A dearest person and oftentimes reader of this blog received a copy of the last post through her email and send a note back: Ok… so what was the product? Let’s set the stage, as it was then: Social security was in shambles, a vast majority of working class retirees spent most of their days sitting on park benches, inflation was running rampant and the possibility of a working individual being able to save money for a latter life was fairly small, almost non-existent. Enter private retirement planning. This meant the privatization of the social security (or local equivalent) system. In Latin America , this was the “hot ticket item” in the 80’s, since most governments were actually bankrupt. And most countries doing this were following the so-called Chilean model, which was actually working. Except that most countries following the model, did not quite follow the checks and balances system the Chilean model had. These were too “cumbersome” and actually prevented free range use of the monies. After all, what good was it to have a growing cache of cash and not be able to get your bureaucratic little hands on most of it?
In Argentina, several companies were created in order to have a go at this market. These companies would be derivatives of the larger life companies for the most part, but with a separate registration and specific rules of play. There were also major banking entities that created retirement insurance companies and, in some cases, smaller private banks would form a consortium and share the cost of putting up one such company. Most of these latter groups would have to go outside the national market to get experienced personnel and, voila!! My time came with such a group. Yes, I know… nothing about product yet… but this stage had to be set.
The person who had been an instrument in my hiring (the friend who went to Chile) knew life insurance. He was my ally throughout this thorny process, since the bank executives placed on the company’s board had no idea as to what a life insurance contract or product was. But they did know about coming to the board’s bi-weekly meeting, held at a nice restaurant downtown. The product was very similar to the individual retirement accounts (IRAs) sold here in the mid 70’s but based on a Universal Life platform to allow badly needed investment flexibility.
Confused yet? In summary: develop a locally unknown product to be presented by a new and unknown company, itself the fruit of an uneasy banking alliance made up of smaller competing private banks, to be sold by people who knew little or nothing about life insurance, to a massive group of people who did not believe in anything which talked about waiting more than 7 days for results… And this had to be accomplished in 5 months or less…
As said before… A Piece of Cake!!! … Yeah…
Enter Ollie (not his real name, he has since gone to his just rewards…) a Swiss born and trained Argentinean actuary. One of a kind. He knew all about the facts of life, so to speak, but he himself was a picture of what should not be: grossly overweight, chain smoker, poor eating habits and working under a pressure cooker atmosphere. This combo eventually did him in. However, he knew life insurance inside and out and with his help, we were able to put together a solid, competitive product and get it approved by the Insurance Commissioner. And this in under 45 days… Good start!
Our advertising budget was on the wrong side of small and we had to put out the pieces which would help sales, as well as all the paperwork to be completed in each sale, business cards, stationery, corporate forms, etc... Enter a young lady who came via Maddy. She was a brain in one of the better ad agencies in town, but was willing to work with us in her spare time. That we did, creating a coherent written ad campaign which I consider to be superior to what other companies, with a much larger budget, were able to do. It keyed (through pics and captions) on the then existing retiree segment, highlighting not their economic woes, but how they managed to survive and live on despite this. Then it asked the question: “If you had a choice to have a better retirement, would you take it?”. It did well.
Next step would be choosing and training a sales force. This part deserves a close look and I will leave it for the next post… It was actually a frustrating, but funny process, full of corporate intrigue, jealousies and complaints…
In the meantime, back at the home front, the search for a house was coming to an end. My wife, true to her word, had gone on a search spree and had nixed most of the homes shown to her, finding faults with each one. She focused on a remodeled Tudor home, well outside our allowance (which was not a bad one). Our marriage was not on the best of terms so I felt that by giving in to her wish, matters might improve somewhat… Lord!!! How little we know the female psyche…
‘nuff for now… Be Well; Be Back…
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