Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.'s new head of individual life insurance distribution sees a lot of opportunities for the product in the bank channel but says major growth will take time.
Jeffrey Carleton, the new senior vice president and director of distribution in Hartford's individual life division, said, "Banks represent a huge growth market for the life insurance industry." However, he called it "a market that needs to mature over time" as bankers learn how to sell the products and customers realize they can get life insurance from their banks.
Mr. Carleton was named Oct. 22 to the post responsible for sales of individual life insurance through all distribution channels, including wire houses, regional and independent broker-dealers, banks, and independent agencies. The Hartford, Conn., insurer sells life insurance through its issuing companies, Hartford Life Insurance Co. and Hartford Life and Annuity Insurance Co.
In 2003, Hartford sold $196 million of individual life insurance, including variable universal life, universal life, whole life and term life.
The company is also the largest seller of life insurance through banks, based on weighted premium, according to Kenneth Kehrer Associates in Princeton, N.J. It reported bank sales last year of $33.5 million, up 88% from 2002.
Hartford's approach is to build relationships with its distribution channels that require a lot of involvement by its 200-plus sales associates, Mr. Carleton said. This works well with banks, which often lack experienced life insurance salespeople and thus need support from insurers, he said.
"Life insurance sales among bank reps is unfamiliar territory, so it helps to have some assistance in that sales process," he said.
Though sales support is important, strong products are also a key, Mr. Carleton said. Even given strong service, "if there are 20 different options, you can't be 20th on the list in terms of product" and hope to succeed in bank sales, he said.
Mr. Carleton said The Hartford targets both high-end customers and middle-market, mass-affluent bank customers.
The insurer targets the affluent through banks' private bank or broker-dealer operations, he said. But it has also developed a series of products shaped for the middle market that are sold on the platform. They are designed to make it "very easy for a bank rep to close a sale," he said. "We actually do most of the work for them." The rep helps clients answer a short questionnaire, then passes the customer to The Hartford, which handles the rest.
"It's a top-down and a bottom-up approach," Mr. Carleton said. "We think that's key to hitting all the different segments."
To make money selling life insurance to middle-income bank customers requires a technology-driven approach, he said - "a model that doesn't require so much of our account executives' time."
Mr. Carleton came to The Hartford from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. where he was vice president of life insurance sales, responsible for distribution across all channels.
His post at The Hartford was formerly held by Michael Kalen, the senior vice president and director of individual life, who was promoted in April from head of sales and marketing. Mr. Carleton reports to Mr. Kalen and has taken over the sales portion of his former job; John Vaccaro became head of marketing.
