Banc Of America To Sell A Jefferson Pilot Annuity

September 30, 2001 at 08:00 PM
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Banc Of America To Sell A Jefferson Pilot Annuity

By Trevor Thomas

In a move that could significantly boost its sales of annuities, Jefferson Pilot Financial, Greensboro, N.C., has inked a deal with Banc of America Investment Services, Inc., under which the investment firm will sell JPFs new single-premium deferred annuity.

Banc of America will make the product, the Premier 5 Annuity, available to its clients in 18 states and the District of Columbia. The firm is a non-bank subsidiary of Bank of America, San Francisco. JPF is an arm of Jefferson-Pilot Life Insurance Company, which ranks 15th in fixed annuity sales through banks.

Premier 5 is a single-premium deferred annuity with a market-value adjustment, featuring a five-year interest rate guarantee and surrender charge schedule. The interest rate and surrender charge schedule reset every five years. The Premier 5 also offers guaranteed return of premium and free partial surrenders up to 10% each year. It also provides a nursing home and terminal illness waiver in most states.

"Banc of America Investment Services is a top-notch organization, and we are gratified that our annuity product fits so well into their marketing plan," says Michael Denton, senior vice president of financial institution marketing for Jefferson Pilot Financial. "We are excited about the potential for benefit to their clients, as well as to both our companies."

Banc of America Investment Services, the retail brokerage affiliate of Bank of America Corporation, has more than 925,000 clients with more than $73 billion in assets. It operates about 265 full-service offices in 20 states.

Paul Mason, a spokesperson for Jefferson Pilot, estimates conservatively that the addition of Banc of America as a marketing partner could add 8% to 10% annually to its annuity sales.

"It could easily be even more," notes Kenneth Kehrer, head of the bank-insurance research and consulting firm bearing his name in Princeton, N.J.

Last year, he says, Jefferson Pilot sold $369 million in fixed annuities, while BoA totaled $1.5 billion in annuity sales. The implication of that kind of volume for Jefferson Pilot is vast, he says.

"Even if they get just 10% of Bank of Americas annuity sales, that would represent an annual increase to them of 41%," Kehrer says.

He adds, however, that the market-value aspect of Annuity 5 might be a weakness in todays market. Unlike with a book-value annuity, the investor could wind up getting less than the expected accumulated value, if the stock market turns down.

"It shifts the risk to investors rather than the insurance company," says Kehrer. "Plus, the formula looks complicated to the investor."

That could make it hard to sell to conservative buyers, he notes.


Reproduced from National Underwriter Life & Health/Financial Services Edition, October 1, 2001. Copyright 2001 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.


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