Thinking about starting your own franchise? In that case, you should know that life insurance franchises are absolutely booming in 2022 and beyond.
Running a franchise is like running any other business. If you want to be successful, you need to provide your customers with what they want. Now, more than ever, people want good life insurance.
What has changed to make life insurance so popular? What other reasons make life insurance franchising the right choice? Keep reading to discover the answers!
Lower Life Expectancy
Life insurance is designed to protect against the unexpected. If someone should pass away without warning, they want to know that their loved ones will be taken care of.
That brings us to one grim reason life insurance has become more popular: lower life expectancy. In fact, the Insurance Information Institute (III) reports that life expectancy at birth went “from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77.3 years in 2020.”
To put that in perspective, the life expectancy rates had been continually growing from year to year before that. And this particular dip in life expectancy was the worst one in America since World War II!
The Threat of COVID-19
There is no great mystery about what lowered the life expectancy rate so much. Thanks to COVID-19, hundreds of thousands of people have died who would otherwise have lived longer (in some cases, much longer).
It’s a bit morbid, but COVID has reminded many people that they could die at any time. This has prompted more people to embrace life insurance when they otherwise wouldn’t. For example, the III reports that 31% of the general population was more likely to buy insurance now than before the pandemic. Additionally, life insurance is more attractive to younger demographics like millennials. According to the III, millennials are 45% more likely now to buy life insurance.
At the end of the day, this is the primary reason that there has never been a better time to start a life insurance franchise. With demand higher than ever, this is the perfect time for your franchise to provide the supply.
The Attraction of Term Life Insurance
If you don’t know much about life insurance, then COVID making life insurance more popular may seem confusing. If someone gets sick with the virus, isn’t that going to cause their insurance rate to go up?
It all depends on what type of insurance they get and when they get it. In this case, healthy consumers have a powerful incentive to get term life insurance.
You can effectively lock in a life insurance rate for long periods (usually up to 30 years) with term life insurance. Because of this, consumers have an incentive to get a lower rate while they are younger and healthier and then not worry about a price increase for decades.
In other words, somebody worried about COVID could take out a life insurance policy today and then contract the virus tomorrow. But neither COVID nor anything else that happens during the term of that person’s insurance coverage will increase the price.
Loss of Employer Coverage
Many who have life insurance coverage at all have it through their employer. But this, too, got disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some businesses had to shut down temporarily due to local or state orders. Other businesses stayed open but suffered a decline in business due to customers trying to avoid going out. The end result was that employers across the country no longer needed so many employees and had to let people go.
With the loss of an employer came the loss of employer life insurance coverage. However, threats like COVID haven’t gone anywhere. So plenty who lost their previous coverage would be interested in getting more coverage through your franchise.
Life Insurance Franchising: Why Now?
There are plenty of existing life insurance carriers that have thrived throughout the pandemic. So that brings us to the next big question: Why should you start your own life insurance franchise?
First of all, life insurance is one of those products everyone needs. While COVID helped younger people realize the need for life insurance a bit earlier, the truth is that everyone in your community and surrounding area is a client waiting to happen.
Second of all, many customers prefer to work with a local business. When it comes to something serious like their life insurance, they don’t necessarily want to call a number and speak to a bored customer service rep hundreds of miles away. They’d rather speak to someone who lives and works in their community.
Finally, starting your own life insurance franchise gives you a chance to do things better than the competition and gain more customers. For example, if you are willing to hold video calls with current and prospective clients, you can win over people who want to speak face-to-face with a local but are nervous about visiting your physical office.
Franchising: Easier Than Ever
The final reason you should start a life insurance franchise is simple: This is the single best way for you to start your own business.
For entrepreneurs, you get to have your cake and eat it, too. Franchises are easier to finance, easier to start, and easier to run, especially with your franchisor providing a support system. As a result, you get all the best benefits of running your own business with far fewer headaches.
You can look forward to a booming and successful business by providing something as crucial as life insurance!
Start Your Own Life Insurance Franchise Today
Now you know why this is the perfect time to start your own life insurance franchise. But do you know who can help bring this dream to life?
Here at Freeway, we make it easy for entrepreneurs just like yourself to go into business. To see how we can help you get started, all you have to do is contact us today!
