There was a song some thirty years ago called, “The Times They Are ‘a Changin’”, and I think that is even truer today than when Bob Dylan penned the song. Our ways of life are changing, the things we expect to be able to do are changing, and furthermore, we demand more from those who are there to provide insurance and financial services to policyholders and their families. It’s an age of fast-paced and busy lives, and if you want to keep clients, you must keep up the pace. Prudential Financial Inc has been forced to have to build their lines of business based on this need, as have many other insurance companies over the past two decades. The speed with which a company is able to turn over a product to its clients is going to determine how well they are going to do in today’s market. This is no longer the slow-paced world that existed in the 50’s and 60’s where less than 50% of the population came from a two-income family. In most regions today, as much as 75% of families have two-incomes, and sometimes even more where both husband and wife have to work more than one job to make ends meet.

Where are all of these changes going to leave companies like Prudential Financial Inc? It means they are going to have to become increasingly competitive in order to stay one step ahead of the competition. These changes have been coming for some time now, and anyone who wants to remain solvent is going to have to follow the trends. Prudential Financial Inc has shown growth in those areas that matter and have managed so far to stay a step ahead of the competition, at least enough to stay in the ball game. What are their chances for the future? As with anything financial in nature, it’s going to depend on what happens in the future and what kind of a turn it takes. If current trends continue, I see Prudential Financial Inc having to branch out more in their lines of business to stay a step ahead of the competition. The faster the growth in our economy, the more the working class is going to look to being able to take care of all of their financial needs in one place.

What changes are likely to have to occur? It’s hard to determine at this time, but if the trends continue, we may see multi-service companies like Prudential Financial Inc having to add full-service or limited services banking to its lines of business in order to satisfy the demand from its customers. Is that surprising? It shouldn’t be since some of the banks are now selling insurance! Their customers place demands on the financial institutions, and if they want to maintain their customer base, they have to do what the customers expect them to do. Besides, Prudential Financial Inc already services credit cards, so how much more difficult would it be to offer checking and savings to its customers? We shall have to see what happens in the future, but for now the full line of financial services they do offer is more than sufficient to serve the needs of its customers. So they can concentrate on their other financial services before thinking about making a jump into the strange world of car insurance.