Direct response selling of life insurance is the fastest growing segment of the life insurance industry today. Each year a higher percentage of overall life insurance sales can be attributed to some type of direct marketing effort.

More than $300 million in life insurance premium is initiated each year from direct response efforts and direct sales of life insurance represents as much as 10% of all policy sales on an annual basis.

Our President, Pat Wedeking, is the founding President of the Life Insurance Direct Marketing Association (LIDMA), what was once considered a "non-traditional" form of life insurance sales is now becoming a major source of new business.

"Our industry has embraced a shift in customer behavior and preference in how they want to address their life insurance needs. Some want to feel more 'in control' of their insurance decisions, many want to save their time and others simply want their insurance protection in force in a more timely fashion."

The growth of the direct sales niche can largely be attributed to a void direct marketers are filling, especially with middle income earners. Statistics from the American Council of Life Insurance Fact Book show that Americans are dangerously underinsured and the opportunity for large volumes of sales is tremendous. In 2004 some 12,581,000 individual permanent and term life polices were purchased, virtually the identical number purchased almost 30 years before. Over the same time period there was a 38% increase in the U.S population base of 293.7 million in 2004, as compared to 212.6 million in 1975 - yet the number of policies sold remained consistent. Consumers need this service.

According to LIMRA, the Life Insurance Market Research Association, in 2004, one-third of adults in the U.S. carry no life insurance at all. Those that do carry life insurance have less than half of what they need to just replace their income until children are out of the home. Although there has been an increase in group insurance with ownership rising from 25% in 1976 to 37% in 2004, there is still a large and growing segment of the population which is not being served and life insurance direct marketers are ideally positioned to occupy this niche.

Most exciting for us is that we can now see growing indications that consumers want it. InsuranceOnly and the direct response life insurance industry has adapted to a continued change in customer behavior towards more remote, direct buying. While there continues to be strong demand for traditional face to face advice for consumers, the growth of direct response sales in our industry shows that there is an incredible opportunity to serve the otherwise underserved middle market.

For years the industry has cannibalized each other with replacements and rolling business to new products. Actuaries and Reinsurance companies have caught on to this and there is a large movement toward obtaining new clients. Direct Response is the best way to do just that. Once a new client is obtained, the value of that client to an insurance professional is significant. Additional products and services can and are being sold as LIMRA reports that consumers buy from us at least seven times in their life.

Some of our company's early successes involve working with top carriers to incorporate new processes and operations enhancements to better service the volume of direct sales policies. Technology is very important to this niche as it makes things more efficient and effective for everyone…InsuranceOnly is an industry leader in this regard.

As life insurance professionals we can never loose sight of the fact that our products are a vital part of the security of the consumers we serve. We want to get more policies in force efficiently because we know that by doing so we are helping to protect more individuals and families while earning a substantial income for ourselves.

Next >> Lead Generation