When it comes to recruiting
agents, New York Life (NYL) does not do it in small
measure.
“Our recruiting goal for 2011
is to hire more than 3,500 agents, with continued focus on young
professionals, ethnic communities and recent college graduates,”
said Mark Pfaff, the US mutual’s executive vice-president, in
charge of US life insurance and agency operations.
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He continued: “With more than
40% of American households reporting they need more life insurance
– the highest level ever reported – the demand for professional
agents in local communities across the country has never been
greater.”
NYL’s recruitment drive
follows its hiring of more than 3,300 new recruits into its agency
force in 2010. This brought NYL’s agency force to 11,800 and the
CAGR in the number of agents since 2005 to 16%.
In its 2011 recruitment
drive, NYL is making extensive use of a new, dedicated website on
which prospective recruits can learn about the company, career
options, benefits and training, and view videos of agents and
managers discussing their work and why NYL was the right choice for
them. NYL is also using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube in
its recruitment drive.
NYL is riding high on a
strong performance in 2010 in which it reported a 38% rise in
individual life insurance sales compared with 2009.
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By GlobalDataThis represented the highest
one-year sales increase ever achieved by the 166 year-old mutual
insurer, and dwarfed the 4% increase in individual life insurance
sales achieved by the US life industry as a whole in
2010.
NYL reported that sales by
its agency force had increased by 29% in 2010. Based on agency
force sales in 2009 (the most recently confirmed by NYL), this
indicates sales of $1.04bn. NYL’s total in-force individual life
insurance at the end of 2009 stood at $816bn.
In 2010, sales directed at
specific ethnic groups accounted for 41% of NYL’s new individual
life business. NYL has, since 1996, had a formal unit focused on
African-American, Asian Indian, Chinese, Hispanic, Korean and
Vietnamese ethnic groups.
Almost a third of NYL’s
agency force is dedicated to these groups. In 2010, agents planning
to work in specific ethnic communities represented more than 40% of
appointments.
In addition to NYL’s career
agents, the mutual insurer also provides life products through its
Advanced Market Network of independent insurance brokers, who offer
corporate and bank-owned insurance products, as well as insurance
solutions for high net-worth individuals.
NYL also has an exclusive
marketing arrangement with the American Association of Retired
Persons (AARP) which provides it access to the association’s nearly
38m members.
According to NYL, its
arrangement with the AARP has made it the largest direct response
marketer of life insurance in the US.
The most significant products market to AARP members are
smaller face value life insurance and fixed immediate group
annuities.
