Agents Look To Beat Banks At Their Own Game

Insurance agents who don't want to surrender their independenceby selling their firms to a financial institution can stillcapitalize on the opportunities offered by the cross-selling ofbanking products, industry officials note.

For example, new to the scene to help independent agents marketbanking-related products is Capital Avenue.

Sandy Deeley, chief executive officer of the agencyAtlantic/Smith, Cropper and Deeley, LLC of Ocean City, Md., isfounder of a commercial banking product program. Based in New YorkCity and Hartford, Conn., he said Capital Avenue can provideindependent agents with financial products for their clients overthe Internet, and receive referral fees for doing so.

The banking services, handled by National Cooperative Bank ofWashington, works through a co-branded Web site that allowscustomers continuous access to products and services, available inall states. (More information is available at www.capitalavenue.net.)

Meanwhile, a bank created by an insurance association to makebank products available through independent agents is expanding itsreach. Assurance Partners Bank, the savings bank of the NationalAssociation of Mutual Insurance Companies, received approval at theend of July to begin doing business in all 50 states, said ScottPoore, vice president of marketing for the bank.

The Carmel, Ind.-based bank, near NAMIC headquarters, is seen asan alternative for agents feeling the heat of competition from bankacquisitions and direct writers banking services, and who want toprovide banking products for their clients, Mr. Poore said.

With 250 agencies on board today in 19 states, Assurance islooking to aggressively move into the West and Midwest and buildits agency list to 300 by the end of the year, Mr. Poore noted.

(For another perspective on the advantages of agents gettinginto banking services, see page 14 for a story by the president ofInsurBanc, chartered by the Independent Insurance Agents ofAmerica.)

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property &Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, October 15, 2001.Copyright 2001 by The National Underwriter Company in the serialpublication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as anindependent work may be held by the author.

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