LIFE INSURANCE DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS

Life insurance was once sold primarily by career life agents, captive agents that represent a single insurance company, and by independent agents, who represent several insurers. Now, life insurance is also sold directly to the public by mail, telephone and through the Internet. In addition, in the 1980s insurers began to market annuities and term life insurance through banks and financial advisors, professional groups and the workplace. A large portion of variable annuities, and a small portion of fixed annuities, are sold by stockbrokers. In 2011 independent agents held 49 percent of the new individual life insurance sales market, followed by affiliated (i.e., captive) agents with 40 percent, direct marketers with 4 percent and others accounting for the remaining 7 percent, according to LIMRA