Creative Marketing announced its life insurance division, Creative Life, experienced record sales in 2012 due largely in part to a reconfigured service model and the development of resources to prepare producers for larger advanced markets sales. Creative Marketing is projecting Creative Life to experience solid double-digit growth in 2013 with its increased emphasis in nonqualified deferred compensation solutions for business owners.
Several industry experts anticipated a growing opportunity for experienced agents who can fulfill unique needs in niche markets barring legislation enacted in January to help the country avoid the looming “fiscal cliff.” With the passing of The American Taxpayer Relief Act, agents can now move forward with a firm understanding of IRS provisions on taxes and how those will impact individuals, families and businesses in the future. Creative Life began developing its Educational Series in mid-2012 to get a jump-start on educating its agents about advanced life sales concepts that can be used in combination with this knowledge. Topics include: Nonqualified Deferred Compensation, Life Insurance as an Asset Class, Bank-Owned Life Insurance (BOLI), Supplemental Executive Retirement Plans (SERP), Business Succession Planning, and additional concepts scheduled to be released throughout 2013.
“By listening to our producers and using their feedback to enhance our services and the resources proprietary to our organization, we’re able to create an environment that makes it easy to build and maintain relationships with our producers. Our continued success in the life insurance area is a testament to our commitment to offering producers best-in-class service on all aspects of their business, whether they sell annuities, life, securities or a combination of the three,” said Mike Tripses, president of Creative Marketing.*
These changes were accompanied by a 25 percent growth in staff, consisting of life professionals with dozens of years of industry experience, both in the field and in career agencies. In working with Creative Life, agents benefit from having multiple teams of three designated individuals to handle all of their casework, from the design process and illustrations through application submission and placement. Each team is made up of a relationship manager, a sales consultant and a case manager. These individuals work together and with Creative Life’s concierge underwriters to help streamline the placement process and ensure agents get paid in a timely manner. Because each team is responsible for all business of only a designated group of agents, they can achieve greater understanding of how each agent conducts business and where he or she may capitalize on the largest opportunities for growth.
Numerous agents have taken advantage of this one-to-one consulting environment in combination with Creative Life’s Educational Series to expand into markets they may have previously been unable to reach. As these agents have become increasingly comfortable helping clients use the advanced sales concepts to their benefit, Creative Life has continued to expand its focus and develop materials on additional topics that make sense in today’s economic environment.
“Creative Marketing has put a great deal of time and effort into expanding our life insurance division and positioning Creative Life as an industry leader in terms of exceptional service, tools and resources for its agents,” said Mike Tripses, president of Creative Marketing. “With a growing number of Americans in or approaching retirement, the need for life insurance is prominent. Our new team approach to servicing agents combined with our in-house underwriting capabilities and our resources that help leverage existing relationships continue to draw many of the nation’s top life producers to Creative.”
In addition to the expansion of the Educational Series, Creative Life is working to bring producers in contact with thought leaders from around the industry in 2013 to further their knowledge of how to successfully target these advanced markets and parlay new skills into larger sales.