President's Message

Last year will be remembered as a time when Baltimore Life took the concept of policyholder and agent services to a new level, resulting in strong sales and profitable growth. Despite a difficult financial environment, our balance sheet is impressive and we remain on solid financial footing. Total premium sales were up 26 percent from the previous year, and our surplus continues to grow. This success is a testament to what can be achieved by simply focusing on providing customers with the treatment they deserve.

This leads to an interesting question. Who are our primary customers – our agents or our policyholders? Both have choices in where they can take their business. If we fail to go above and beyond their expectations, they can easily choose another company. This means it’s critical that we treat both as free-willed individuals who have a decision to make.

If you were to talk to our agents and policyholders, I’d suspect they’d tell a similar story about Baltimore Life. They’d tell you about our dedication to their success. They’d talk about how we’ve helped them through the best and worst of times. They’d tell you about how people from all over the country want to do business with us.

And if you were to speak with our Home Office support associates, they’d speak of the pride they feel as they support agents who make record-breaking sales, and the compassion they feel as they help policyholders through difficult times.

All too often, an insurance company is only a voice on the other end of the phone. Our agents and Home Office associates work hard to dispel this notion by being active in the communities where they live and work. It’s their faces in the field and the excellent service they provide that create the lasting bonds we enjoy with our policyholders. It’s these bonds that have sustained us through our remarkable growth.

When a company like ours grows over the course of many decades, it can sometimes lose its way and forget its roots. For more than 125 years, we’ve been providing the kind of service that builds legacies. And we’ve been providing this service to a segment of the market that doesn’t get the attention it deserves – Middle America.

Although Baltimore Life has many individual voices, you’ll find that we speak as one. And our voices tell one common story: the key to our success is in providing the best possible service to our agents and policyholders. In the pages that follow, you’ll see just a few of our outstanding people at work as they tell this story. I hope their voices will inspire you to learn more about what we have to offer.

L. John Pearson, CLU
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer