Global Atlantic Wants to Talk
The company will find ways to connect, even if you'd rather not let wholesaler reps into your office.
Managers of Global Atlantic Financial Group are hoping to increase sales of new annuities by using the web to reach more financial professionals.
The New York-based company last week gave Jason Bickler, the company’s national sales manager, a new title: head of retirement distribution.
The company is also setting up two separate advisor outreach teams. One will court advisors in person, through regional vice presidents. The other, an eSales Consultants team, will organize webinars and other virtual meetings, to serve advisors who would rather not meet with wholesalers in person.
Paula Nelson, president of Global Atlantic’s retirement unit, said Tuesday, in an interview, that the company wants to overcome the fact that it has a relatively new name, and to give advisors tools and information that will help them do a better job of serving retirement planning clients.
“We’re really looking to add value for the advisors,” Nelson said.
(Related: Global Atlantic to acquire Forethought Financial)
Nelson said Global Atlantic also wants to show advisors that the company can offer the clients all types of annuities, not just one type.
Advisors are trying to take a more holistic approach to retirement planning these days, and that should increase the appeal of Global Atlantic’s broad annuity product menu, Nelson said.
Global Atlantic
Goldman Sachs founded Global Atlantic in 2004, as the Goldman Sachs Reinsurance Group, and turned the affiliate into a separate company in 2013.
The insurer acquired Allmerica Life in 2005, Aviva USA in May 2013, and Forethought Financial Group Inc. in September 2013. In 2012, before Global Atlantic bought Forethought, Forethought bought Hartford Financial’s U.S. individual annuity origination business.
As of Dec. 31, 2015, Goldman Sachs owned about 22% of Global Atlantic’s stock, and no other investor owned a stake of more than 9.9%, according to a notice posted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in April 2017.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ latest annuity considerations rankings, which are for 2017, still list the insurer as the “Goldman Sachs group.” The NAIC shows the group ranked 13th in the United States for 2017 annuity considerations, with $6.2 billion in annuity considerations.
Wink says Global Atlantic ranked fourth in terms of non-variable deferred annuity sales in the United States in the fourth quarter.
Global Atlantic ranked in the top five in terms of sales of traditional fixed annuities and multi-year guaranteed annuities, according to Wink.
For more of our annuity market coverage, see our Annuity Market Archive.
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