My client looked at the calculator results and said the numbers seem too good to be true. How do I respond to that?
Good. A skeptical client is a thinking client. That reaction is healthy, and it gives you an opening to build credibility rather than just close. Don't push back on the skepticism. Walk through it with them.
Start by agreeing with the spirit of the question. You're right to ask. These numbers are a projection, not a guarantee. They're built on the numbers you just gave me, which are your actual premium and your actual loss history. The calculator applies a captive structure to your real data and shows you what the financial picture could have looked like. It's not made up, and it's not a sales tool designed to make captives look better than they are. It's a starting point for a real conversation.
Then address where the variability comes in. The projection assumes your performance stays roughly consistent with your history. If your losses go up in a given year, the underwriting profit goes down. If your losses stay clean, you capture more of it. The calculator shows you the potential based on what you've actually done. It can't promise you that the future mirrors the past. No financial model can.
Here's what helps with a skeptical client. Point to what's not projected. The expenses shown are real. The captive management fees, the fronting carrier cost, the taxes and audits. These aren't estimates. They're known costs that show up in the proposal as specific line items. There's no hidden margin working against your client in a captive. Everything is visible. That's actually the opposite of how the traditional market works, where your client has never once seen a breakdown of where their premium went.
If your client remains skeptical after that conversation, that's worth exploring. Ask them directly: What would you need to see to feel confident this makes sense? Sometimes the answer is they want to talk to someone who's already in a captive. We can arrange that. Other times, they want to run the full submission and see the actual proposal before they decide. That's exactly the right next step.
Skepticism isn't a no. It's a request for more evidence. Give them the evidence.
It's always your client. Never ours.
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