The Value of a CEO
By Dean Lambert, Executive Director, LIC
I am writing this in the afterglow of the LIC Summer CEO Forum, prior to which we held a quarterly advisory board meeting. The location was Nashville, TN and the event was just the right amount of networking, work and play. Tony Mravle, LIC Advisory Board Chair and CEO of KSKJ Life, opened the meeting with comments regarding an article he read about Brian Niccol, the new CEO of Starbucks, titled, "Why the New Starbucks CEO is Worth $20 Billion." (Spencer Jakab, WSJ Digital, 13 Aug 2024.)
Our Chairman pointed out a few items from the article, first, that many cannot fathom how a single person could be so valuable to a company, while others see CEOs as more or less interchangeable-some of whom are CEOs.
He cited a 2023 survey of C-suite executives by edX in which nearly half of the 800 respondents...
|
Industry News
|
Congratulations, Strategic Leadership Experience Graduates
LIMRA and LOMA have announced the graduation of the first cohort of participants in the three-year Strategic Leadership Experience program developed in partnership with Wharton Executive Education. The 81 graduates include 16 from LIC member companies:
American Savings Life: Byron Allen and Paul Whetten
Boston Mutual Life: Grant Ward
Farm Bureau Life: Carmine Yankowski
GAFG: Erin Seymour
Investors Preferred: Nikki Pethtel
Lincoln Financial Group: Anne Brogan and Eric Pahl
MetLife: Paz Martinez Llobet and Adriana Winters
Prudential: Kelly Abeles, Joseph Hewitt, and John Ponte
RGA: Allison Hodina
Royal Neighbors of America: Angie Johnson
Texas Life: Margaret Newton
See the complete list of graduates here.
|
LIC Preneed and Final Expense Surveys Under Way
LIC has been publishing annual reports of sales data and trends in final expense and preneed since 2009. The LIC Preneed Survey (2023 Sales Data) will be available in October. The Final Expense Survey is under way; companies involved in final expense should have received their questionnaire. Contact LIC for more information. To be included in these annual studies, contact LIC, and to order reports, see the link below.
|
Rise in Independent Distribution Is Driving Change
According to LIMRA research, independent distribution market share made up 53% of all U.S. life insurance new premium sold, compared to just 38% from affiliated agents. While pricing and compensation are largely proprietary to each carrier, there is a lot of room to build a competitive edge through sales support.
|
LIC CEO Forum Promotes Literacy in Nashville
LIC's Summer CEO Forum held August 26-28, 2024, in Nashville, coordinated a donation of 83 books and over $600 in additional contributions to Book'em, a local nonprofit dedicated to igniting children's passion for reading and creating a more literate Nashville. The LIC CEO's donations were part of LIMRA and LOMA's commitment to #MeetingsThatMatter, leaving a positive impact in the communities where our conferences are held.
|
McKinsey Recommends Books on AI and More
McKinsey & Company's 2024 book list, with recommendations from CEOs, founders, editors in chief, and other global leaders, includes more than 90 books across 10 genres. Nine focus on technology and AI.
|
September is Life Insurance Awareness Month
While Americans recognize the importance of life insurance-70% say they know they should have coverage-42%, or more than 100 million, say they live with a coverage gap. The need is greater for specific market segments: young adults, women, Hispanics, and Blacks express the greatest need for life insurance.
LIMRA supports Life Insurance Awareness Month (#LIAM) with a website offering resources to engage consumers and highlight the importance of life insurance.
|
LIMRA Establishes New AI Industry Group
As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the way the life insurance industry conducts business, LIMRA has created a consortium to help the industry identify and share trends, develop best practices and frameworks, and knowledge-sharing.
|
LIC Strategy Execution Webinar Series Wraps Up September 24
"Operations & Innovation: Harnessing Internal Assets to Increase Revenue as the Result of Innovation and Operational Planning" will be presented as both a webinar and live presentation at the LIC Operations Committee Meeting in Baltimore, 3:00-4:00 p.m. Eastern on September 24, 2024. Registration is available for the webinar only or the full LIC Operations Meeting.
