Globe Life Aims to Develop Middle Managers

Globe Life says it wants to develop more middle managers at its American Income Life insurance distribution unit, to improve agent training and retention.

Increasing the number of middle managers helped increase the number of agents producing sales at two other Globe Life distribution businesses, Family Heritage and Liberty National, and Gary Coleman, one of the company’s two co-CEOs and co-chairman, told securities analysts Friday that they believe sales leadership development will be good for American Income, too.

Once an insurance distribution company adds and improves middle management, “we open new offices,” Coleman said. “We provide better technology and sales support for the field.”

What It Means

Inflation is back. Higher interest rates are back. Maybe middle managers are back.

The Earnings

Globe Life held a conference call with analysts to go over results for the third quarter. The quarter ended Sept. 30.

Globe Life is reporting $187 million in net income for the quarter on $1.3 billion in revenue, compared with $189 million in net income on $1.3 billion in revenue for the third quarter of 2021.

Net life sales increased 4% at American Income, to $76 million, compared with 2% at Liberty National, to $18.5 million.

But the average number of American Income agents actually making sales fell 5% between the year-earlier quarter and the latest quarter, to 9,477, after increasing in 2020 and in 2021.

The agent count increased 3% at Liberty National, to 2,784 and 7% at Family Heritage, to 1,233.

The Missing Managers

Coleman rejected the idea that the drop in the number of American Income producing agents was due to a tight labor market.

The number of new agents increased 6%, he said, adding, ”But we had higher terminations than expected.”

Larry Hutchison, the company’s other co-CEO and co-chairman, noted that a middle manager oversees three to four agents, and helps those agents review their sales data, understand their performance and plan presentations.

“And, as middle managers study the data, they know what needs to be addressed,” Hutchison said. “It could be a training issue, an activity issue, a closing issue. And it really changes agent by agent.”

Some of American Income’s 99 offices had great sales leadership and good growth, but now American Income is looking to see which offices did poorly and working to improve sales leadership performance.

Inflation and Direct Sales

Net life sales at Globe Life’s direct-to-consumer unit fell 13%, to $29 million.

Coleman said the weakness there was the result of inflation.

“The sales levels there are dependent on our circulation, our mailings and the internet traffic,” he said.

Globe Life expects print publication insert circulation to fall about 9% to 10% this year, inquiries to be flat or up 3%, and mailing volumes down 8% to 11%, he added.

“This really is a result of inflation,” Coleman said. “We’ve had an increase in the cost of paper, and an increase in the cost of postage. Once those costs stabilize, the cost of making sales directly to consumers should stabilize.”

CEO Changes

Globe Life announced that Coleman and Hutchison will give up the co-CEO posts Dec. 31 but continue to serve as co-chairman of the company.

The new co-CEOs will be J. Matthew Darden, who has been the company’s chief strategy officer, and Frank Svoboda, who has been the chief financial officer.

Thomas Kalmbach, who is now chief actuary, will be the new CFO.

Dolores Skarjune, the senior vice president of sales administration, will become an executive vice president.

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