New building. New approach. New opportunities!
These are themes driving National Western Life through 2018.
After 40 years in our previous location, the company moved to a state-of-the-industry facility in an emerging area of always vibrant Austin, TX. With the new campus comes a renewed commitment to excellence for all stakeholders—employees, distributors, advisors and policyholders.
And speaking of new, please allow me to introduce myself as the recently installed Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for National Western Life. My career path and the company’s direction intersect at a challenging yet exciting time in our business. Here’s what drives me every day as CMO—maintain NWL’s leadership position as an annuity product innovator and significantly increase continuous life insurance premium. I know of only two ways to do that: Increase sales volume from our existing distribution and find new distribution.
National Western Life will do both in 2018.
For our current distribution, primarily National Marketing Organizations (NMOs), we’re streamlining our annuity portfolio, aligning our regional sales directors both geographically and relationally, building out our sales desk with additional staffing for more outreach to advisors and implementing a call center approach (onsite) for enhanced servicing of all aspects of our business.
These initiatives and others will better position NWL for a greater market share from our current distribution partners.
But until recently there were many stones unturned for additional outlets for the Company’s products. Of particular note is National Western Life’s extraordinarily strong financials distinguished by ratings affirmations from AM Best and Standard and Poor’s. Our ALIRT score is unrivaled by most carriers. This strength, coupled with our broad product portfolio, has the company in position to enter new markets.
This year we have established four distinct distribution channels to harness the full production potential of National Western Life: National Marketing Organizations, General Agencies, Financial Institutions and Multi-Cultural markets. Each of these divisions will have a channel head populated by some of the best in the business, including familiar faces from National Western Life and our industry.
While there is a common fuel that drives each of these sales engines, products and technology, there must also be specialized expertise and approaches to earn premium flow. NWL will have that in intellectual capacity and technological capability. Now to the fuel that powers the engine.
Technology: InsureTech is a spectra that, instead of haunting traditional insurance companies, can give them just enough of a jolt to sharpen their competitiveness. We’re not frightened. 2018 will see NWL embracing multiple E-App platforms, integrating reflexive underwriting for point-of-sale life insurance approval, and subscribing to financial institution portals for electronic submission of applications and funding. Our policyholders will be able to conduct more paperless transactions as we phase in the next stage of our new fully integrated administration system.
Annuity Products: As mentioned earlier, we’ll be streamlining our portfolio so each product and its consumer centered features can be easily identified. But we will never stop innovating. As of this writing, our Dynamic Series is debuting. The series will feature shorter durations of seven and 10 years but some of the most generous liquidity in the marketplace—like cumulative withdrawals and policy loans. A unique withdrawal benefit rider that charges only when the benefit is triggered will be widely appealing. NWL is also offering some new index-linked allocation strategies to both new and inforce business to strengthen the long term value our company and its products can bring to the consuming public. And, for the first time ever, National Western Life will be illustrating its annuity products.
Life Products: The life business is the foundation of my career—starting as a personal producer, to general manager, to company executive. NWL is a market leader in single premium life and we will be introducing this product through our new distribution channels. The company will introduce both mortality and accumulation products with broad appeal. Some of these will be customized for specific distribution. Others will be available at large. We recently enhanced our illustrated rates by as much as 55 bps thanks to the collective efforts of our marketing and actuarial teams. That’s just a down payment for building a very consumer-relevant life product portfolio. Central to this expansion is integrating “new fashioned” and “old fashioned” underwriting for efficient risk selection and pricing. We have the skill set for both.
Our new head of Multicultural Sales will take full advantage of NWL’s international distribution experience. Over the years, National Western Life has accepted applications from as many as 40 different countries. On staff we speak multiple languages. The infrastructure to service and support our international business will be expanded to include multicultural sales opportunities domestically.
Any discussion of 2018 would be incomplete without mentioning the DOL Fiduciary Standard. As most of you should know, DOL is here and now. Financial advisors must follow a best interest protocol when dealing with their clients’ qualified funds. The Best Interest Contract (BIC) which requires additional burdens and responsibilities for financial institutions overseeing advisors has been delayed. National Western Life views this as a reprieve and not a commutation. This gives all of us additional time to adequately prepare for what may be headed our way.
Planning a trip to Austin? Then you have an open invitation to visit National Western Life’s new headquarters. But you won’t have to see the new building to experience the new approaches we are taking and the new opportunities National Western Life is providing. You can do that wherever you are and whenever you want! [BW]