Presented by Heaton Consulting, this session will cover how to improve decision-making and outcomes when pursuing large operational investments, and how to execute big changes within an organization by developing a project charter.
Recordings of the previous webinars are available:
|
TruStage Promotes Schultz, LeBlanc
On August 29, 2024, TruStage announced the appointment of Tammy Schultz as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Fernand LeBlanc is now TruStage's President of Preplanning Solutions.
|
1891 Financial Featured on Lifetime TV
Lisa Bickus, CEO of 1891 Financial Life, is featured in an interview on The Balancing Act on Lifetime TV. In the video, she tells the story of 1891 Financial Life and describes how their life insurance and annuity products help families secure their financial future while giving back to communities through volunteering, scholarships, and grants.
|
How To Meet the Gen Z Coverage Gap
In a recent Insurance NewsNet article, "Life Insurance must zoom at the speed of Gen Z," author Tim Heslin suggests ways insurers can meet the needs of the "financially precocious" Gen Z.
|
Insurers Benefit from High Interest Rates in Q2 2024
An August 28, 2024, article in Insurance Business looks at Moody's report of U.S. life insurer profitability in the second quarter, with the high interest rate environment contributing to overall positive outcomes.
|
Upcoming LIC Events
LIC HR Committee Conference Call
September 12, 2024, 2-3:30 p.m. ET
LIC Laws & Legislation Committee Conference Call
September 20, 2024, 2-3:30 p.m. ET
LIC Webinar Series #3:
Operations and Innovation
Presented by Heaton Consulting
September 24, 2024, 3-4 p.m. ET
(1 hr PDU credit)
LIC Operations Committee Meeting
Hosted by Baltimore Life, Owings Mills MD
September 24-25, 2024
LIC Technology Committee Meeting
Hosted by Puritan Life & Benekiva, Phoenix
October 2-3, 2024
LIC Investment & Capital Management Committee Meeting
Hosted by Catholic Order of Foresters, Naperville IL
October 16-17, 2024
LIC Preneed Forum
Hosted by Physicians Mutual, Omaha
November 6-7, 2024
|
LIC 2024 Premier Sponsors
Thank you to these LIC Premier Sponsors, who support all LIC events throughout the year.
Parkway Advisors
Parkway Advisors is focused on being the best most respected provider of service in the insurance industry. Parkway offers asset management, consulting, and statutory investment reporting services that are customized to the needs of each insurance client. Through Parkway's emphasis on personal service, custom solutions, and strong communication, our clients have enjoyed historically strong performance success, especially during the financial crisis and the low interest environment that has followed. www.parkwayadvisors.com
iPipeline
iPipeline is a leading provider of low code, cloud-based software solutions for the life insurance and financial services industry. Through our SSG Digital, end-to-end platform, we provide process automation and seamless integration between every participant in our ecosystem including carriers, agents, general agencies, advisors, broker-dealers, RIAs, banks, securities/mutual fund firms, and their consumers on a global basis. Our innovative solutions include pre-sales support, new business and underwriting, policy administration, point-of-sale execution of applications, post-sale support, data analysis, reporting, user-driven configuration, consumer delivery and self-service, and agency and firm management. www.ipipeline.com
thinktum/illustrate
thinktum and illustrate inc (merged in 2023) provide powerful, cloud-based end-to-end solutions for life insurance carriers to energize, automate, simplify, and streamline the application process for virtually any life insurance product or distribution channel.
