Guardian Disability Insurance Brokerage, a regional insurance brokerage, has added seven agents and doubled the size of its Rockville, Md., offices, buoyed by increased sales despite a flagging economy.

The brokerage’s general agent, Steve Crawford, attributed the growth to increased sales of the company’s disability insurance and long-term care insurance products, as well as interest in The Living Balance Sheet.

For calendar 2009, sales had increased 24% through April compared to the first four months of 2008, he said.

“If it weren’t for the economy, we’d be up 50% for the year,” Crawford told IFAwebnews.com

New office, added agents

The office expansion was completed last fall, giving space to additional agents, including two career Guardian agents from a former agency in Northern Virginia. Crawford’s brokerage is a general agency of The Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America.

Several products have bolstered sales for the company, including the next generation ProVider Plus disability insurance policy, which offers rate decreases, especially with class 6 occupations like attorneys, optometrists, executives, and architects and reduced rates for many classes of females and young professionals. The LTC product Guardian offers includes an indemnity benefit option, 10-pay rates, lifetime benefits and joint policies with up to a 70% discount.

Additionally, The Living Balance Sheet from Guardian offers a custom-built, Web-based client servicing system that in addition to providing users with access to key legal and financial documents anywhere Internet access available, helps them gauge their financial fitness by highlighting insurance protection, net worth and overall cash flow.

DI interest increasing

The recession and people’s belt tightening has increased interest in disability insurance and long-term care insurance. “People see their income as an asset now,” Crawford said. “People look around and say to themselves, ‘What happens if I lose my job and my income?’”

The office targets people in areas including Maryland, Washington, D.C., Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware with incomes of at least $100,000, and while many of these people lost money in the stock market over the last year, they continue to have disposable income, Crawford said.

But Crawford admits that his staff is finding that even though “people are more receptive to the discussion, each sale is tougher than before.”

Employees’ efforts also fueled the increase in production. In November, Crawford met with his staff, now 17 agents, to discuss the economy, and his staff left with the message to “put their heads to the grindstone and work harder than they ever have before,” Crawford said.

This story originally appeared in the June 2009 print edition of Insurance & Financial Advisor.