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As company after company and industry-sponsored report after report talks about the urgency to put more life insurance and financial planning advice into the waiting arms of the middle class, one old life insurance company is unabashedly-and perhaps brilliantly-pushing itself in the opposite direction and becoming a sort of boutique to the young and rich.
In February, Phoenix Home Life, sporting its new trademark, Phoenix Wealth Management, proclaimed 1999 a peak year, with net gains exceeding $533 million and a new-high surplus of $1.4 billion. Many, including the company's chairman, Robert W. Fiondella, attribute the Hartford, Conn.based firm's prosperity primarily to its new marketing thrust aimed at "providing wealth management strategies for the affluent, particularly the highnet-worth market."
A new $5 million ad campaign focuses on younger wealthy people, based on research by Phoenix's consultants, Spectrum Group, who found that 45% of the nation's millionaires are younger than 55, compared to 26%o in 1990. If you're a subscriber to publications such as Fortune, Arts & Antiques, Bloomberg and Golf Magazine, you've seen the ads: "Money:...