Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Scheavosky McGawion Founder of McGawion Insurance Pros Discussing Empowerment Through Education in Insurance

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

Mr. Scheavosky McGawion, is a proud United States Air Force Veteran having served in Operation Iraq Freedom and the Global War on Terror after joining the Air Force in 2001.For over 15 years, Scheavosky now serves Georgia and communities across the nation by educating and protecting the financial interest of those seeking Insurance products and is committed to customers’ understanding of the products they seek and how they will enhance their life. Welcome to the Pros!Learn more: http://www.myinsuranceprofessional.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-scheavosky-mcgawion-founder-of-mcgawion-insurance-pros-discussing-empowerment-through-education-in-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 with us, Shavoski McGowan, who's the founder of McGowan Insurance Pros, and we'll be talking about empowerment through education, insurance. Shavoski, welcome to the program. Hey, thanks, Mike, for having me today. How are you? Oh, you're welcome. I'm doing wonderful. And, you know, I'm excited to talk with you because I know you're the insurance pro and I love feeling empowered. You know, I think that from a psychological standpoint,

people really don't need help. They want to be empowered, you know, because people want to be educated. They want to learn. They want to understand the process. So I'm excited to see how you work with your clients with insurance by empowering them through education. But before we dive into that, give us a little bit of your background on your story and how did you get into the industry? Yeah, I know. Appreciate it, Mike. Yeah, it's kind of funny. I joined military back in 2001 and my first duty station was Aviano, Italy, very, very much a culture shot being from Georgia. But I did a couple of years, did my first term there, and got out because I just really wanted to go to school and learn about finance. And once I got out, I really didn't understand this thing called insurance.

You know, looking at my pay stubs, you know, for premiums and stuff at that time that was being taken out of my check. And when I went to the, you know, the doctor, I had co-pays. And mind you, being in the military, Uncle Sam, take care of everything. So I didn't know what a copay was. I didn't know what Max out of pocket was. And so it intrigued me to go and learn more about this thing called insurance. And here it is a decade and a half later. I've been serving a host of individuals a lot in the military community, I will say,

after they are separating and retiring themselves. But definitely it was a kind of trial by error type thing at first. But again, a decade a half later, here we are. Yeah, it's a neat that you can look back and go, I had no clue what a, you know, whatever was. And it's like, well, if I didn't know what that is, certainly other people don't either. And I feel like so many times people that are in any industry get so proficient with it that they just gloss over certain things and go, oh, well, and they leave people in the dust. So I think that is so powerful that you can go, okay, I can remember when. And I remember well that I certainly didn't know what this was and that was.

So being able to clearly articulate and teach and educate your audiences and your clients and your community, that is just huge. So talk a little bit about how education about insurance products really helps to enlighten and transform someone's financial future. Well, great question, Mike. You know, I'll start off with there's, you know, such a pool of different type of insurances out there, right? You have short-term and long-term disability, long-term life insurance, you have index, you got turned, you got return-reep. It's just like, you know, this big pot of names mixed all together.

And so trying to decipher. which one fits me, obviously, if somebody's looking for life insurance, they think aerial. But utilizing that example, burial or legacy, but utilizing that example, what I find is that people don't know that, hey, after a 30-year term and I'm alive on the 31st year, you know, that's an opportunity for me to get full of my money back. You know, it's called term with return of Pringen. if I should become disabled, you know, while I have this policy, I can elect for the waiver or premium rider, which essentially, basically, you know, allows you to go for whatever duration of time that you find yourself disabled to not have to pay the premiums on your life insurance, you know? So different protections, different types of insurance, offer different types of protections. You know, you think about the index universal life product. A lot of people may hear the name, but then, you know, not understand what it is.

It's a permanent product, right? Typically it covers you up to 121 years of age. But what people don't know is that they have living benefits, you know, for so long people thought you had to die in order to exercise the benefits of insurance. But that's not true. So when you take a step back, yeah, Mr. and Mr. and some client may be out there searching for this or that, but when you take a step back, not to insult their intelligence, but to really make sure they understand everything that, you know, is related to what they're wanting. I think people can really appreciate that in a sense that, you know, hey, this general is going to take the time to educate me to make sure that I'm making the right choice, not only for my family, but for my budget as well. You know, you said a couple things there that jumped out at me that I feel like part of that educational process really is pristine, but return of premiums and not making payments.

