Crump Life Forms New Brokerage Partnership With MetLife
May 21, 2013 by Fran Lysiak
Insurance brokerage Crump Life Insurance Services has formed a new partnership with MetLife.
Under the partnership, Crump will provide brokerage services, underwriting and sales support to MetLife’s financial sales professionals. Representatives from MetLife and its affiliates can access a portfolio of non-proprietary products for their clients by using Crump’s services and technology.
MetLife is “one of our leading carrier partners for product distribution,” said Brian Winikoff, president of Crump Life Insurance Services, in a statement. Adding brokerage services to MetLife’s advisors “strengthens the strong partnership between our organizations,” he said.
U.S. life insurers seeking an effective way to sell policies to wealthy individuals, families and business owners are increasingly turning to brokerage general agencies such as Crump Group, National Financial Partners and M Financial, among others (Best’s News Service,Jan. 10, 2011). BGAs represent multiple life insurers and offer independent agents a one-stop shop for life insurance, annuities and retirement planning.
“By partnering with us and leveraging our scale, they can deliver this platform on a lower-cost basis and with broader solutions than by building it themselves,” Winikoff said.
MetLife markets its U.S. products and services through various distribution groups, according to BestLink, A.M. Best Co.’s online financial system. Their life insurance and retirement products targeted to individuals are sold via sales forces, comprised of MetLife employees, in addition to third-party organizations.
By broadening its distribution of individual life and annuities, the company now markets products through independent agents, financial institutions, independent broker/dealers and third-party marketing organizations acquired through a series of acquisitions and startups. While A.M. Best expects the sales activities in these alternate distribution sources to continue to expand and generate an increasing proportion of overall sales, the company is still strongly committed to supporting and improving its core career agency system, according to BestLink.
Crump will provide MetLife’s financial professionals with access to a “top multi-career distribution platform,” said Paul LaPiana, senior vice president, individual distribution of MetLife, in a statement.
In early 2012, BB&T Corp. was planning to expand its insurance operations by purchasing Crump Life Insurance Services and Crump Property/Casualty Insurance Services, for $570 million (Best’s News Service,Feb. 3, 2012). The transaction was expected to close in the first quarter of last year. The deal did not include Crump’s retirement services business, Ascensus.
Crump Life says it links a network of about 200,000 financial services sales professionals with products designed by 100 insurance companies. The firm supports sales and back-office support services through 1,100 employees across the United Sates.
(By Fran Matso Lysiak, senior associate editor, BestWeek: fran.lysiak@ambest.com)
