A big thank you to our sponsors who keep this newsletter free to advisors:

If you have a client paying $100k or more in taxes this year…

Roger Roundy of Strategic Associates can help them cut their IRS bill like a ninja with a ginsu - and then give you opportunities to write VERY high premium finance and life insurance cases with the savings. 

One Tennessee advisor referring his clients to Roger has grown his income from $100k in revenue to $1.1M per year…all from his partnership with Roger!

Click here to reach out to Roger if you have a client with a $100k+ tax bill now before it's too late and 2024 is here!

🎵 I get knocked down, but I get up again…

Iowa pilot Troy McCormick is back in action after an unexpected avian intrusion turned his routine helicopter flight into a feathered nightmare. 

The adventure involved an unlikely collision with a bird that shattered his windshield mid-flight, covering the cockpit in a burst of feathers and blood. 

Despite the chaos, McCormick skillfully landed the chopper admitting, "Knocked me out for a little bit, I think." 

How’s that for resilience?

– Team Advisorist

In Today’s Issue 👇️ 

• Are you making this big mistake with your website?

• 7 most Googled life insurance questions

• Tennessee advisor’s 10X revenue secret

🤔 7 of the Most Popular Questions People Asked Google About Life Insurance in 2023

Want a quick snapshot into the psyche of your prospects?

Study the questions they’re asking on Google.

In 2023, here were 7 of the most popular life insurance questions people searched for:

1. Is life insurance taxable?

2. Is life insurance worth it?

3. Is life insurance tax-deductible?

4. Is life insurance taxed?

5. Is life insurance a good investment?

6. Is life insurance an asset?

7. Is life insurance taxable in [state name]?

Do you see any trends?

I think there are two pretty obvious ones:

☑️ Trend #1: Tax Ramifications of Life Insurance

4 out of 7 questions have to do with taxes. People want to know how it’s going to impact them or their loved ones from a tax standpoint.

This is valuable context to have when you enter into a sales call. 

The more you can speak to the tax advantages of individual life insurance products and clear up confusion, the more likely people are to take action.

☑️ Trend #2: Life Insurance as an Investment

The other 3 out of 7 questions have to do with the value of life insurance as an investment vehicle.

With the ups and downs of the larger economy this year, more people are looking for secure investments. 

Being able to speak to the value of life insurance within a larger portfolio will allow you to frame it up in a more powerful way.

Headline Roundup

🏠 Affecting Your Clients

• Clients Must Plan Ahead With ‘17 Tax Cuts to Expire After ‘25 [CNBC]

• 2-of-3 Expect to Have Better Financial year in ‘24 [INV]

• More Retirement Savers Are Borrowing From Their 401k’s [CNBC]

📈 Markets & Economy 

• Oppenheimer Calls for Bullish 2024; S&P to 5,200 by End of ‘24 [MW]

• Experts Say The Fed Could Achieve a ‘Soft Landing’ Afterall [CNBC]

• Economist: Mortgage Rates to Fall to 6% by End of ‘25 [MW]

💼 Industry Roundup 

• Yahoo! Ranks 15 Best Business Insurance Companies [Y!]

• 72% of Advisors now Leveraging Artificial Intelligence [BP]

• New Challenges Facing Financial Planning Industry in ‘24 [SIA]

Sponsored

😲 Accidental Intro Launches Tennessee Advisor From $100k – $1.1M a year… Every Year

I want to tell you about my friend Roger Roundy, who is a tax planning specialist in beautiful Utah.

(Seriously – this guy’s office has a panoramic view of snow-capped mountains – and I’m kinda jealous.)

And he has a toolbelt for helping high income earners crush their taxes – particularly toward the end of the year with the clock running down.

Roger has something like 407 different advisors that he works with across the U.S.

That includes Tony J. – an advisor from Tennessee who has a handful of clients who are dentists making $500k-$700k per year.

The two were lucky enough to meet at an event a couple of years back, where Roger explained exactly what he does – which is this:

• When an advisor has a client who pays ~$100k or more in taxes, they refer the client to Roger

• Roger helps the client reduce their tax liability  by taking advantage of effective and unique tax mitigation strategies. 

• Roger then recommends that the client allocate those savings to investment or insurance products (with the advisor) to add to their legacy

Sounds simple enough, right?

Well, Tony now refers all of his high-income earners to Roger for tax planning and is on pace to 10X his business.

Yes, you read that right.

Tony was making $100k per year before adding this outsourced tax planning “arm” to his business.

This year, he’s expecting to make roughly $1.1M in revenue.

And Roger is looking for more advisors, just like Tony, who he can help.

So…if you have any clients that are planning to pay 6-figures in taxes this year – whether it’s ordinary income or from a liquidity event – Roger wants to hear from you.

Click here and fill out the short form! 

P.S. Time is of the essence here. Once December 28th or 29th rolls around, it’s difficult to squeeze this sort of tax planning on. You need to connect with Roger ASAP.

❌ The Big Website Mistake That’s Costing You Leads

85% of websites take longer than 5 seconds to load.

Nearly half of all websites take 6-10 seconds.

Why does this matter? 👇

• Research shows that 37% of visitors bounce when a website takes longer than 5 seconds to load.

• In fact, pageviews take a nosedive right around the 3-second mark (while bounce rates skyrocket).

As an advisor, you spend a lot of time thinking about how you can get in front of prospects.

But generating website traffic isn’t the only metric of success.

If you want to maximize the value of the traffic you’re procuring, you have to speed up your site.

🏁 Here are some quick tips for speeding up your site:

• Minimize HTTP requests

• Minify and combine files whenever possible

• Choose a faster website host

• Enable compression of files

• Enable browser caching

• Reduce image sizes

Not sure what any of this means? 

👉 Hire a web developer on Upwork.com and give them this to-do list. It’ll only take them a few hours.

🗓️ Upcoming Industry Event Calendar

• Thursday:  How to Become a Doctor, Dentist or Business Owner Magnet

• Jan. 8-12: 58th Annual Heckerling Institute On Estate Planning

• Jan. 13-15: Global Financial Planning Institute’s CONNECT 24

• Jan. 15-18: AICPA PFP Summit

🤖 Tech Tip

Most of us know how to pull up an emoji on our smartphone keyboard.

But what about when you’re writing an email or posting something online? 

Well, there’s a simple little shortcut that brings up an emoji keyboard on your desktop 👇

• For Mac keyboards: Press CTRL + CMD + Space

• For Windows keyboards: Press Windows key + . (period)

✌️Good Vibes

Third grade students at Cumberland County's Sunnyside Elementary were asked to pen essays inspired by the mantra of “Think Big. Work Hard. Be Kind. No Excuses.”

They were told that the 3 best essays would win a brand new bicycle, courtesy of Olde Fayetteville Insurance & Financial Services.

But in an unexpected act of kindness, the students found out that all 80 students who wrote essays would be getting shiny new bikes.

According to a representative, these bikes were a “small token of appreciation for a semester of hard work and character development.”

It’s an act of kindness that won’t soon be forgotten by 80 smiling faces and their families!

Sharing looks good on you.

When you copy that link at the bottom and share it with a few financial planning colleagues, you look like the smartest advisor in the room by keeping them informed.

Plus, you earn rewards. Sweet.