Good Neighbor Podcast: Rochester
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Rochester
Good Neighbor Podcast: Rochester
EP#96: Dyers Group with Erich Dyer
Ever wondered about the complex maze that is insurance planning? Want to ensure you and your loved ones are sufficiently covered for life's unpredictable challenges? Our guest today, Erich Dyer, an industry veteran, is just the person to guide you. He's not your average insurance guy - he's about comprehensive protection planning using tools like life insurance, long-term care, disability insurance, and annuities. He shares his journey into this field, his personal experiences, and the reasons behind his unique approach.
Erich busts common myths about life insurance and highlights the pitfalls of solely relying on employer-provided insurance. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for everyone out there - whether you're new to this world or already have your plans in place but need a fresh perspective. Erich's wisdom, born out of his vast experience and personal life lessons, could be just what you need to review and buttress your plans. So don't miss this enlightening conversation with our good neighbor, Erich Dyer. Let his story and expertise guide you to make informed choices for your future.
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lisa Swiftney.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone and welcome to episode number 96 of the Good Neighbor podcast. Today we have with us Good Neighbor Eric Dyer, and he is with the Dyer's Group Insurance. So, Eric, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3:I am good it's good and quiet over here today.
Speaker 2:Oh well, that's good. So let's start off by telling our audience a little bit about your business. What do you do?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Well, you know, the easiest thing to say is I do insurance. But when you say insurance home, you know ensuring houses and cars come to mind right away. But I do more insurance planning. I use life insurance, long-term care insurance, disability insurance and annuities Big fan of annuities.
Speaker 2:That is great, and it's not. It's more than just your basic insurance.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, correct. I don't know if it's too early to mention this, but I mean, I used to work with financial advisors, and financial advisors would call me up when their clients needed these products and I would send them on the right path. I would introduce to them the right companies or the right products or the right strategies, and after a while I decided to go do this for myself. So that's what we do here.
Speaker 2:So tell our listeners about your journey. How or why did you get started in this business?
Speaker 3:Well, you know I like to joke that. You know I was always trying to find out what I wanted to do when I grew up, and you know so I've always been in different types of sales. But after a while, you know, I started a family and I thought, well, I want to do something more close to home. And my brother was working at a company that, like I mentioned earlier, provided these types of products to financial advisors. He said, hey, we get to stay home. You have to meet a lot of folks in your area. Why don't you give it a shot? And that was, you know, almost 10 years ago, and it's interesting how life plays out.
Speaker 3:It just so happened that, you know, my grandparents lost quite a bit of money in 2008, because they were fully invested in the market. You know, there wasn't, there wasn't, they didn't have a lot of safe options, or they weren't offered a lot of safe options by their financial planner. And Don't get me wrong, I work hand in hand with financial planners. There's thousands of great ones right in this area. But what I offer now I was able to Now address that. You know, make sure I could protect a portion of their assets.
Speaker 3:When they got too old, they got priced out of their current long-term care policies. Likewise, my mother provided the lion's share of care for her parents when they needed Care at the end of their life, and that's something long-term care insurance would have helped them with. A lot of this was before I was in the industry, so I have, you know, looking back, there were a lot of options my family could have been aided with these types of products I offer now and I like to help other families avoid the same type of trouble that I went through and you know, finally being a father, you know, if, god forbid, something ever happened to me, uh, life insurance would be invaluable to my wife. So it's. It's all these little life lessons and and things were what kind of brought me to where we are today.
Speaker 2:And that is an incredible journey. Thank you for sharing with us. Yeah, so can you tell us about any myths or misconceptions you hear about in your industry?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, you know, first and foremost, a little bit life insurance. A lot of folks are like, well, you know I have it through my work, I don't need it.
