Annuity Distributors Back Increased Agent Mobility

By Allison Bell

News November 05, 2024 at 11:49 AM

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A field marketing organization is highlighting the value of flexible distributor relationships for life and annuity agents.

The FMO, Annuity.com, has started a web-based list for FMOs "who have agreed not to hold agents who request a release" after the agents have said they want to move their business elsewhere.

Agents "should be able to choose the best partners without worrying about unnecessary roadblocks," according to Brett Blake, the Gilbert, Arizona-based firm's chief executive officer.

So far, just one other company, ECA Marketing, has joined Annuity.com in agreeing "not to hold agents ransom."

Annuity.com is the same company that organize a Change.org petition to oppose FMO efforts to restrict agents' ability to switch to other distributors. The petition attracted 196 signatures.

The firm is still trying to round up signatures for the online petition.

The history: In the past, typical life insurers had their own distribution organizations that recruited, hired, trained and supervised networks of career agents.

Today, many life insurers have eliminated career agent operations, and a policymaker belief that agents should offer clients the best products for their needs, regardless of the provider, has increased pressure on life insurers to favor independent distributors over career agency networks.

FMOs now provide many of the services that the career agency operations once provided, and officials at the U.S. Department of Labor have suggested that, eventually, if the department can implement a regulation imposing a fiduciary requirement on the agents involved in some annuity sales, FMOs and other marketing organizations would take the lead both in managing agents and in offering the agents large, broad, high-quality product menus.

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