You're already a client, so this page is the boring-but-useful one: how to change things, who to contact, and what I need from you. For anything here, you can just call me — but if you'd rather know what's involved first, here it is.
What you might need
Change your beneficiaries
The single most important thing to keep current, and the one people forget. A policy pays whoever is named on it — not whoever should have been. Divorces, births, deaths and estrangements all change the right answer.
What I need: your name, the policy, and the full name and date of birth of the new beneficiary. There's a form; I'll send it and walk you through it.
Update your payment details
New bank, new card, or a payment that bounced. Worth handling quickly — a lapsed policy can be more difficult to reinstate than people expect, and with some products the original rate is gone.
What I need: a call. I'll never ask for banking details by email or text.
Get a copy of your policy
Lost the packet, or want a digital version for your records. Easily done — I keep a reference sheet for every client with policy numbers and coverage amounts.
What I need: just ask — email me or call. I'll email it the same day.
Tell me you've moved
Life insurance follows you and nothing changes except your address. Medicare is different — moving outside your plan's service area opens a Special Enrollment Period with a limited window, and missing it can mean waiting until the fall.
What I need: your new address, and ideally a heads-up before the move rather than after.
Add or increase coverage
New baby, new home, new business, a raise, or simply the realization that the original amount was conservative. Increasing usually means a new policy alongside the existing one rather than editing it — and it's priced at your age and health today, which is why sooner beats later.
What I need: fifteen minutes, and a rough idea of the change.
Your annual review
I reach out, but you're welcome to start it. For Medicare it matters most in the fall, before Annual Enrollment closes on December 7. For life insurance it's a shorter conversation: does the amount still fit, are the beneficiaries right, has anything changed.
What I need: a call, or a reply to my reminder when it lands.
Making a claim
Your family calls me — not a claims department. I know your policy, I fill in what I can, and I chase the carrier so your family doesn’t have to.
The Medicare year, at a glance.
The two windows that come round every year, and when we talk.
Two things worth doing today
- Make sure someone knows the policy exists. Unclaimed benefits are more common than they should be, purely because a family never knew to ask. Tell your beneficiary, and tell them my number.
- Save my details in your phone. Work 213-314-3473, direct 872-336-6244, and my email is now contact@victorkolbe.com. Add me to your contacts in one tap, so you know it’s me when I call. If your family saves only one of my numbers, that’s enough.
My email address has changed
Everything now comes from and goes to contact@victorkolbe.com. The old Gmail address still reaches me, but this is the one worth saving. And worth saying in the same breath: an email announcing that an address has changed is exactly the trick scammers use. So do not take it from an email, including one that looks like it came from me — this page, on my own site, is what to check it against.
How to know it’s really me
Three checks, any one of which is enough. This website lists every number, address and email I use. My business card matches it exactly. And my license is public: search Kolbe on the Florida Department of Financial Services’ licensee search, or use my National Producer Number, 21585300 (California license #4498730).
How I’ll never contact you
Worth stating plainly, because scams targeting seniors are relentless. I will never ask for your banking details, Social Security number or Medicare number by text or email. I won’t call demanding immediate payment, and I won’t threaten you with losing coverage if you don’t act right now.
If something claiming to be from me feels off, hang up and call me directly at the numbers above. You will never annoy me by checking.