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US insurance giant Prudential has unveiled a new direct-to-consumer service called LINK by Prudential. It marks a huge change for the large US life insurance company, which manages approximately $1.4 trillion in assets and has traditionally carried out business through a large, trusted salesforce.
According to a Reuters report, Prudential executives said the new LINK service offers personalized financial planning, and recommendations for insurance, annuities and investments in a portfolio of exchange-traded funds. For the first time in Prudential’s 143-year history, customers can buy products directly through LINK or with some help from remote advisors.
“Given where the investing world is going, this makes sense,” said John Barnidge, analyst at Sandler O’Neill, who also noted the service is just one piece of Prudential’s diverse business. “Millennials and other younger people have large purchasing power,” Barnidge commented, adding that they don’t value insurance agent relationships like previous generations have done.
Stephen Pelletier, chief operating officer of Prudential’s US-based businesses, said advisors will still play a “critical role” in the firm’s success. The insurer hopes the LINK service will help to balance a growing demand for online sales without alienating its advisory force, according to Reuters.
His sentiments were backed up by Prudential’s chief customer officer Naveen Agarwal who argued LINK gives customers “a seamless experience” where they can buy both insurance and financial products from the same site and choose from different levels of advisory services.
Prudential’s Pelletier added that the LINK service will be available to 20 million people through workplace businesses, including retirement plans and pension payments the firm took over from other companies that purchased group annuities.
