FBL Financial Group, Inc. sells individual life insurance and annuity products
principally under the consumer brand name Farm Bureau Financial Services. This
brand identity is represented by the distribution channel of our subsidiary
Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company (Farm Bureau Life). In addition, in the state
of Colorado, we offer life and annuity products through Greenfields Life Insurance
Company (Greenfields Life).
Our core business strategies leverage areas where we have competitive advantages.
Our exclusive agent distribution channel enables deep customer engagement and
long-term customer relationships. We benefit from close ties to the unique needs
of the agricultural market and affinity with the Farm Bureau brand, and our
cross-sell culture results in industry leading cross-sell rates.
Our agents are multi-line agents who sell both property-casualty insurance
products and life insurance and investment products. Having multi-line agents
enhances our ability to develop a more comprehensive relationship with our customers
and increases our ability to cross-sell our life insurance and annuity products
to the pool of Farm Bureau property-casualty customers.
Our multi-line exclusive agent distribution channel is our foundation and we
are defined by our service to the Farm Bureau niche marketplace. We capitalize
on the Farm Bureau brand to grow our business and build upon our agricultural
and rural market leadership. We focus on needs-based selling and have a broad
portfolio of life insurance and annuity products so that we have products available
to satisfy the needs of our agents and customers.
Because of their multi-line nature, our agents focus on cross-selling life
insurance products to customers who already own a property-casualty policy issued
by our property-casualty company partners. For example, in the eight-state region
where we manage the affiliated property-casualty insurance companies and related
field force (Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota
and Utah), 24% of our property-casualty policyholders also own a Farm Bureau
Life annuity or life product. We are considered among the best-in-industry in
cross-sell rates. This percentage is and has historically been higher than the
industry average for multi-line exclusive agents, which is 12% according to
the most recent research by the Life Insurance and Market Research Association
(LIMRA). We believe there is further opportunity for growth from cross-selling
as 70% of Farm Bureau members in the eight-state region have a Farm Bureau property-casualty
insurance product, while only 21% of Farm Bureau members in the eight-state
region have a life insurance product with us.
We provide our agents with sales materials, the necessary training and a high
level of sales support. In addition, throughout our marketing territory, certain
agents are life and investment specialists who work as a resource to help their
fellow agents with cross-selling techniques and client needs analysis.
Our sales model is designed so that our agents act like entrepreneurial business
owners with a retail financial services business. Under this model our agents
have sales and service associates who assist them and provide a variety of support
for insurance sales and clients.
This business strategy and sales model results in deep customer engagement
and long-term customer relationships. Our agents are often viewed as the go-to
person for all the insurance needs of their customers. As a result, while we
underwrite the majority of the life and annuity products available for sale
by our agents, we broker products sold by other carriers when we do not have
the expertise, ratings or scale to compete efficiently in the marketplace. Examples
of brokered products include variable products, long-term care insurance, health
insurance and last survivor life policies. We earn fees from the sale of brokered
products, a portion of which is passed on to the agents as commissions for the
underlying sales.
We analyze operations by reviewing financial information regarding our primary
products that are aggregated into the Annuity and Life Insurance product segments.
In addition, our Corporate and Other segment includes various support operations,
corporate capital and other product lines that are not currently underwritten
by the Company.