selling fixed annuities through stockbrokers, selling annuities to school teachers and public employees, and now selling through banks.
Tougher than a bank?
But the company had more challenges servicing annuity clients by phone than a bank would have. It was a lot more complex. Security First has about two dozen different policy forms, and many different kinds of annuity products. "It's different than having a bank customer call about a CD," Finneran told us. "Because of the different cost structures and interest rate structures and features in the different policy forms. It creates quite a different type of demand on the phone system and on the customer service rep, because of the differentiations in product. It's not just giving the customer term and rate, as on a CD. It's a different type of servicing."
But some customers are uncomfortable using automatic phone systems-particularly older customers. How has Security First handled that?
"For those who are not comfortable with the system," Finneran said, "we have the option to talk to a live person. So that is in the menu. But in thinking about the question, in today's environment, how old is old? People now are in retirement on the average now for 30 years."
"Let me give you a quick example," he continued. "My next-door neighbor is a retired professional football coach. He retired last October, and he's 68 years old. He's writing a book on defensive strategy. He never touched a computer before. But he purchased one, and now is so facile on the computer that it's amazing." "And I see that time and again, when I'm in business now," Finneran marveled. "I think ten years ago, when the annuity business started, we were dealing with a different population. And of course, the upper end of that scale, the people in their eighties and nineties that weren't exposed to this type of technology early on, still have the same prejudices. But I think the average 55to 65-year-old person expects technology to be part of their world, day to day.