Ramoth Watson’s next chapter - Insurance veteran authors two books after 34-year career

Life insurance is known as one of the hardest products to sell, with a first-year failure rate of over 90 per cent among sales agents, it is reported.

The intangible nature of life insurance and the reluctance of people to readily discuss the subject of death, among other issues often lead to consistent rejection from prospects.

One critical contributory element, it seems, is the lack of understanding among the general public of how life insurance really works and addressing that component could make the process of selling and buying life insurance much easier.

Ramoth Watson spent 34 years in the life-insurance industry, joining Mutual Life Assurance Society in March 1990 and exiting in June 2024 with Sagicor Life Jamaica Ltd, the last seven years as branch manager at the Ocho Rios location.

He knows the industry and has not only worked to elevate himself but also to help others climb the ladder of success.

Now, having left his managerial position in the industry, Watson has found a way to continue serving it with the publication of two books: More Than Just a Payout – How Life Insurance Builds Security and Opportunity, which is a revised and expanded edition of its initial 2025 release; and Prime Time Living – A Baby Boomer’s Guide to Purpose, Passion, Fulfilment and Legacy.

In More Than Just a Payout, Watson reveals how life insurance is much more than inheriting death benefits and shows that it can provide security, create opportunities, protect families, and support financial goals.

In Prime Time Living, Watson explores how baby boomers (people born from 1946 to 1964, the post-Second World War period, and now aged 62 to 80) can embrace retirement with renewed passion and purpose while building a fulfilling and meaningful legacy.

The books are geared at filling the crucial gaps that prevent many sales agents from achieving their goals and that lead many people to reject life insurance owing to insufficient knowledge of the product. The publications are also useful for students pursuing finance degrees.

PLATFORM FOR GOOD

The road to these publications is filled with experience and knowledge gained from the life-insurance industry, which Watson used as a platform for good.

What also spurred the publication of the books is that for over two decades, Watson moderated the licensing course for the life-insurance business and realised that the cohort of students each year knew little or nothing about life insurance.

“We always feel a sense of achievement when we manage to change lives,” Watson told The Gleaner as he reminisced about his career.

“There are a number of cases where I would have helped a grieving widow continue to live in her home or continue to assist her children through school.

For personal achievement, I managed to educate my children, and I managed to also develop other persons’ careers.

“There were a number of persons who I recruited and managed to help them to change their whole perspective on life, and, also, some of them developed into managers. That gave me a level of satisfaction because I believe that you have not succeeded until you’ve developed successors.”

“In my seven years as branch manager at Sagicor, I developed two managers, and another was on the cusp of being recruited when I was about to leave, and since then, he has been promoted.”

About More Than Just a Payout, Watson said: “Life insurance has a vast array of benefits other than just giving a payout – and that’s encapsulated in this book which is currently available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.”

The response to the book has been positive so far, he said.

“Initially, I did a fair amount of marketing, and I got a good response, and when I go anywhere to speak and bring a box of books, I sell them off to financial institutions,” he said. “If people knew more about life insurance maybe salesmen wouldn’t have to work so hard because it would be easier to sell if people knew all the benefits of life insurance.”

The other book, Prime Time Living, touches on the topic of retirement and post-retirement living.

“What I realise is retirement means different things to different people. Some people see their retirement as a burden, and it evokes a lot of emotions, one of which I refer to in the book as separation anxiety because their identities were tied directly to their careers, and once you remove that identity, they feel lost. So, for that reason, a lot of people struggle with separation anxiety – some people are estranged from their family, some people were so caught up with work that they didn’t do anything above and beyond work, so now that they don’t have work, they’re lost.”

The book cites a number of cases where people would have retired and reinvented themselves, enabling them to start other businesses and begin to accomplish things they never thought possible.

“It is just amazing the things you can do when you have a better understanding of the lay of the land,” Watson concluded.

carl.gilchrist@gleanerjm.com