Financial History Issue 116 (Winter 2016) | Page 29
Estate, a sales template that focused
agents and prospective policyholders on estate planning. Another
major improvement occurred during the presidency of James A.
McLain (1940-1956), whose standalone middle initial “A” allegedly
stood for affable. The first Guardian
president not of German ancestry,
McLain in 1946 introduced a system of field representatives. These
Guardian employees focused on
sales but were paid salaries and
merit bonuses instead of traditional
commissions. The field representative system fit well with Guardian’s Graph Estate template and its
overall philosophy of selling prospects the products they needed, and
only the products they needed, not
big commission policies likely to
lapse within a few years. Over the
next several decades, the field representative system grew slowly but
surely, and field reps finally outGermania changed its name to Guardian during World
numbered full-time commissioned
War I to distance itself from a negative association with
Germany, such as depicted in this Army recruitment poster.
agents in the early 1980s. By the end
of the century, field representatives
outnumbered agents at Guardian
on a general agency system whereby it
five to one.
essentially outsourced the acquisition and
McLain’s most important reform, howmaintenance of most of its business to
ever, may have been the 1948 establishment
outside companies called general agents
of the FAB, a group of GAs that met several
(GAs) compensated largely by commistimes a year to tell the home office what it
sions. The GAs, in turn, hired agents
was doing wrong. It played a role similar
who personally interacted with prospects,
to that of activist stockholders in publiclyapplicants and policyholders.
traded companies by repeatedly forcing
Most early agents sold insurance only
home office executives to innovate in the
part-time a