[September 22, 2014]

A.M. BestTV: Prudential Financial Individual Life Insurance CEO Kent Sluyter Says Industry's Challenge Is Relevance

The sixth in a series of special interviews ^A.M.BestTV is running in September to support Life Insurance Awareness Month is an interview with Kent Sluyter, chief executive officer of individual life insurance and agency distribution at Prudential Financial, Inc., who said insurers and producers must focus on showing that life products can be relevant to consumer needs at multiple life stages.

Sluyter spoke about some of the problems facing the industry today. "The purchase rate for life insurance is at a 50-year low," he said. "It is imperative to change the conversation with insurers and advisers, because obviously we are not reaching either group successfully." Sluyter added that changing the conversation involves emphasizing the other benefits that life insurance can provide. "There are a lot of benefits associated with life insurance beyond death benefits, which we need to emphasis more, such as using life insurance for retirement planning, i.e., supplemental retirement income and for chronic illness … we need to highlight the importance of living for today and planning for tomorrow."

Click here to view the video program: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=sluyter914

Recent episodes of ^A.M.BestTV include:

• Rendez-Vous de Septembre: From September 13-18 A.M. Best attended the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous de Septembre. To see entire interviews conducted throughout the conference visit: http://www.ambest.tv/montecarlo.
• AIG Life Distribution Chief John Deremo: Consumers Need More Useful Life Products: John Deremo, head of distribution for life products, American International Group, said longer life spans and limited savings mean Americans will require life products that perform multiple functions: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=deremo914

• MassMutual Executive Vice President Michael Fanning: Face-to-Face Life Insurance Selling Is Vital: Michael Fanning, an executive vice president at MassMutual Financial Group, said his organization is continuing to invest in its captive sales force, saying it remains the most effective channel for life and protection products: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=fanning914
• John Hancock Life Insurance Company President Michael Doughty to Life Industry: Keep It Simple: Michael Doughty, president and general manager of John Hancock Life Insurance Company, says he believes buying life insurance can be hard, with too many questions, so in response, his company is looking to technology, providing useful information and new products as a solution: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=doughty914.

A.M. Best Company is the world's oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

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