A "Virtual Insurance Department"

Because Capitas has no retail clients, the firm devotes its time to helping advisors “fulfill their life insurance needs”–both business and personal, Mohr says. Capitas has 49 offices and 160 salespeople throughout the country, and is adding about five salespeople per month. Mohr says Capitas “insurance advisors” are increasingly helping career agents at insurance companies who are morphing into investment advisors get a handle on tricky insurance areas.

In the not-so-distant past, “there were always just life insurance agents,” Mohr says. But now, agents at firms like Northwestern Mutual Insurance Company–which recently changed its name to Northwestern Mutual Financial Advisors–are juggling investments as well, and need some assistance on the insurance side. About “50% of the revenue that Northwestern Mutual agents earn comes from investments,” Mohr says. Northwestern Mutual insurance agents “that were once our competitors are now [Capitas's] customers because they’re less familiar with how to handle the complicated insurance needs” of their higher-net-worth clients.