Webster First CU branches out
Credit unions want to be one-stop shop for financial services
Since first entering the insurance business in January, Webster First Federal Credit Union has sold between 50 and 60 auto, home and life insurance policies.
The credit union sells the policies through its own agency, WebFirst Insurance, and is part of an effort among the membership-driven institutions to offer all the same products as banks.
The Massachusetts Division of Insurance approved Webster First to sell insurance through WebFirst in December.
"It's been going on for a while," said David Egan, president of the Massachusetts Credit Union League. "But it fits into the category of an emerging trend."
Egan said credit unions are trying to become "one-stop shopping" for financial services.
"It's probably more common among banks, but credit unions are offering it now," he said.
Emerging trend
Michael N. Lussier, president and CEO of Webster First, said Massachusetts credit unions have lagged in offering insurance.
"It is a trend, but it's pretty common outside of Massachusetts," he said. Congress gave federal credit unions permission to sell insurance in 1999.
"It's just another way to be a full-fledged financial institution," Lussier said. Now, when a credit union member buys a car, he can finance and insure the car through the credit union, Lussier said.
Lussier said the credit union has trained three or four staff members, who are now licensed to sell insurance, to man the union's nine offices.
WebFirst Insurance's main office is in Charlton.
Digital Federal Credit Union has been selling insurance for a number of years, but only recently formed its own independent insurance agency, which was approved by the division of insurance in January.
Tim Garner, DCU's vice president of marketing and strategic planning, said DCU decided to form its own insurance agency because it and its members weren't happy with the service members were getting from carriers the credit union had been affiliated with previously.
DCU, which has 269,709 members and more than $3 billion in assets, "has been in the insurance business in one way or another for a number of years, but we changed the way we do it," Garner said. "We decided to proceed on our own."
Now, DCU and its members have more control over the process.
"There are certain things like investments and insurance that we consider financial products and services, and we're in business to help people with those things," Garner said. "Being independent, we have a number of different carriers we can draw on. We can do the shopping for the customer."
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