Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Paul Castner, President of C & K Healthcare Advisors Discussing Life Insurance

Episode Date: September 7, 2024

Paul Castner started out his path in the insurance industry by working at one of the Nation’s Top Medicare carriers. He began in the broker services department, under strong leadership who encouraged him to always pursue learning and trusting his skill set. From there he joined their sales team and had some of the best in class mentors along the way who not only strengthened his knowledge of the insurance products but also the importance it was to the population it served. C & K Healthcare Advisors was developed by Paul Castner and Mike Killmeyer based out of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, with the concept of giving back to the generations that have come before them. What started out as an agency that only serviced Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia rapidly grew to now servicing the entire United States. Our agents live and work in your communities and we strive to be the face of comfort and trust. Our pledge to you is that we will always do our best to inform you of the options that fit your needs, lifestyle, and budget while working ethically and doing what is morally right.Discover the peace of mind that comes with Paul Castner and his team of licensed consultants’ expert guidance—because you’ve earned a retirement that’s as fulfilling as it is secure. Call them today or visit their website at https://www.ckhealthcareadvisors.com/C & K Healthcare Advisors, LLC and their agents are licensed and certified representatives of a Medicare Advantage (HMO, PPO, and PFFS) organization and a stand-alone prescription drug plan with a Medicare contract.C & K Healthcare Advisors and their agents are not affiliated with the United States Government or the Federal Medicare Program. Enrollment in any plan depends on contract renewal. Medicare is available to some individuals under the age of 65 in limited circumstances. Plans and products may not be available in all areas. Certain exclusions and limitations may apply. We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or 1–800 MEDICARE to get information on all of your options.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-paul-castner-president-of-c-k-healthcare-advisors-discussing-life-insurance

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello, and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have back with us, Paul Kastner, who's the president of C&K Healthcare Advisors, and we'll be talking about life insurance. Paul, welcome back to. the program. Hey, thanks, Mike. It's glad to be back. It was a pleasure on your show last time and I'm looking for a ton of more great questions coming from you. Yeah, you know, and I kind of look at life insurance and I'm sure that if someone is listening, they're kind of going, oh, good gracious,

life insurance. Who was to talk about that? But I know you've got some really unique perspectives on life insurance. So give us a little bit of insight on when you are working with a client or a new client and you're broaching this subject, where do you start in teaching and educating them about life insurance? Before we jump into, you know, what's the right plan and all that, where do you start to kind of, you know, gauge what do they have, what do they need, and kind of educating them on life insurance as a whole? Sure. So some of that, Mike, comes down to what's important to them. And most of the time, what you're finding out is the importance of protection for family. Okay. That seems to be the biggest.

topic, right? We see it all the time all over social media. The GoFundMe's are started up because somebody passed away without life insurance or a family is begging a church to help out with that. And for most people, they want their legacy protected so they're not burdening their family. For other people, it could be accumulation of wealth. It could be that money that they leave behind for generational wealth. So there's a ton of different ways to approach it. But the best way, honestly, Mike, is when you meet that person and you're getting that conversation started is always to start by listening, not by asking questions. Listen to their story. Every person I meet has a story and they love to tell you about their story. Those stories will open up the doors

for you to ask the proper questions because unlike other industries that are in sales, you know, you're just trying to push a product. In the insurance business, we are trying to find a solution. And by listening more and talking less, those people actually tell us what it is that's so important in their lives. So then that formulates an easy way for you to ask the right questions. You know, and what you just said, they're so critical and probably someone listening to this is gone, well, the last guy that talked to me about my retirement or my financial product sure didn't listen to me. And I felt like I was, you know, the square peg in the round hole. But that is so important because you will not find one in today we're talking about life insurance but one life

insurance solution that fits every single person every single time so listening and asking the right questions is so so vital because you're able to use that information probably with your tuned in ear and when someone says something you're probably already formulating okay well that's an opportunity to do this and this and they don't even know um where you're headed with that but asking those questions is just so vital. That would be correct. So life insurance, what's the right kind of life insurance plan to have? Honestly, Mike, and you're going to laugh, but this is a very simple answer.

And you're probably like, wow, with all the life insurance policies out there, how can this be a simple answer? But there's one correct answer. The right life insurance policy to have is the policy that is enforced on the day the good Lord takes you home. So what does that mean? Okay. With all the different kind of insurance, let's go over the pros and cons. Because when you're looking at life insurance, the three biggest ones that we talk about are term life insurance, whole life insurance, and final expense insurance, or also known as burial insurance.

