As part of the evolution of financial institutions into a “one-stop shop” for all of a person’s financial services, Banknorth Connecticut soon will be providing insurance to its customers.

Banknorth Connecticut, the fifth-largest bank in the state, has announced that beginning in June it will provide access to life insurance and annuity products at most of its 48 locations, through the registered representatives of Bancnorth Investment Planning Group/PrimeVest Financial Services.

According to Banknorth Connecticut President John Patrick, this new capability fits Banknorth’s corporate philosophy of providing community-based customer service and at the same time fills a need to offer such products on the local level.

“Most larger insurance and retirement services companies focus on the super-affluent and often ignore the needs of the middle- and upper-middle-income households. We want to change that by making these products easily available to our customers, through licensed professionals located at our branches,” said Patrick.

“Research shows these customers are simply not being offered a convenient way to buy life insurance,” he added. “By having these products available through our branch locations – in neighborhoods where people live and work – we hope to fill that void and change that trend. It also fits in with our overall convenience philosophy, to offer our customers one-stop services in their communities.”

Several open houses are planned in June to give customers the opportunity to learn about the new products and get answers to their questions about life insurance.

“What this is, is a new set of product offerings. We’re offering Savings Bank Life Insurance products as a commercial bank,” said Patrick. “We believe that many of our customers look to us as a full-service financial services provider, and certainly insurance is one part of those services.”

When reviewing with clients and customers, working to ascertain their full financial needs and requirements, Patrick said his bank found that insurance is an area that was cited often.

“It’s one of those things that was noted by the segment we’re trying to attract as an area that’s often overlooked,” he said. “The new insurance offerings will be a nice complement to the typical customer of a financial institution.”

Ready to Go

Historically, said Patrick, insurance has been the domain of savings banks, and Banknorth’s situation is a somewhat rare instance of a commercial bank providing insurance.

When the new products officially launch in June, Banknorth Connecticut will hold open houses at all the bank branches to educate customers. There will be representatives of the insurance and investment planning divisions of the bank within each office with whom customers will be able to speak.

“Right now we’re going to roll it out so that it’s in all of the branches,” said Patrick, who added that a few more specialists need to be licensed to write insurance before all of the branches are up and running.

In the past, Banknorth had offered personal lines of life insurance products through its insurance agents via referrals, Patrick said. Through recent acquisitions of other Connecticut banks, however, Banknorth also acquired those banks’ relationships with insurance companies.

American Savings Bank and Southington Savings Bank, both of which were acquired by Banknorth around the start of 2003, had offered products in the past. Customers wanted to carry those products over when the banks switched over, so Banknorth kept up the relationships with the Savings Bank Life Insurance Co.

“We think there is a segment of the marketplace that doesn’t necessarily have the most adequate protection as it relates to insurance,” said Patrick.

Brian Arsenault, Banknorth senior vice president of corporate communications, explained that the bank owns a number of insurance agencies that operate apart from bank branches, and that this is the first time a division of Banknorth will have insurance onsite.

“This was a great opportunity to do something right in the branches,” said Arsenault. “Around New England there are still a variety of state laws that make it difficult to deal in insurance directly at a bank branch, so we have to work around that in most cases.”

Fortunately, he said, the laws regarding insurance in Connecticut are such that insurance is something that can be relatively easily dealt with from a bank perspective.

“Banks are evolving into more of a one-stop shop for financial services – be it banking, insurance or investments. We want to put ourselves into a position that we can more and more become that kind of one-stop shop,” said Arsenault. “We’re just ready to get going.”

Under the new program, customers in Connecticut, working with a Bancnorth Investment Planning representative, will be able to obtain no-obligation quotes on affordable life insurance from the Savings Bank Life Insurance Co. and other companies. Retirement products such as annuities and mutual funds are also available through registered representatives located at the 48 Banknorth Connecticut branches.

Banknorth Connecticut has 48 branches in 28 communities throughout Connecticut, including East Hartford, West Hartford, Glastonbury, New Britain, Middlebury, Torrington, Wallingford, Waterbury and others throughout the state.