BancWest Corp. has welcomed a life insurance partner back into the fold.
The $55 billion-asset bank’s retail investment unit distributed Safeco Corp.’s life insurance products until the latter sold off that part of its business in 2004 to focus on its property/casualty operations. Now that the divested company, Symetra Financial, has become established in its own right, BancWest has resumed selling its products.
“We made no effort to move money away from them,” said Brad Grubb, the chief executive officer of BancWest Investment Services, which has $7 billion of assets under management and 150 financial advisers. “We just wanted to know their future direction before we did new business.”
In addition to putting Symetra on its list of preferred product providers, BancWest is handing its partner responsibility for training platform bankers in investment sales. BancWest will also use Symetra’s financial needs analysis tool, “Income for Life,” Mr. Grubb said.
“They have good products and a good story,” he said. Symetra is a good fit because it focuses on retirement-oriented products and BancWest is working to boost its retirement offerings, he added.
Symetra, which was bought in a $1.35 billion deal led by White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc., sells retirement plans, annuities, life insurance, and employee benefits.
The deal with BancWest gives Bellevue, Wash.-based Symetra another big bank distribution partner as it reestablishes sales momentum, which suffered after Safeco’s announcement in 2003 that the unit was for sale.
In addition to BancWest, the insurer sells its products through banking companies including Washington Mutual Inc., Bank of America Corp., and U.S. Bancorp.
Symetra had $22.18 billion of assets at yearend 2004, according to its annual report, and $20.98 billion at yearend 2005. The press release announcing the BancWest relationship said that Symetra’s “insurance company subsidiaries have nearly $20 billion in assets.”
Besides the bank channel, the company also sells through independent insurance agents, benefits brokers, and financial advisers.
Rod Halvorson, a senior vice president of business development at Symetra, was not available to comment; a company spokesman described the deal with BancWest as “part of broadening our distribution in the banking channel.”
When Safeco sold its life insurance and investments unit, it explained that the businesses had not performed as well as their competitors. The mutual fund unit — with 22 portfolios and $3.1 billion of assets under management — was sold in 2004 to Pioneer Investment Management Inc. of Boston.
Symetra will train BancWest’s 350 licensed platform bankers on suitability and product needs analysis, said Mr. Grubb. Other product providers will then educate the bankers about their proprietary products.
Income for Life, which will replace BancWest’s proprietary financial needs analysis, aims to ensure that customers don’t outlive their money, Mr. Grubb explained.
“In today’s environment, with costs being what are and the fact that many people have not saved very much, you find yourself in a situation where you have to come up with different strategies,” he said. “This lets us show in a paper format or online a very intelligent, step-by-step approach to generating income in retirement.”
Symetra has worked hard to build a respected bank distribution business. It hired Mr. Halvorson, who previously headed the bank distribution group at MetLife Investors, in October 2005.
Last January it bolstered its bank business development effort by hiring several executives, including Edward Van Hoorebeke, previously the national sales manager and a senior vice president at Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.’s distribution arm. Mr. Van Hoorebeke became the national sales manager and a senior vice president in the financial institutions division at Symetra.
In March Symetra announced it had hired Thomas G. Waters to be a senior vice president for new business development in the financial institutions channel. He had been a senior vice president at Invest Financial Corp., directing new business development at the financial planning firm.
