Axa Financial Inc.'s head of bank distribution has left the firm despite success this year in a channel that has thwarted other companies.
Michael Dibbert, the managing director of financial institutions at Axa Financial in Dallas, left the company Friday, according to Marcia Tierney, a spokeswoman for Axa Financial.
Performance didn't seem to be a reason for Mr. Dibbert's departure, analysts said, because Axa has succeeded where others have failed and has even surpassed some companies that have been in the bank channel longer. Some speculated that an internal reshuffling was the cause.
"As part of our realignment with Axa Distributors, he is no longer with the company," Ms. Tierney said Tuesday. "We are fully committed to our partner banks, and Axa remains committed to providing banks with service and sales within the channel."
Mr. Dibbert was president of the financial institutions division of Equitable Distributors before it was consolidated into Axa Financial last year. At Equitable, he helped get the company into the bank channel with variable annuities in 1997. That year, variable sales through banks at Equitable totaled $88 million, according to the Kenneth Kehrer Associates consulting firm in Princeton, N.J.
More recently, Axa had a very good second quarter in bank sales, with $207 million of variable annuity sales, up from $97 million in the first quarter. However, its fixed annuity sales slipped from $84 million in the first quarter to $50 million last quarter, but Kenneth Kehrer, the consulting firm's president, said Axa's focus has been on pushing variables.
"They've built up their variable annuity business through banks at a time when no one else has been able to," Mr. Kehrer said, adding that other companies, including MassMutual, MetLife, and Sage Insurance had all failed to break in with variable annuities. "Also, they've actually passed some companies that have been at it for 10 to 15 years, like Allianz and Sun Life."
Variable annuity sales industrywide have been down sharply in recent quarters, because of the shaky stock markets. Historically, variable and fixed annuity sales volumes have been about equal. But in the first quarter of this year, the more conservative fixed annuities outsold their variable counterparts by more than three-to-one, according to Kehrer Associates' quarterly study. Its second quarter study has not been completed.
Also, under Mr. Dibbert, Equitable developed relationships with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., FleetBoston Financial Corp., SouthTrust Corp., and Hibernia Corp.
"My understanding was, the position was eliminated, and one can only speculate as to why," Mr. Kehrer said. He called Axa's decision "inexplicable."
Another analyst, who did not wish to be named, said Axa is trying to dechannelize its sales efforts. It wants to deemphasize the distinctions among sales channels, he said.
"Axa has some exceptional salespeople in the bank sales channel, and they have been very successful," this analyst said. "Now the firm wants them to have the freedom to sell across the board. Michael [Dibbert] has been very successful, and he will be a sought-out commodity by firms looking to sell through the banking channel."
Axa was the 16th-largest annuity provider through banks in the first quarter, ninth in variable annuity sales, according to the Kehrer study.
Mr. Dibbert did not return phone messages left at his Dallas office.
Axa has been scaling back recently. In November, the Equitable operation laid off 10% of its work force, cutting its wholesaling staff from 110 to 100 and its bank-dedicated wholesalers from 11 to 10. At the time, Axa indicated that, despite the layoffs, it planned to expand its bank wholesaling force as sales in the channel grew. Ms. Tierney, the spokeswoman, said that cutback had nothing to do with Mr. Dibbert's departure.
