In most households, there are any number of items you can find tucked away in the back of a closet or deep in the garage and forgotten. Why were they purchased? They served a need at the time. Are they still needed? It’s likely no one has asked that question in recent memory. These things are out of sight and out of mind. 

There’s a financial asset that often receives the same treatment. It was acquired for a very explicit and important purpose, but it’s been relegated to the back of a filing cabinet. Not only has no one asked if it is still needed, but it may also not have been discussed or looked at since it was acquired any number of years ago. 

The asset?  

Life insurance, of course.

Unlike the forgotten box in the garage, however, a life insurance policy isn’t just taking up space. It represents an ongoing financial decision—one that may deserve far more attention than it typically receives.

The reluctance to think about a life insurance policy is easy to understand: Most don’t want to contemplate their own mortality. The truth is, however, that the best conversations around existing life insurance are focused on other things. More specifically, those conversations ask the same question most avoid about the avalanche of Amazon purchases accumulating in the back of their garage: 

Why am I keeping this thing, and how can I generate value from it?

In some cases, it’s obvious: I still have loved ones who depend on me for income, business or estate planning needs. If that’s the case, doing nothing could be the best course of action. But if those needs have changed, then continuing to not only retain the policy but continue to pay premiums each and every year can mean missing a significant planning opportunity.

If the Amazon purchase is no longer needed, it’s tempting to just toss it in the trash. But in today’s world, the phrase “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” has never been truer. Facebook Marketplace. Buy Nothing. eBay. Poshmark. The Real Real. Goodwill. All ways to not just get rid of something, but to extract some value from it when you do or at least keep it out of a landfill.

The current life insurance market is remarkably similar. It’s evolved to the point that advisors have more options than ever to preserve, reposition, or realize client value from an existing policy without waiting for the insured’s death.

That’s why insurance reviews are so critical. Do they represent a new revenue opportunity? Of course. The real value is what they can mean to the client with an asset like life insurance hiding in plain sight. They can mean the difference between a term policy simply expiring versus a conversion that secures a client’s legacy. They can transform a cash-rich, under-leveraged policy into a much larger death benefit or a care funding strategy. 

If there is one thing clients are not, it is insurance experts. Conversion privileges? Never heard of them. 1035 Exchanges? Isn’t that a real estate thing? Life Settlements? Never heard of them.

In most cases, they haven’t thought about their life insurance in years. Prompting that discussion separates the insurance advisor from the insurance agent. 

Be the advisor.

Clients don’t expect their advisor to have every answer.

They expect their advisor to know which questions are worth asking.

Something along the lines of “When was the last time you thought about your life insurance policy?”

For many clients, that single question opens the door to conversations they didn’t know they needed—and planning opportunities that had been hiding in plain sight all along.