Insurer Targets Needs Of Mature Women
Age Venture News Service
October 1998

The Woman's Life Insurance Society (WLIS), a not-for-profit fraternal benefit insurance compnay, is going national with a fresh initiative designed to address untapped trends in the mature women's market. The new initiative, called "Intuitions", rejects the traditional insurance sales approach based solely on a prospect's age and income. Instead, it recognizes the unique events in women's lives that cause a change in values and serve as a stimulus for them to seek additional financial protection, such as insurance. In applying this new marketing approach, WLIS places the prospective client in one of four life stage categories based on circumstances and life events that shape her values, rather than based on her age or income. The four life stage categories identified by WLIS are:

• "Promises" to meet the needs of young women;
• "Expectations" to meet the needs of women with young families;
• "Priorities" to meet the needs of single mothers;
• "Insights" to meet the needs of mature women.

Like most insurers, WLIS offers products to cover financial needs. However, WLIS also offers fraternal benefits and education programs at no additional charge to meet more than the family's financial needs. For example, the new initiative offers self-help kits on topics such as breast cancer awareness, weight-control, keeping fit through walking, and smoking cessation. Scholarship programs and volunteer opportunities are also available.

The needs of women are of particular concern to WLIS because women face basic realities which are very different than those of men. Here are some examples of late-life situations that create special needs for women.

• Women live longer than men by an average of 5-7 years. On average, they will spend the last one-third of their lives not married, but single, either through widowhood or divorce.
• 75% of the elderly poor are women.
• Many women face age-related challenges alone (chronic disabilities, absence of caregiver). As a result, 80% of all residents in nursing homes are women.
• 80% of retired women are not eligible for pension benefits.
• 50% of working women do not have a current pension program.
• Women still earn less doing comparable jobs in the workplace.
• Many older women are left penniless and can't support themselves in retirement.
• Women often enter the workforce later in life than men and have shorter work histories because of family responsibilities.

The Woman's Life Insurance Society Home Office is located in Port Huron, Michigan. By the end of 1997, the Society counted 70,000 members, collected $18 million in revenues, donated $344,408 to charities, and provided $1.3 million in voluntary service through local chapters throughout the United States and Canada. Janice Whipple, national president of WLIS, says the society understands the special needs of women "like no other insurance company can or ever will". WLIS seems to have secured its future based on its vision and an ever-growing market of mature women. That's a winning combination. Like someone once said, "Its the stuff that dreams are made of". Reminds me of the inspirational story of another woman from earlier times, Ethel Percy Andrus, a retired school teacher who saw a need and filled it, all the while laying the groundwork for an organization that would become the American Association of Retired Persons. For additional information about WLIS generally, or to locate a WLIS chapter near you, call: 1-800-521-9292.