So let's go through term life insurance, right? Again, there's pros and cons with everything. Not everything is a one person fits all. You know, it goes around your subject. So with term life insurance, some of the pros with that are lower premiums compared to other types of insurance. It provides coverage for specific periods like 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, and it has a higher coverage amount for a lower cost. Now, on the con side of that, it does not accumulate cash value. Coverage does expire at the end of the term and needs renewed or converted into another type of plan.

and premiums can increase significantly upon renewals. Now you go into the whole life insurance plans. So some of the good things. It's lifetime coverage with a guaranteed death benefit. That's a great perk. It builds cash value over the time, which can be borrowed against. And it also has fixed premiums throughout the life of the policy. But on the downside, it will have higher premiums compared to term life insurance.

The cash value growth is often a little slow, you know, and it may be substantial compared to what you're looking to try and do. But also, Mike, you know, it's less flexible in the terms of the investment options compared to other permanent life insurance type of products. And then finally, you have final expense or burial expense insurance. Those are exactly what they say they are. They're meant just to cover, you know, those final wishes. But there's pros and cons again.

The pros, it's designed specifically to cover the funeral costs and end-of-life expenses. It's easier to qualify, often no medical exams, or sometimes they have guaranteed issue policies out there for those people that can't get through some of the medical exams. And they're often smaller and more affordable premiums. They're generally anywhere from like 5,000 up to, you know, 25 or 30,000. Well, on that downside, that lower coverage amount between 5,000 and 20,000 and 30,000, you're probably thinking, well, that's probably not enough life insurance. but it was meant just to cover those burial expenses and end-the-life expenses.

It also has a high cost per dollar of coverage compared to term life, and there's no cash accumulation and value, or on some plans there might be, but it'll be very minimal. You know, one of the things you mentioned about, you know, health exam, talk a little bit about one of the pros of the permanent of never having to take another health exam because if you have permanent, it's like the word says permanent. Whereas term, if you get a 10 year term, 15, 20, whatever the term is, when that's up,

you've got to re-qualify and you're probably going to pay higher premiums than you did before because you're older, of course. And what if your health took a turn? You might not even get it. So there's definitely pros, you know, like you mentioned, but I think that health exam thing is a really big consideration people should understand. So with that, I mean, the carriers are looking for, when they're looking at the medical background

and what pharmaceuticals you're taking, they're doing a little bit of underwriting there, right? They have an underwriting department that's weighing out the pros and cons, right? We know that life insurance is going to be paid upon the death, except for there's a couple plans out there that you can use for retirement strategies. But for the most part, it's going to be paid upon the death of that person.

When they're qualifying, they're trying to make sure that the amount of the policy is equal to their current health conditions. So some people that have diabetes or COPD, you know, maybe some chronic heart conditions, other things along those lines. It can be quite difficult when going for a permanent insurance or even on some of the final expense insurance to get qualified. They can't get past the medical wonder writing, right? And there's policies out there called Guaranteed Issue that will help those people

get into a policy. Now, generally, those come with about a two-year return of premium. And what that means is if that person passes away inside that term, they will only get back in life insurance the premium amounts they put into it. But there are some niche carriers out there that offer a few little bells and whistles that, you know, people who thought they couldn't get life insurance in the past are now able to access or be able to access the standard policies versus a guaranteed issue type of policy. Yeah. So even in the first couple points that we're talking about here, it's really clear to me

that this is not something you go Google, click, set up, done because there's so many considerations that you need to make sure are in place. And what if you didn't pick up one of the or two of the things? And now your policy might not be as advantageous for you. So I think that's a big thing that people need to keep in mind. You see these flashing ads online like, oh, by term for. whatever, some low amount. Yeah, that might be some low amount, but you get what you pay for.

So being able to make sure that you get the right plan, doing the right thing for you, I think is just a huge, huge aha for people. Well, Mike, you pointing that out makes me think there's always these commercials, you know, a million dollar life insurance policy for $9.99 a month. The chances of somebody actually being able to get into one of those policies. It's not false advertising. A lot of times I hear clients when they talk to me, you know, They're like, what do you mean? I can't get in there.

Yeah, well, yeah, I saw that commercial on TV and I said, are you trying to tell me that that doesn't exist? Well, yeah, it exists. Yeah, one person got it out of 10 trillion applications, I'm sure. Right. The person that actually fits those demands, Mike, it's very, very narrow window. So it's not false advertising. But working with a professional that understands the ins and outs of life insurance is going to be crucial to maximizing the proper policy. The other big thing is when working with a professional, you want to make sure that you do your due diligence on that person, too, because there are people out there that will put you in a policy just to make a commission check.

