Outsource Insurance - Managing life insurance portfolios to improve performance and reduce financial and fiduciary risk

Why Attorneys, CPAs, and Financial Advisors partner with Outsource Insurance Services

Estate planning attorneys and CPAs recognize the need for life insurance policies to be reviewed but are frequently reluctant to refer the client to an insurance agent to review the coverage for a variety of reasons. Outsource offers a solution to this problem with an independent Life Insurance Audit and Review Service not engaged in promoting retail insurance.

For advisors: Policy Reviews of Your Clients' Life Insurance - Why you should make it part of your standard estate planning process

Frequently Asked Questions

I am not an insurance agent or expert. Why would I bother to refer my clients to Outsource Insurance Services to get their life policies reviewed?

There are several reasons why you would want to have your client get a policy review:

It is likely that your client's policies are not what the client thinks they are. For more information about educating your client, please see our Resources page for the document “Why You Need a Life Insurance Policy Review”. We have prepared a copy of this document specifically for you to download and share with your clients.

A policy review benefits you as an advisor because you want to do a good job for your client and be assured that the total estate plan works. If the insurance lapses, fails, or doesn't perform as the client expects, your plan won't work. If the client says he has $1,000,000 of 'second to die' insurance, but, unbeknownst to him, the policy will lapse at age 89, this is a significant issue that affects the plan. Both you and the client will want to know that and then decide on a solution. This is information which Outsource Insurance provides to you and your clients.

You may not be legally liable for basing a plan on faulty information provided (inadvertently) by your client, but it's obviously better to point out these problems than to let them go until it is too late and have unhappy clients or heirs calling you

Are you suggesting I have a fiduciary liability related to the performance of my client's life insurance?

Clearly the trustee of any ILIT that you set up has fiduciary liability. As your client's trusted advisor, you need to make sure that their trustee has been properly informed of their responsibility. Have they been advised of the importance of reviewing the policy periodically? Most non-institutional trustees are poorly informed about the possible risks of trust owned life insurance.

You are the attorney, and it is best that you consider your own liability. We do recommend that you have clients sign a “release form” that releases you from any liability related to planning based on their representations of their insurance because you are not involved in the sale or the management of their policies and are basing your planning on the information that they provide.

We also recommend that you send a letter to the Trustees of your clients' ILITs and to the insureds recommending a policy review. Of course, if you wish to direct them to Outsource or the Outsource website, we will assist them and keep you informed of the policy performance.

Don't the agents who wrote these policies service them and inform the insured of potential problems?

Many of the problem policies are involve seniors whose agents have retired or died. In a study of thousands of TOLI policies, over 40% did not have contact with an agent.

Some of my wealthy clients do not have their insurance policies in an ILIT. Do they also need a policy review service?

Definitely. The risks posed to non-trust owned life insurance policies, especially if they were issued more than 10 years ago, are equally serious, and it is likely that your clients will not be well informed about the potential problems.

Why would I refer a client to Outsource Insurance Services instead of a local insurance agent?

Outsource specializes in this Review/Restructuring/Remediation service and does not solicit retail clients or market to the public. Your client will feel no sales pressure, which is, according to many studies, one of the primary reasons clients and advisors are resistant to using insurance agents.

By referring your client to an institutional policy management service, your client knows that you are not just recommending him to an agent, but to a company that performs this service for Trust Companies, Businesses, Non-profit organizations. The only individual clients that we serve are select clients referred by attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors. Your client will respect that and appreciate your referral to our service.

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