Speaker 3:Well, that's great. I always tell people absolutely get as much as your work will offer, max it out. It's always the cheapest form of life insurance you can get. The only problem is is if you change careers, change jobs or retire, you lose that life insurance generally, and as a rule it's usually anywhere between three and five years of your income. But your family will probably need your income for longer than three or five years. So it's always definitely nice to get some more life insurance.
Speaker 3:But I would say probably the biggest myth or misconception is, uh, with annuities. There are a lot of different types of annuities out there and most people they, you know the first thing. The thing they say when I bring up is I don't like annuities. Well, I ask them Do you like pensions? And sure everybody loves pensions. Well, I can promise you that any pension out there in the world right now is in some type of annuity. Annuity is simply a vehicle to pay out a pension or to earn safe, um and steady growth for your money. Now there's other types called variable annuities, and we don't have to get into those. But those are different and people often get those misconstrued. So, um, usually jumping on the I hate annuities train is is very quick and something I I often uh educate on.
Speaker 2:Wow, and I did not know that, so I learned something there today, so thanks for sharing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no problem.
Speaker 2:So what do you like to do for fun when you're not working on your business?
Speaker 3:Well, that's an interesting question. Um, I don't have a ton of time. Um, I do. I like to tell my clients that I'm always open right nights, weekends, because some you know, I don't want people to worry about their money when they can't get hold of somebody. But I have six children and I'm happily married, so time-wise there's not too much of Fun time, but I can guarantee you I have quite a bit of fun with all these kids and the family at home.
Speaker 2:Right, and you have six wonderful beautiful children, so Wow.
Speaker 3:They're all right. I tell people I have extra, but they're all right.
Speaker 2:I like them. I love your facebook posts, so thank you. So can you describe for us one hardship or life challenge that you rose above and can now say Because of that challenge that you're better for it and or stronger?
Speaker 3:Well, you know not to lean too hard on the you know the last question, but I, um, I never thought I would, uh I would, get married or be a father. I just didn't think it was something I would do or I was cut out for and, um, it almost seems the minute I was going to be the fun uncle to my, my nephews, that I, you know, I met my wife, we got married and a couple years later we had our first child, and now we have six and I think being a father is one of the toughest but most rewarding things and it really teaches you patience, right, because a lot of times what we're doing, we're teaching. In our jobs, we spend a lot of time teaching. No matter what you do, really you're teaching people. You know you're either you're training somebody or you're, you know, helping them understand something, and I think being a father or a parent really lends to that.
Speaker 2:That is a really, really good testimonial there, because, yes, as parents, we are doing a lot of teaching, mm-hmm, yeah. So getting back to your business, what is one thing that you want our listeners to know about your business?
Speaker 3:Well, I could go on and on and I know we're short for time. But I would honestly say that even if you have a financial advisor, I and I agree, I think most people should always talk to an insurance specialist, because it's hard to be a jack of all trades as a financial advisor. There's a lot to know already, and then you add the world of insurance, it gets very difficult. So it's always good to have, you know, another professional in your back pocket. So I would say, you know, talk to a professional about your life insurance, about maybe an old annuity you have or, you know, if you don't know what you have in your current annuity. And then you know, disability insurance is always helpful to those self-employed people. So it's always have a professional and just if you know a good one, they'd probably be happy to take a look at what you have and not try to sell you something.
Speaker 2:That is good. So our listeners are intrigued. Now they want to give you a call and have you take a look at what they have. How can our listeners contact you?
Speaker 3:Well, you can always check my website. It's just wwwdiarsgroup, that's D-Y-E-R-S groupcom. Or you can reach me directly, honestly, just about any time at 586-580-8487.
Speaker 2:That's great, Eric. Thank you so much for your time and being a guest today on our Good Neighbor podcast.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you for having me it's. I really appreciate you, lisa, and what you do. It's always nice that you know how hard you work, that you know bringing people together in the area.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast, Rochester. To nominate your favorite local businesses To be featured on the show, go to gnprochestercom. That's gnprochestercom, or call 248-988-9640.