I think one of the biggest fears that people have is, oh, man, what if I set up this thing and I don't need it? And then I've just wasted the money. Well, if there's a provision of return of premiums, and we don't need to get into the details, but I know that's what you educate people on. But that jumps out at people to go, hold on. You're telling me that there's a provision that maybe in some cases I can get premiums return or if I run into a hard patch, I can skip payments. Those are the kind of things that I feel like maybe people don't understand that are available to them that when you're educating and teaching, now all of a sudden they're like, tell me more. Correct. It's vital in today's

information age, right, to ensure that, you know, as a consumer, you may not know the right questions to ask. So it's very vital when you get in front of a professional in the insurance realm that they're willing to take a step back, you know, take a breather, take a beat, if you will, and just, you know, lay it all out there on the table. I mean, in the sense of

You know, we taught mortgage protection, right? You know, it's a like product, sure enough. But, you know, the waiver of premium feature is something that you definitely want to make sure that's affixed to a mortgage protection product because if the breadwinner, him or her or both becomes disabled, then, hey, you've got a whole mortgage you got to take care of. And then now we're in a situation where do I pay the insurance or do I pay the mortgage, you know? Yes. Yeah, that's a really, really good point. And it kind of makes me think, too, that even when people come to for the first time and they think that they, oh, yeah, I need this, there's got to be some misconceptions. So what are some of the common misconceptions that people have about the insurance products that you're helping them really clarify? As I said earlier, you know, one believes you have to die in order to exercise, you know, benefits from a life insurance. product. I mean, nowadays, the industry has become more robust and they're out to ensure that they

can protect their clients, because they want to retain their consumers as well, right? So we've seen for years now long-term care being something that's affixed to life insurance products. We've seen terminal illness, chronic illness, to be something where you can access a certain percentage. of the life insurance faith value, you know, they help with those expenses. And so in terms of this understanding this alone, I mean, that's just one product.

I mean, we could probably go for an hour talking about the different nuances. But, you know, that piece alone just to know that, hey, I have, you know, this product illness. And, oh, wait a minute, I can access 25% of my, face value on this cash value life policy that this, you know, gentlemen not had educated me. I wouldn't know nothing about it being on the market.

You know, you also mentioned something that I think is important, like the death benefit is whatever the face value is. And that's what people assume they're misinformed that the only time you can benefit from that is when you die. But you mentioned living benefits. And like you just mentioned there, you can access a certain percentage before you die in some cases, isn't there other provisions too where you can use a properly structured permanent life insurance policy like that to access money for a lot of different things, you know,

whether you need it for, you know, college or things like that. So it really opens up a lot of opportunities. It does. It does. If properly structured, you can use an index universal life product to have monies to put down for a house, for a car, for college. In most cases, tax-free dollars on top of that, you know, there are, like I said, there are benefits to a properly structured IUL. I mean, if it's funded properly, if you, you know, have all your ducks in the road there, I mean, that policy could grow for you and ensure that you're, children or your grandchildren have a college that's 100% paid for just depending on what you wanted to do we talk about retirement right so you can structure that iol to make sure that

you have monies you cannot outlive you know all through a life insurance product and i say that what air coach like right because i think a lot of people think oh i'm good i'm good i've got i don't need life insurance but in reality this is not you know the traditional life insurance that people think about with all of these benefits. And I want to key in on something else, you said, properly structured. So this sounds to me like it's not something that you can just go watch a TV show and go, oh, call 1,800 and get or go Google and go click, click, click. It's got to be structured the right way to get all of these benefits in the right

sequential order. So properly structured and working with a professional is a really key thing. Or else you might find out, oh, well, I didn't get the right thing. Yeah, you know, one of the penalties in a poorly structured IUL is, you know, the potential for it to reach what we call met status, a modified endowed contract where now the proceeds are, you know, subject to 22% and probably growing intact, you know. And to your point directly, I love what you said, sitting with a professional who is, you know, being on making on making. ensure you understand pros as well as the cons, you know, penalties as well as the, you know, benefits to a product and how you're generally, right? Because at the end of the day, if you wanted to use this IUL as a tax shelter,

well, by all means you can do that, but we still have IRS guidelines that we have to stay within. And that modified endowed contract or MECA, as it's called, is a subject from the IRS. And that's based on the numbers. And again, we don't need to get into any more detail than that other than if you wanted to have bigger numbers going through growing tax-free, then you just need to set it up and structure it the right way. And I think that that's the big thing people need to realize is like, oh, well, I'll just dump a lot more in than what I initially thought. You need to make every decision run it by your professional because what if it triggers something negative? but talk talk a little bit about, you know, the cash value side of that vehicle because I think a lot of people don't really realize that, you know, when your money grows in a 401k on IRA, things like that, it's never been taxed. And now all of a sudden when it comes out years down the road, the government's, you know, chomping at the bits.

