Many U.S. life insurance distributors told a survey team that they ended up doing well in 2020, and again in 2021, in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.
About 60 brokerage general agencies and independent marketing organizations filled out questionnaires for LIMRA and the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies in September 2021.
Despite the effects of the pandemic, 43% of the participating BGAs and IMOs said their revenue was higher in 2020 than in 2019, and 22% said their revenue was about the same, according to the LIMRA-NAILBA survey report.
Just 35% of the participating firms said their revenue had decreased.
The picture was even brighter in 2021: 77% of the participating distributors said they expected sales to be higher for all of 2021 than in 2020. Just 8% were expecting revenue to decrease.
The BGAs and IMOs are hungry for talent: 77% said one of their top three business priorities is growing their networks of producers and advisors.
Producer/advisor network growth was the distributors' favorite business priority.
Just 2% of the distributors said they were cutting the number of employees in 2021.
Survey Constraints
The LIMRA-NAILBA survey was voluntary.