The no-code/low-code LIZ and OPUS platforms combine to provide a comprehensive, adaptable, and client-focused solution for life insurance carriers, with a particular emphasis on the needs of small to medium-sized carriers. The goal is to provide not just a technological solution but a partnership that understands the unique challenges and ambitions of each client. www.thinktum.com
QLAdmin Solutions
QLAdmin Solutions is a leading technology partner for the small to mid-sized insurance company offering traditional life, health, annuity, preneed, final expense, and Medicare Supplement products. QLAdmin serves the entire policy lifecycle from new issue to termination with expert policy administration processing that is both comprehensive and easy to use. QLAdmin continues to evolve based on product and client needs ensuring extreme client longevity and satisfaction with QLAdmin products and support. QLAdmin is your proven partner in policy administration. www.qladmin.com
Equisoft
Equisoft is a business-first technology company dedicated to helping insurance and wealth management organizations reach their goals. Specialized expertise: Over 25 years of experience helping small and mid-sized life insurers & fraternals solve their biggest challenges through digital transformation. www.equisoft.com
|
About The LIC Bullet
The Bullet is the official e-newsletter of the Life Insurers Council, which has been providing networking and practical business solutions for life insurers since 1910. As a council of LIMRA and LOMA, LIC serves the unique needs of small to midsize member companies, offering a personal network of peers with practical solutions to shared challenges. The Bullet delivers immediate and relevant industry news and editorial.
LIC E-News Online Community: As a networking organization, we welcome dialogue and input from our readers - therefore we are transitioning The Bullet to its new home in the LIC E-News online community at LICConnect. All Bullet subscribers have access to this forum, and others can request access by contacting lic@loma.org.
|
Feature Editorial (Full Text)
The Value of a CEO
By Dean Lambert, Executive Director, LIC
I am writing this in the afterglow of the LIC Summer CEO Forum, prior to which we held a quarterly LIC Advisory Board meeting. The location was Nashville, and the event was just the right amount of networking, work, and fun. Tony Mravle, LIC Advisory Board Chair and CEO of KSKJ Life, opened the meeting with comments regarding an article he read about Brian Niccol, the new CEO of Starbucks, titled, "Why the New Starbucks CEO is Worth $20 Billion." (Spencer Jakab, WSJ Digital, 13 Aug 2024.)
Before I share some of Tony's observations, the title of the piece isn't a reference to Niccol's salary. Rather, it was inspired by the fact that the announcement of his appointment caused SBUX stock price to rise 25%, a gain of more than $20 billion, according to the article. Conversely, Niccol's former company, Chipotle, saw its stock price drop "sharply" upon the news of his departure.
Our Chairman pointed out that many cannot fathom how a single person could be so valuable to a company, while others see CEOs as more or less interchangeable-some of whom are CEOs.
In a 2023 survey of C-suite executives by edX nearly half of the 800 respondents said, "Most or all of the CEO role could be replaced by artificial intelligence." This is in stark contrast to an article by two prominent management scholars who explain how the variance in a company's performance can be traced back to CEOs, who have actually become more influential in the eyes of many. They call it the "CEO Effect."
In closing his remarks, Tony observed that the job of CEOs today is about deciding which bets to make. He encouraged LIC CEO Forum attendees to focus on things that protect, preserve, and promote their companies, and to "lean in" to fellow LIC member CEOs for ideas, learnings, and support.
Central to the LIC CEO Forum agenda was an executive review of the book CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest.
Six of our CEOs volunteered to prepare material discussing each of the "Mindsets," resulting in practical coverage and discussion of the book's concepts. At least one CEO has asked his company's Board of Directors to consider using the Six Mindsets as a guide to reviewing his performance. This exercise set a high bar for the type of content we seek in order to create meaningful events that help LIC members grow and secure long-term operational success. The next CEO Forum is coming up February 4-5, prior to the LIC Annual Conference in Clearwater Beach, FL, February 5-7, 2025.
Finally, I'd like to make an appeal to those who receive the LIC Bullet but may not be as active in LIC meetings and events at this time: My pledge for 2025 is to spend more time reaching out and visiting company leaders to learn more about you and how the Life Insurers Council can be of central value to your organization's success. We have so much to offer, and there's more to come! This being said, I encourage you to reach out to me any time by phone or email to learn more about the tremendous value that's available to you. My contact information is below-I look forward to speaking with you!
Dean Lambert, Executive Director, LIC
(515) 414-6895 | dlambert@limra.com
|
|