My name is Jeff Sams, and I started in the insurance business in June of 1981. Two years later, I became Managing General Agent with Standard Life, then Regional Director, and finally National Marketing Director in 1988.
In 1983, I started Sams/Hockaday & Associates with John Hockaday, which grew to be 30+ captive agents, and led to the development of New Horizons Insurance Marketing in 1993.
If you were selling insurance back in the day, you knew that our pillar product was Long-Term Care insurance. Believe it or not, I wrote the article “Long-Term Care Sales Are Built on Relationships" in the December 1994 issue of Selling Life Insurance magazine.
What I wrote then still holds true today: "Long-term care (LTC) insurance is a relationship sale. I have found that the sale rarely happens in the first or second visit. [...] The agent cannot be too patient.”
My passion for long-term care has only grown over the years, which led to a huge campaign for Short-Term Care insurance in 2017. I co-wrote the e-book How to Sell Short-Term Care Insurance with Confidence and explained why our focus has shifted away from traditional LTCi.
“Twenty years ago, we wrote tons of long-term care insurance policies. Now, none of us are talking about long-term care. It's expensive, the underwriting is difficult, companies are leaving the market, and rate increases are leaving our clients angry.
There’s a huge opportunity for a resurgence with recovery care, and we really do believe that short-term care is becoming the new long-term care, especially for senior-aged clients.”
My primary role here at New Horizons is securing top contracts for our senior market agents. John calls me the "deals man" because I work tirelessly to get the highest contracts with the most relevant carriers.
