CEOs Ponder Career Agency System

"We are committed to general agency distribution in the foreseeable future as long as it provides the growth we seek," Sargent said.

The career agency system "can be a terribly costly form of distribution if turnover is high and productivity is low," Sargent noted.

But Sargent observed that career agents appeal to upscale buyers who value trusted advisors, and he suggested that a national drop in the number of career agents presents an opportunity for Guardian.

David Stonecipher, chairman and CEO of Jefferson-Pilot Corp., Greensboro, N.C., the only publicly traded company represented on the panel, said several distribution channels are important to his company.

Jefferson-Pilot is selling at 10 times the rate it did nine years ago, in part because of a reliance on several distribution systems, Stonecipher said.

More than 80% of Jefferson-Pilot's business comes from its personal producing general agency system or its managing general agency system. Stonecipher noted that Jefferson-Pilot also manufactures products for Vanguard Group, Valley Forge, Pa., and Allstate Financial Corp., Northbrook, Ill.

"We accessed all the systems that we could," Stonecipher said.

The audience also weighed in on distribution.

Only 6% of the participants said direct marketing was very successful, while 58% said it was not successful.

Only 8% of the participants expected to sell much life insurance directly over the Internet in the next five years. Twenty-five percent rejected the idea of selling life insurance through the Internet. Another 49% conceded that Internet sales might be possible, but they insisted that consumers still want advisor advice.