Savings Bank Life Insurance Company of Massachusetts says it has introduced an "instant issue" term life insurance product that will be easier for banks to sell.
"We think we need the transactional product to be competitive in the banking channel," said Robert Sheridan, the president and chief executive officer of SBLI in Woburn, Mass. "Banking customers want instant gratification." The company sells insurance products through more than 400 banks in New England and the Middle Atlantic states.
It announced the introduction last Thursday of InstaTerm, which has a simplified underwriting process that requires agents to enter customers' answers to nine questions onto a Web page and get instant responses. The whole process takes about 20 minutes, SBLI said.
The product is distributed through the SBLI Insurance Agency, a unit of SBLI. Face amounts range from $25,000 to $150,000.
The InstaTerm product is underwritten by Empire General Life insurance Corp., a subsidiary of Protective Life Insurance Co.
Mr. Sheridan said that SBLI chose to use an outside underwriter because of Empire General's experience with this kind of product. However, he said, SBLI might consider taking on some of the risk from these policies in the future.
SBLI offers a variety of products, mainly life insurance, through banks, some of which sell them directly and some of which make referrals to the company.
John Potyraj, the director of marketing at SBLI, said the simplified product would help encourage banks to start selling SBLI insurance or prompt those who just do referrals to start offering it in their branches.
"It's an opportunity to get their feet wet in selling life insurance," Mr. Potyraj said. Some banks have shied from the product because of its perceived complexity, he said.
Mr. Potyraj said SBLI did a pilot test this summer in 10 banks and has so far gotten strong expressions of interest from institutions, though he said some banks have taken more time than anticipated to get the product to consumers.
In addition, Mr. Sheridan said, the product may also bring referrals to SBLI for more complicated life insurance products.
Savings bank life insurance was conceived by a Boston lawyer, Louis D. Brandeis - who later became a U.S. Supreme Court justice - as a way to get life insurance to a broader group of people.
In addition to selling through banks, SBLI also offers its products through Plymouth Rock Assurance Co. agencies and certified public accountants in Massachusetts, through southern New England AAA offices, and by telephone to residents of the six New England states and Pennsylvania.
SBLI also offers its products to New Jersey residents through members of the New Jersey League of Community and Savings Bankers and to Virginians through an alliance with the Virginia Bankers Association. And it offers discounted automobile insurance to SBLI policyholders in Massachusetts through an affiliation with Plymouth Rock Assurance.
