A direct-sales marketing veteran and executive coach wants to help annuity agents pump their sales up.
Brett Blake, the former managing director of Team Beachbody, has acquired Annuity.com Inc. from Bill Broich. He has announced plans to spend $15.7 million to build a platform that agents can use to educate and connect with retirement savers.
Blake said the annuity market clearly needs an agent-driven, education-focused site.
"Studies show that less than 25% of the population even knows what an annuity is," he said.
What it means: Annuities are hot.
Annuity.com: Broich, who started out as an independent life and annuity producer in Olympia, Washington, formed the company that became Annuity.com in 1992. Originally, the company was a field marketing organization.
When the World Wide Web came to life, Broich scraped up the money to buy the Annuity.com domain name.
"It was risky, but I knew the future was the internet," Broich said.
Over the years, he also created SafeMoneyRadio.com, InvitedAuthors.com, RetireVillage.com and SyndicatedColumnists.org. He sold those operations to Blake along with Annuity.com.
Today, Annuity.com provides an annuity agent directory and a library of articles about annuities
