Eastern of Mass. to Offer Property Policies

Eastern Bank of Lynn, Mass., will add property and casualty insurance products to its menu through a marketing agreement with a local insurance agency.

The $2.8 billion-asset bank announced last week that Natick, Mass.-based Allied American Insurance Agency would use direct mail and a call center to sell auto, homeowners, and employee benefits to bank customers. The bank's business customers would receive in-person calls.

Allied operates 19 offices in Massachusetts and Connecticut and has about 80,000 individual and business customers. Sales would be conducted under the name Eastern Insurance Agency.

Eastern Bank already has a two-person department selling savings bank life insurance. Though Woburn-based SBLI Company of Massachusetts has struck a deal to sell selected property and casualty products from Plymouth Rock Assurance Co. of Boston, Eastern decided against using SBLI Co. for these products.

"It just wasn't the right situation for us," said K. Mark Primeau, executive vice president of the bank. "We wanted to ally ourselves with a company that would bring a complete line of insurance in addition to our own."

The bank also sells term life insurance and annuities through the third-party marketer Independent Financial Marketing Group of Purchase, N.Y. Eastern Bank plans to expand that relationship to include disability and long-term-care insurance, Mr. Primeau said.