No, there's probably not anyone that would ever do that. Yeah, well, we would hope. But a good, a good value-added consultant would listen to what your needs are and realize what your true budget is. So if you say, you know, Paul, I think I can do. 50 bucks a month. In the back of my head, I'm going, this person can't do 50 bucks a month. When they say, I think, they're telling me their budget's a lot lower. So I reformulate the question. I would go, hey, Mike, how much could you afford a month without changing the lifestyle you're accustomed to? That's the number that we go for. Once we know what that is, then we can find

the proper paying with the maximum amount of value built off of your budget. Because when somebody has, when something goes wrong in their life, right? And they've got to cut their budget back. What do you think one of the first things they cut is? That life insurance policy. You know the thing that doesn't immediately impact their day-to-day living? Bingo. And you know what the excuse is when you talk to them later on?

What do I care? I'm going to be dead anyway. Right. But you care because it's your family. Yeah, you should care because it's the people leave behind. But I see what you're saying. And I love that question. You know, when you perceived a layer or two underneath that,

well, I think I can, and you dug a little deeper, and probably that client can breathe a sigh of relief and go, okay, that just felt right. Paul cares about me because he's asking me those questions. So you said a minute ago, Paul, the word retirement. And it makes me think about the fact that, you know, when you think about dominoes and one falls and then all these dominoes fall, well, if you don't have the right life insurance strategy in place, that could really impact retirement. So talk a little bit about how you're advising your clients to make sure that the life insurance product they're choosing today would actually benefit their retirement strategy. So that's excellent. So there's a couple products that come to mind right off the top of my head that can be used as a retirement funding vessel. Okay. And to understand those, I'm going to try to break them down very simplified, okay? So you've got universal life insurance and then you have indexed. universal life insurance. You're like, hey, wait, those two sound very similar, right? Well, in a way,

they are, okay, but there's some ups and downs. So let's go through universal life insurance first, okay? Universal life insurance is great. They have flexible premiums and death benefit options. They accumulate cash value, and they accumulate cash value at a pretty good rate, which you can be paid, you know, you can use to pay for premiums or you can withdraw cash for yourself, it does have a potential for a decent size value growth based on the insurers declared interest rate. Okay. So pay attention to that because when we go into indexed universal life, you're going to see the difference. Now, there's, again, there's always goods and bads. You know, some of the downsides of universal life, you know, the crash value growth

can, it's typically going to be lower and it depends on the interest rate, right? If it's not properly funded, the policy can lapse. So you want to make sure that you're working with a professional that really, really knows the universal life and the index universal life products. And it also can be a little bit on the expensive side if the premiums are underfunded. Now, let's talk about indexed universal life. Very similar to the other policy, okay, except instead of being built on an interest rate, it is going to be built and tied to a stock market index, for example, the S&P 500. The beautiful side of this. okay, the flexible premiums, just like the other one, the death benefit options are there.

And again, now our cash growth is built on an index. So all these carriers have several different indexes they're utilizing. So just because you've got a quote from one agent on a particular carrier and you're like, ah, that doesn't sound like the right policy to me. Ask questions. As the consumer, ask questions. Ask questions about those indexes because every index performs a little differently. And these carriers have professionals at the top of their financial market that are looking at the

indexes all the time. And they come out with new indexes all the time. I see tons of them come out every year. And the upside is they perform very, very well because it's based off, you know, stock market growth. Now, you're probably thinking, okay, Paul, we know how the market works, right? Market crashes. It goes up. It goes down. We want to make sure that, you know, with anything that we have in a market, we want to pull out when it's high. So how do I know it's going to be high when I go to use this life insurance-based product to fund my retirement plan. Well, the upside to an index universal life, also known as an IUL, is it has a cap and it has a floor. So you get all the good side of as the index is going up, yes, your money is increasing in value.

