NU Online News Service, Oct. 31, 2003, 5:25 p.m. EST – Many life insurance agents are reserving judgment about the effects of this week's merger agreement between Bank of America Corp., Charlotte, N.C., and FleetBoston Financial Corp., Boston, but one says he is waiting for the other shoe to drop?in the form of layoffs.
"I haven't yet digested how it might impact me as a professional," says Mitchell Marcus, president of Marcus and Associates, Hingham, Mass., a life agency near FleetBoston's home base. "The only thing that sticks out in my mind is that Fleet is a major player in Boston. How many jobs will be lost to the local economy remains to be seen."
A spokeswoman for Bank of America says the company has not yet decided whether there will be employee cutbacks if the merger goes through. The banks hope to close the deal in the first half of 2004.
Another insurance agent in Bank of America's home base was more sanguine about the effects of the deal on his community.
"I think it's good," says Steve Grice, president of Grice Financial Group, Charlotte. "It helps the local economy and area. Charlotte has grown tremendously because of banks like Bank of America and Wachovia. What's good for the banks is good for Charlotte. I think this [merger] will bring in jobs and more stability."
Neither Bank of America nor FleetBoston sells a significant amount of life insurance, although each is in the top 10 U.S. banks in sales of annuities, says Kenneth Kehrer, head of Kenneth Kehrer Associates, Princeton, N.J., a research firm. Kehrer does not disclose sales data for individual banks.
