Up by double-digits at close of Q2: NY Life’s sales gains

Also up is the company’s expanding sales force. New York Life recruited more than 1,500 new agents through the first half of 2015, the company notes in its press statement. The insurer is on pace to mark its ninth consecutive year of hiring more than 3,200 agents. 

In addition, the size of New York Life’s productive agent force has grown this year by approximately six percent, driven by agents serving the women and cultural markets. Since 2005, the company has seen its productive agent force grow by 42 percent.

Other highlights from New York Life’s earnings report for the first half of 2015 include:

• The solid growth of recurring life insurance premium came from the company’s suite of permanent products – whole life (up 15 percent), universal life (up 34 percent), and variable universal life (up 12 percent);

• The number of life insurance policies sold through agents continued to rise, up 5.6 percent through the second quarter of 2015, indicating strong interest from consumers in protection products;

• Year-to-date growth in recurring premium life insurance, the number of new policies and productive agents were up country-wide, in all four of the company’s national regions;

• The company is also seeing growth in various cultural markets, with 51 percent of the company’s new life insurance policies produced by agents serving the African American, Asian Indian/South Asian, Chinese, Korean, Latino and Vietnamese markets in the United States;

• Sales through New York Life Direct, which includes the AARP Operation, increased by nine percent over the same period last year, led by strong life insurance sales; and

• New York Life’s operation in Mexico, Seguros Monterrey New York Life, had a strong first half with nine percent sales growth compared with the same period last year. In addition, growth in productive agents rose seven percent over the first half of last year.