Whether your clients need to change their address or make a withdrawal, changes to contracts after they’ve been issued can be a headache. But they certainly don’t have to be. When you know what to expect, you can be prepared and organized so you can meet your client’s needs while saving valuable time.
Changes to Contracts After Issue
If the client would like to make a change to the contract, such as changing the beneficiaries on the contract, their address of record, or their name, or adding a joint owner, they would utilize a Non-Financial Change form or Ownership Change request form.
Changes of this manner typically take 7–10 business days to be processed and are made effective with the carrier. For most of the carriers we work with, the changes listed must be made in writing and cannot be made over the phone.
RMDs
Clients are eager to satisfy their RMD requirements at the end of the year, making for a busy January and February. Don’t get caught off guard when it happens! Be prepared.
RMD paperwork can be found on our carrier’s websites. Once we receive the RMD paperwork from the agent, we scrub the forms, then send them to the carrier. These forms on average take 5–7 days to be processed.
The client has the option to receive funds in the form of a paper check or funds can be direct-deposited into the bank account. Checks are mailed via regular mail and take 5–7 days to be delivered, whereas direct deposit takes 2–3 business days to be deposited into the client’s bank account.
Withdrawals (Other than RMDS)
If the client would like to make a withdrawal on their contract other than their RMD, they would simply fill out a withdrawal request form for the appropriate carrier.
Withdrawal paperwork is processed in a similar manner as RMD paperwork. One of the main differences with these forms is the client has the option on the withdrawal form to specify how much they want to withdrawal from their policy. Withdrawal requests can typically be made by the client over the phone depending upon the carrier. This is the quickest way for a withdrawal request to be processed, as these requests are honored within 24–48 hours.
Reallocation Requests
Reallocation requests are sent directly to the client from the carrier 30 days before their contract anniversary date. The forms must be sent to the carrier before their anniversary date to be processed and before an allocation change can be made. Once a change has been made to the client’s allocations, the carrier will send a confirmation letter to the client via regular mail.
If you ever have a question regarding your client’s contract, please feel free to give me a shout or shoot me an email to ajohnson@impactpartner.com.
