Another insurance chief has left a developing bank insurance program.
Marcy Holowiak, a senior vice president and director of financial planning and insurance services for Citizens Bank of Rhode Island, stepped down suddenly two weeks ago after just four months on the job.
A bank spokeswoman said the departure was for personal reasons; she cited a Nov. 4 letter Ms. Holowiak wrote to her staff in which she said her children were having difficulty making the transition from Connecticut to Providence, R.I. "I felt it was necessary to adjust my career schedule temporarily to accommodate this," the letter said.
Ms. Holowiak could not be reached to comment.
Her departure was the latest in a string of turnovers at banks that are building insurance programs.
A few weeks ago, Carmen F. Effron, who was developing BankBoston's insurance program, left for undisclosed personal reasons. And in the past two years, other top bank insurance executives have been coming and going. Though some departures were tied to personal circumstances, some industry observers contend that the turnover is often related to difficulties that many bank insurance programs have in meeting the expectations of upper management.
Ms. Holowiak was a district manager at EQ Financial Consultants Inc., the Greenwich, Conn., financial planning unit of Equitable Cos., before joining Citizens. She was hired by the Rhode Island bank to develop insurance and financial planning operations under the umbrella of Citizens Financial Services Inc., the bank's three-year-old brokerage unit.
The bank is still evaluating products to offer in four New England states, the spokeswoman said.
She said Citizens is looking for a successor to Mr. Holowiak and "there's absolutely no change to the job description."
The bank expects the program to begin marketing products early next year, the spokeswoman said.
Executives with insurance backgrounds often have a tough time succeeding in a bank environment, said Valerie Jordan, a bank insurance consultant in Belchertown, Mass.
