Throughout a long history, SBLI USA Mutual Life Insurance Co. Inc. has been selling life insurance through banks. But now it is broadening its distribution push into its own retail outlets.
Called customer centers, the mall-based storefronts are to give customers information and access to SBLI USA products. The centers are part of a plan for the New York-based company to expand nationally, said Dennis McIntosh, its chief financial officer and an executive vice president.
“We looked for the most appropriate way to expand across the country,” Mr. McIntosh said, and “we wanted to be where the people were.”
The centers will not replace the company’s plan to continue expanding bank distribution, however, and this already includes relationships with 40 banks, including large ones like Wells Fargo National, he said.
The company’s first center was opened last year in Puerto Rico, in the Plaza del Sol mall in Bayamon, Mr. McIntosh said, and has generated $8 million of premium.
On Friday, SBLI USA opened its first mainland U.S. center, in the Walden Galleria Mall in Buffalo. The company already has 30,000 policyholders in the Buffalo area.
SBLI USA’s products are offered through three bank insurance agencies in metropolitan Buffalo: First Niagara Securities Inc., which is owned by First Niagara Savings Bank; M&W Agency Inc., owned by Evans National Bank; and Charter One Securities Inc., owned by Charter One Bank.
The company is researching the idea of opening a similar center in the Chicago area, Mr. McIntosh said, and will consider other large population centers, too.
“We will see in terms of our investment and investment returns where we would open in the future,” he said.
The customer centers have kiosks where customers can take financial self-assessment quizzes, learn about SBLI USA’s products and services, and get insurance quotes. The centers also have play areas, with games and plasma TVs to entertain children while their parents are occupied.
The center in the Walden Galleria employs five associates, including several licensed insurance agents who can supply information on insurance products and planning, do financial needs analysis, and issue policies.
The company’s products, including its term life insurance and whole-life policies, are available through a variety of distribution channels.
From 1939 to 2000, the company sold its products solely through banks as part of the Savings Bank Life Insurance system, which was created to offer low-cost life insurance to working-class people. Since then SBLI USA has opened distribution channels such as direct mail, telemarketing, and the Internet, as well as more banks and the new centers.
Mr. McIntosh said the centers will demonstrate support for the communities that SBLI enters.
The brand recognition that will come from being in a public place like a mall could also help sales through other channels, he noted.
He said the company is committed to letting the centers develop sales over time and considers them part of a long-range plan. SBLI USA’s technology infrastructure will also help make the centers more efficient, he said, because overflow phone calls from the call centers can be routed to mall center employees who are not working with customers.
In addition to its insurance products, SBLI USA’s services include Cash DeluxeSM, a single-premium, tax-deferred annuity. And through a partnership with Chela Financial, with its AcademicEdge(R) Loan, the insurer offers access to a line of educational loans.
Carmen Effron, the president of CF Effron Co. LLC in Westport, Conn., said the plan has potential but that consumers would have to become comfortable with the storefronts before they begin to buy insurance there. This could take time, she said.
SBLI USA has long been committed to selling insurance to working- and middle-class people, she said, and “in terms of where their clients are, [a mall] is a good place for them to be.”
However, she predicted that people would need a few exposures to the centers before they choose to buy insurance there.
But even if they take a while to generate much in sales, the centers can become an important advertising and marketing venue, she said, bringing the SBLI USA name to more consumers.