Now, when the market starts to drop, there's a floor line that your money will not go below. If the market for that index takes a major crash, you don't get hit with the burden, like if you were in the standard stock market. They put a four, say, nope, your money goes no lower until the market goes back up. So everyone else that had the money in the market in that specific index, they might have lost 20, 30 percent, whereas your loss would be zero. So you're not going to lose principle, but you're not going to gain anything. But man, when you run the numbers and go year after year after year with guaranteed growth and guarantee no loss, that's a huge weight off your shoulders. Correct. And again, you know, one of the downsides is market fluctuations can lead to lower returns because of the floor in place. But generally, once a index performs at a certain level, that floor now gets moved up to that level, saying it has to perform here or higher.

and your money won't go below this. So because of the floors that are in there and the way the market fluctuates, it could lead to a little lower return. But in general, if it is properly developed and properly funded, okay? And best advice, don't try to go run out there and find, you know, online and Google, you know, index universal life and try to put yourself in no plan. Work with a professional that knows these, that works with these large companies that can give you the best advice because,

Because unproperly put together, it could be a disaster. But done properly, it can be one of the greatest funding vessels for your retirement plan that you could ever find. Yeah. And I think that a lot of people are scratching their heads going, hold up. You're using the words life insurance and cash and retirement funding in the same sentence. Whoever thought of life insurance being able to grow cash and grow.

and grow your retirement. And yet this is just a tool that is out there. And many times people just don't know that it's there. And worse yet, they don't know how to properly structure it to accomplish those things. So, Mike, I'm going to say something. Okay. And this is going to hopefully catch a lot of people's attention. Okay.

Indexed universal life. It's, we call it the secretly extremely wealthy, don't want you to know about. Okay. So some of these millionaire and billionaires that when we've seen. see, you know, the way the politics are going and everyone gets mad. Oh, the tax breaks for these billionaires. But did you know, this is where a lot of these guys park their money. This is a tax-free strategy.

Index universal life. You will not pay a penny in taxes on your growth. And there's a lot of companies and a lot of very rich businessmen that use this formula. I'm going to tell you a true fact. and everybody can go look this up. Okay. There is a major company that started one of their largest expansions due to they went in and got the cash value off their indexed universal life versus pulling money or going and getting a loan from a bank. I'm going to give you a clue, Mike.

It's an entertainment company. Okay. Could you take a guess who that was? I will not. I don't know. Okay. So I'm going to tell you, and everybody can go look this up. Disneyland was started when Walt Disney took a withdrawal from his index universal life who expand Disneyland.

Ah, so basically this might be someone going, I've never heard of this before, so it must be new and untested. This has been around for a long time if Disney started using it, right? Correct. And a lot of people don't know that. There's actually a couple of other companies out there that. that did the same thing. They either got their startup from that or they expanded their business in a major way to be able to do it. But the best known story is Walt Disney when he bought in when he wanted to start up Disneyland.

So if it has the ability to do that where, you know, like Walt Disney pulled money out to start a business, you can use it for other things that aren't death related. Like a lot of times people think about life insurance really is death insurance. You die. Your family gets X. number of dollars. Well, what you're talking about is living benefits like, oh, you want to start a business? Okay. Well, what about starting or pulling money out to go by a car or college or things like that? And if you think that way, then it makes me think about if you put a policy in place

correctly structured for retirement, like you said, that's one use. What about putting this type of policy on your child to be prepared for them paying college tuition down the road? It's an excellent formula. We see a lot of those, you know, grow up plans that are out there for children, you know. And, yeah, their whole life, and yes, they grow some cash value. But if you were using an index universal life with the same amount and premium going in every month, the amount of money when that child hits, you know, adulthood, whether it's to pay for college or, you know, a down payment on their first home or whatever it is that you were helping them with, the growth off of the index universal life would outperform that whole that whole life policy.

Wow. That's pretty amazing. And I think that there's so many times people just are there's scratch in the surface. They just think one thing. And then it's like, wow, the light bulb just came on. I can use a product like this properly structured to accomplish so many different things that I never dreamt possible. But it kind of gets back to what you said. It's not something you can figure out on your own because nobody knows everything.

about everything. So get with someone like yourself who can sit down, ask those right questions, listen, and then provide some options. So Paul, if someone is listening to this, go on, tell me a little bit more. What's the best way that they can learn more and then also reach out and connect with you? So you can visit us at our main website, which is www.cKhealthcare Advisors.com. You can fill out a contact form that comes directly into my office and one, either myself, my business partner, one of my licensed consultants will reach out to you. They have been fully trained and backed up with all kinds of certifications when it comes down to life insurance and probably some of the best in class out there. Awesome. Well, Paul, thank you so much for coming back on. It's been a real

pleasure talking with you today. Thanks, Mike. Good talking to you again. You've been listening to influential entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.com.com.