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February 08, 2017 at 10:34 AM
CNO Financial Group Inc. says it’s happy with recruiting and retention of insurance agents at its Washington National unit but wants to improve agent recruiting and retention at its Bankers Life unit.
Executives at the Carmel, Indiana-based insurer talked about the company’s agent force today during a conference call with securities analysts.
CNO’s units sell life insurance, indexed annuities, long-term care insurance, Medicare supplement insurance products and other supplemental health products.
Washington National, a unit that sells life insurance and supplemental health products to middle-income consumers, increased its average number of producing agents by 8 percent between the fourth quarter of 2015 and the fourth quarter of 2016, the company said when it released its earnings for the quarter.
At Bankers Life, which sells long-term care insurance and other products through career agents, new agent recruitment was down 12 percent, and the average number of producing agents fell 5 percent, primarily due to lower first-year agent retention, the company said.
CNO is evaluating candidate sourcing, recruiting activities, agent onboarding, and retention efforts, according to CNO President Gary Bhojwani.
Related: CNO and CNA open blinds on LTCI performance
CNO is reporting $234 million in net income for the quarter on $1 billion in revenue, compared with $137 million in net income on $970 million in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2015.
New annualized premium from product sales fell to $5.5 million, from $6.7 million, for long-term care insurance.
New sales of Medicare supplement insurance and life insurance also fell.
