help you serve your clients in these unique times.

Our industry has adapted incredibly to the quickly changing circumstances of recent weeks. For example:

• First Protective, along with most of our partner insurance carriers, quickly executed an almost 100% work from home capability.
  • First Protective has quickly pivoted to leveraging all the best technology at our disposal to enable our employees to work remotely, while maintaining full connectivity with our customers, partners, networks and systems.
  • Our Regional Directors continue to stay highly engaged with producers, and are available for phone consultations, virtual meetings and other support activities as needed.
  • Producers are increasingly taking advantage of electronic submission capabilities, and when that is impossible, are using electronic means to avoid mail and other paper delivery, by using faxed or scanned documents
• Many life insurance carriers have substantially enhanced their business processing capabilities, policies and procedures to better enable business when face-to-face client engagement is impossible. This has included:
  • Higher coverage limits on simplified or accelerated underwriting; including substantially relaxed limits on fluid-less underwriting and evidence requirements
  • Substantially expanded time windows to use previously collected lab results and other medical evidence in the underwriting process
  • Enabling expanded product choices available for drop ticket and other electronic submissions
  • New electronic signature capabilities and policy delivery options are supporting the sales and fulfillment process without requiring face-to-face engagement

Of course, with these sorts of changes, it’s more important than ever to stay current on changing product, underwriting requirements and business processes among our life, annuity, long-term care insurance and disability income insurance providers. That’s why we have expanded our communication capabilities and outreach at First Protective, including:

• Updating our website to provide “at-a glance” updates on these quick-breaking developments regarding business processes, product changes, and other carrier news
• Continuing and expanding our updates, including our weekly video newsletter and bulletins
• Equipping our Regional Directors with state-of-the-art virtual meeting capabilities
• Continuing our proactive outreach efforts to our producers and partners, using phone calls, email and social media to ensure we’re doing all we can to provide the support they need in these unusual times
• Continuing to offer unsurpassed engagement and support across the spectrum of sales, support and service. This includes all our functional areas including case design, illustrations, product recommendations, underwriting, case management, contracting and appointments, and commission processing.

We are here for you. We appreciate your business, and we will do our utmost to earn it every day. Thank you for your partnership with First Protective.