Many of those who specialize in Disability Insurance (DI) do so with more than just the bottom line in mind. We think DI Awareness Month is special because we recognize its fundamental importance to working Americans.

America is about to be swept up in a Silver Tsunami, and the forecast indicates an approaching storm that will linger for decades.

In celebration of Long-Term Care (LTC) Awareness Month, we’ve collected some of our most helpful resources to open the LTC conversation with clients. These robust sales supports not only offer insight into LTC planning but provide ready-to-share communications to help clients understand the importance of LTC planning and the financial protection it offers.

Highland has a dedicated and knowledgeable DI team that provides the expertise, processing support, and advocacy to get cases done expediently and correctly, allowing you to easily deliver holistic, balanced risk management plans for your clients.

There’s no more appropriate time than Life Insurance Awareness Month to ensure your clients’ life insurance policies are living up to expectations.

Highland Capital Brokerage takes the protection of your and your client’s data very seriously. Our organization deliberately promotes a culture of cybersecurity and cyber readiness to manage risk and safeguard data. We are one of the only financial distribution companies that has made a significant investment to become SOC 2 compliant, and continually test and update our cybersecurity capabilities to effectively prevent and combat attacks.

Disability insurance may not be the first type of income protection a client considers, but this critical financial safety net can be an important part of any comprehensive plan by protecting a client's most important asset: the ability to earn.

Reviewing your clients’ life insurance and annuities may be even more important this year than in past years. Life or health changes, economic or financial shifts, poor performing products—any or all of these may be leaving unintended and unnoticed gaps in coverage.  What’s different for your clients this year?

Eligible clients may benefit from the tax advantages qualified charitable deductions may offer.

Discover alternatives to the Stretch IRA for clients who plan on passing IRA assets to beneficiaries.

To rollover or not rollover a 401(k) sounds like a simple question. The answer, however, can be quite convoluted. Let's start breaking it down by addressing a few questions you should ask clients prior to rolling over a 401(k).

Client appreciation events have always been an excellent way to show gratitude to your existing client base, create a loyal community around your practice, and increase referral business. In working with advisors, we've seen a variety of successful events—from a Valentine’s gala for singles, to summer barbeques and carnival rides, to annual family photos with Santa Claus. When done well, an appreciation event not only shows your existing client base a great time, but it also gives them something to look forward to and makes them proud to invite friends.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, which combines stimulus relief for the COVID-19 pandemic and appropriations for the federal fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, was signed into law on December 27, 2020 by President Trump. The Appropriations Act amended section 7702 of the tax code, which defines the term ‘life insurance contract’ for federal income tax purposes.

In your client meetings, which spouse has more influence on decisions? Perhaps you have noticed women are taking an increasingly larger role when couples implement your recommendations.

Not all cases are created equal when it comes to competitive offers from life insurance carriers — especially on the larger, more complicated high net worth cases. More than ever, skilled and specialized underwriting makes or breaks the offer. With carriers becoming more particular about diversifying risk and managing capacity, they are inspecting large cases with caution — requiring more medical data and extensive financial information on applications with considerable face amounts, sizable premiums and complex funding strategies. But it’s not just more information that is required. The information needs to be packaged and pitched to the carriers in a customized way that makes a strong argument for writing the risk. This requires “know-how” in specialized areas of medical and financial underwriting, case design, advanced planning, and marketing. Enter stage right — SWAT Underwriting — the secret to competitive offers.

In her work as a policy review specialist for Highland Capital Brokerage and Premier Trust, a dedicated Nevada-based trust administrator, Peg Michails resolves orphan individual life (no agent of record) and trust-based policies. Her goal: to ensure clients and their beneficiaries get what they were promised.

Our two prior blogposts explored the need for regular and ongoing trust-owned policy reviews and examined methods of valuing underperforming, at-risk policies. This third post explores a potential option when a policy review uncovers a poorly drafted or obsolete irrevocable trust.

Average life expectancy now hovers around age 79 in the U.S. and age 84 in Japan, and it’s rising fast worldwide. By 2030, one-fifth of the U.S. population will be 65-plus. In South Korea, life expectancy is expected to reach 90 years of age. What does all this mean for clients and their advisors? Nancy Simm, our Director of Long-Term Care and Longevity Planning, has spent most of her adult life working in this field and thinking through the ramifications. The upshot? When it comes to long-term-care coverage, everyone should have a plan for it.

After more than 27 years of experience in product development, product support and advanced case design, Tom Ellefsen knows full well how life insurance can function as a wealth transfer, wealth accumulation, business protection or estate planning vehicle. Tom makes it happen for large cases by putting together presentations, packages and illustrations that enable advisors to easily explain what they have in mind for a client.