FIRSTFED AMERICA BANCORP, INC., the holding company of First Federal Savings Bank of America, and Savings Bank Life Insurance Company of Massachusetts, have joined forces, allowing FIRSTFED to become the first bank in Rhode Island to sell insurance products through its local branches. Banks received the green light to sell insurance through legislation passed by the General Assembly in 1997.
The Swansea-based FIRSTFED operates 14 banking offices throughout Southeastern Massachusetts and 4 in Rhode Island.
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The company has loan origination centers in both states. Through its subsidiary, FIRSTFED INSURANCE AGENCY, LLC, the company sells auto, home, life, accident and health insurance products at all of its locations.
SBLI is among the leading providers of ordinary life insurance in Massachusetts, where the company has sold its products largely through savings banks since its founding in 1907.
“This is like going back to our roots,” said Robert K. Sheridan, SBLI’s president and chief executive officer.
SBLI’s alliance with FIRSTFED marks its first sales through Rhode Island-based bank offices.
Sheridan described the arrangement as a no-lose proposition for his company, calling FIRSTFED a “premier banking institution.”
“This is groundbreaking for us in Rhode Island,” said Sheridan. “To get such a premier banking institution We’re just very excited about this. We share a common vision.”
Robert F. Stoico, chairman, president and chief executive officer of FIRSTFED, was equally effusive in describing his newest partner.
“We think SBLI is a class act when it comes to life insurance,” said Stoico. “This is a natural progression for us. It’s a great opportunity. There is no downside to this.”
For FIRSTFED, a $4.6 billion bank, the move marks the continuation of an aggressive presence in this area. The bank now has four branches in Rhode Island – Warwick, Pawtucket, Riverside and Cranston — and Stoico said he expects that growth to continue. And while he would specifically comment on the divestiture of the Fleet/BankBoston branches, he said that all smaller banks in the area are watching closely.
“Every single branch we have opened in Rhode Island has been a bigger success than the one before it,” Stoico said. “We expect to continue to grow here.”
SBLI sells primarily term and whole life insurance and annuities.
Conceived by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis – at that time a prominent Boston attorney — and established in 1907, Savings Bank Life Insurance is offered through nearly 170 Massachusetts financial institutions and by telephone to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island consumers.
It took 27 years for SBLI to reach $100 million of insurance inforce (an industry term meaning the aggregate of all life insurance policies or their face value). The billion dollar mark was reached in 1964, and at the start of 1998, total insurance inforce amounted to over $20 billion. As the life insurance grew, so did the system’s assets, reaching $100 million in 1953, and passing the $1.15 billion mark in 1997.
