Roughly 78 million strong, baby boomers represent the largest population segment in American history, and more than 10,000 of them reach age 65 every day—and will through 2029. Boomers are now between 50 and 68 years old and there is much our industry can do to help them. There is still significant time for many to accumulate assets to fund retirement, to protect their income during these crucial top-earning years, to make retirement income plans that are sustainable throughout life for those entering the disbursement stage, and to transfer risk in order to protect assets in the event of a critical illness or long term care event. The insurance industry has myriad products designed to help these clients face an uncertain future with relative peace of mind. Six approaches to serving this market are explored by our focus authors in this issue.
Brokerage general agent marketing and study groups trace their roots as far back as 1961 with the formation of the SUB Centers study group, created “to promote high ethical standards and to increase efficiency and cost effectiveness through the standardization of materials and methods. To foster an interchange of ideas that might benefit each member and better serve the life insurance industry through the collective talents of all.” The organization was born at the end of the boomer generation, and I certainly hope they are still active and strong beyond turning age 65 in 2026!
Originally formed as networking groups to advance the best practices, proficiency and professionalism of their member agencies, these study groups also counted advances in agent education, carrier relations and underwriting savvy as early accomplishments. From these roots sprang the marketing groups with the additional member benefit of production aggregation to maximize compensation.
Today’s marketing groups have evolved into much more than simple aggregation organizations. They are not only embracing but driving innovation in product, service and technology to the mutual benefit of carrier, BGA and broker. Marketing groups now, to varying degrees, offer their member/partner agencies not only diverse product offerings but shared marketing expertise, service enhancement and expediency experience, best practices refinement, technology insight and infrastructure, case management and advanced sales support, sales training ideas and assistance, education, processing, and not only internal underwriting consultation, but also assistance through, in many cases, vastly enhanced and extensive carrier underwriting department relationships. Most marketing groups today take great pride in honoring their carrier relationships with consistent efforts to increase both the quantity and quality of business submitted, committed to viewing the relationships with carriers as partnerships rather than vendor/customer arrangements.
In this issue we provide an overview of 24 of these marketing and study groups to provide both BGA and agent a glimpse of each group’s stated purpose and opportunities.
The artist(s) formerly known as the LIFE Foundation has unveiled a new look, complete with a new name and a newly redesigned website. LIFE will now be called Life Happens, aligning the organization more closely with its online presence best known to consumers and the industry—lifehappens.org. The move coincides with the organization’s 20th year of striving to reach the millions of Americans who are inadequately insured and inspire them to take personal financial responsibility through the ownership of life insurance and related products.
“In the 20 years since we were first founded, a lot has changed in how we communicate to, and interact with, the public, and it made sense to align our organization with how people have come to best know us—through our online presence,” said Marvin H. Feldman, CLU, ChFC, president and CEO of Life Happens. The new brand links the nonprofit organization with its strongest assets—the lifehappens.org educational website and social media properties.
The redesigned www.lifehappens.org is mobile-friendly and prominently features a new, interactive planning tool to help visitors find insurance information based on their specific stage in life, as well as easy access to online insurance needs calculators and video stories from real people conveying the emotion behind the reason to purchase a policy.
Life Happens has also created a distinct online destination for industry professionals to make it easier to find the information, marketing resources and customizable tools relevant to them—simply by clicking on the “Company and Agent Resources” button on the home page or via www.lifehappens.org/industry.
In addition to the familiar Life Happens initiative Life Insurance Awareness Month in September, Life Happens also is responsible for Disability Insurance Awareness Month—May. In our April issue we presented a DIAM planning panel, aided in no small part by the Life Happens organization and friends Mike Keenan, Maggie Leyes and Cindy Gentry, whom I thank again. [SPH]