But yet this is a different setup with this kind of a product. Why? Because most, if not all, life insurance products are funded with what? After tax dollars. The death benefit on a life insurance product is what? Tax free. This vehicle that we call life insurance is structured in a way that it's not necessarily evading or avoiding tax. It's just how the IRS guidelines has structured life insurance. So if you take, you know, if you take your premium and plus it up by 10, 20, 30 percent, because you have this goal in 30 years from now, I want to retire. And I want a retirement that, you know, I cannot outlive. Well, again, properly stature, you know, 30 years from now, 20 years from now with that thing properly structured, you can take out that money as a loan to the policy for years on end, cat's free. and it still grows cash all while you're taking money out. And Mike, I know it sounds like I'm speaking Spanish right now. Trust me, I'm trying to learn how to speak it, but this is not Spanish, okay?

It is definitely English 101, and it's according to the parameters that the IRS has said that we can structure these life insurance products to be tax-free, retirement-structured products, so long as we don't, you know, go out of balance. for the rules. Yep. Well, and I'm glad you brought up, you know, it kind of sounds like Spanish or Greek or, you know, people haven't heard this before because a lot of times their traditional insurance person doesn't really, isn't really keen or proficient in this. And the thing that I want to bring up or ask is this is not some new thing. This is not something that's not been tried and tested. It's been around for hundreds of years. And in fact, isn't it true that large corporations and banks, they put their money in these kind of things, too. Have you heard of Walt Disney? Yeah. He was a, he was a, he was a bunch of guy utilizing IULs to get Walt, Walt Disney started.

I mean, if nothing else of a history list, and we can just start right there of how he utilized it. I mean, the Rockefellers, if you will, that youth IULs throughout their generational wealth, And that's a feature that I also failed to mention previously, but I'll mention it now. You know, properly structured. These things can be generational wealth builders, right? So, yeah. Yeah, I even heard Babe Ruth used it to weather the storm through the Great Depression and when a lot of people were, you know, losing a lot of things.

So this is something that a lot of people are like, well, it's just so new that I'm just going to let it kind of simmer to see where it turns out. out this has been around forever in a day. So I think that's a big thing people need to realize. For generations, Mike, for generations. Yeah. Yeah, huge. So let's let's kind of wrap up our thought with kind of what are some of the steps that clients need to take to make sure that they're making informed decisions about this insurance because the worst thing in the world is to make a rash quick decision and figure out later that it's wrong. So, you know, in many markets, you know, you have your stalwarts, right? You have your big brand name companies that are sending out different things.

And you have your local agents and so forth and so on. But, you know, it really starts with the question of mind is what do I need? What protection do I need? What's my end goal with what I'm pursuing? And once you know that, then it's properly marrying yourself up with a professional who can take you know, what it is that you will look for and make some suggestions, you know, a couple, two, three suggestions, you know, everything's not cookie cutter for everybody. Everybody's situation is different. So, you know, I know people are being, you know,

targeted, marketed to and different things of that nature. But if they already have products, then, you know, policy review. A policy review could unveil that, particular product that you have doesn't fit anymore. Maybe you got a policy or something like that 15 years ago and now 15 years later it just doesn't fit. And so let's see if we can redirect those those premium dollars and something that, you know, you can walk away from the table like, you know, feeling pretty good about what you're doing now and going into the future. Yeah, that's a really good point about, you know, just double checking and making sure that you've got, you know, whether it's in review or just getting second opinions and you might have one type of an insurance product and maybe you need to just say, hey, can you look at this and make sure it's what I really need, what's best for me? And so getting that second opinion can be important. But just, you know, making sure that, you know, what you make a decision on today still is the right decision for you two years, three years, five years down the road and beyond.

Well, when you haven't heard from your age and, you know, five years, 10 years, it's a file, you know. So you really want to be cognizant about the people that you're looking to do business with. You know, I tell my folks, you know, if we're not talking at least once or quarter, you know, we're not doing the, we're not doing the consumer justice. You know, even it's just checking, hey, how you doing? Because life happens, right? You know, we like to not think about the, you know, downside.

But, you know, there could be things like, you know, a new grandchild is born. Somebody just graduated college and grandparents or parents want to do something, you know, and, you know, through the power of insurance, that can be made. So great, great points. And I really appreciate you bringing those up to a Chavisky. What's the best way that someone can reach out and connect with you and learn more? Yeah, you can go to my website. It's www.w.w. My Insurance Professional, all one word, my insurance professional, all one word.com. Go to my website there and you can peruse. You can basically fill out some information if you want an overview or whatever it is that you're seeking. We'll get that form and we do our best to get back to you within 24 hours. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you.

Thanks, Mike. I really appreciate you. 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.