4. Entering Applications

This is the most important page in this handbook. Last year fourteen policies came back returned. Every one was a commission that didn’t pay, a client who was upset or, worse, not covered, and Marisol on the phone with the carrier. Almost all of them were the same three or four mistakes. This page exists so yours never comes back.

Before you submit: the checklist

Run this list on every application before it goes in. Do not skip it because you are in a hurry. Hurry is exactly what causes returns.

The first draft date, our #1 return cause

• Ask the client what day the money is actually there. Say it exactly like that. Do not put the draft on the day they sign; put it on the day the account has funds. An empty account on draft day means the policy cancels in month one. About half of our returns came from this one line.

Replacement form

• If the client has any existing policy and this one replaces it, the replacement form is complete and attached. Lone Star Mutual returns an application with a missing replacement form automatically, every time.

Health questions

• Every health question answered, no blanks. The Lone Star e-app catches blanks; paper applications in the field do not. If you are on paper with Amistad, read every question out loud and mark every answer.

Identity

• Name written exactly as it appears on the ID. One letter off comes back.
• Date of birth matches the ID. One digit off comes back.

How to submit

1. Lone Star Mutual: use the e-app portal, always. It catches missing fields before they become returns.
2. Amistad Life is still partly paper. That is where blanks happen, so the checklist above matters double there.
3. Log the application and its confirmation number in the client sheet the same day.

[CONFIRMAR: exact portal names and links, and each carrier’s underwriting timeline.]

If an application comes back anyway

1. It comes to Marisol, not to you and not to the carrier. That is the rule.
2. She reads the return reason and fixes it with you, so you learn what caused it.
3. You resubmit together.
4. If underwriting asks for more information, you have five days to chase it or the application dies.

After the sale, close the loop

Text the client the same night: thank you, here is my number, the policy arrives in about two weeks. Then check that the first draft cleared in week one. That catches the first-payment problem before it becomes a return.

If you remember one thing

Ask the client what day the money is actually in the account, and put the first draft on that day. That one question would have prevented half of last year’s returned policies.

Next step

Application in and logged? Set the next touch in the client sheet.