Meeting Consumer Demands for Life Insurance

Banks and credit unions pride themselves on providing the best advice to their customers and living up to the expectations they set forth in their mission statements.  Each institution feels they have a unique value proposition to articulate. We see thousands of these various brand promises on advertisements or commercials that promote their unique proposition to drive customer acquisition. All have common themes: strength, uniqueness, customer focused, high expectations, and excellence.  Each institution tries to convey in a few simple words they are the one that will help you achieve financial wellness.  So if all of these institutions say they are there be the best partner to help you achieve your goals, why are consumers falling short on their insurance needs?

An article published by LIMRA in 2017 identified that many banks and credit unions are not meeting the life insurance needs of their customers and members.

  1. The two primary explanations that Americans give for not owning life insurance is that they think it’s too expensive or they have other financial priorities
  2. More than 4 in 10 consumers say they haven’t purchased life insurance because they don’t know how much they need or what type to buy
  3. Almost half of millennials say they don’t buy life insurance because they haven’t been approached by an agent

Diving into these statistics, we can safely conclude a perception exists that life insurance is not affordable.  Banks and credit unions have an obligation to educate and to provide insurance products that meet the budget constraints of their customers and members.  Failing to do fails the individuals who rely on their institution for advice on and access to life insurance.

When half of millennials are uninsured or underinsured because they are waiting on someone to proactively approach them about a specific product, the institution also fails a vast majority of their customers or members.  If the ratio of licensed agents to the thousands of customers or members is extremely small, market demands will not be met.  The only logical choice is for banks and credit unions to market insurance products to the masses through data modeling to ensure needs are met.  Financial institutions that neglect to do so suggest they are not living up to their advertised slogans.