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The Hottest Topics Right Now
By Dean Lambert, Executive Director, LIC
My first six months as LIC's Executive Director have been exhilarating. I have been learning right along with LIC members through committee meetings and conferences, and via LIC Connect, our very active online community for members. The key takeaway for me is one I've heard from many of you: Our network is strong because of the willingness to share.
Thinking about my contribution to this issue of the LIC Bullet, I decided to do some sharing myself. Since February, LIC held thirteen forums, conferences, committee meetings and workshops.
"Exhilarating" might actually be an understatement! Here's a fraction of the topics covered during LIC events since February:
- Agile project management
- Training and development ...
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Industry News
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1891 Financial Honored on World's Best Companies List
LIC member 1891 Financial Life has been awarded on the Forbes list of World's Best Insurance Companies 2023. Companies are evaluated based on customers' recommendation, satisfaction, and loyalty, as well as the subdimensions Advice, Customer Service, Price-Performance and Transparency.
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Takeaways from Southwest Airlines Struggle
Sureify CTO Ben Brantley posed interesting perspective on Southwest Airlines's meltdown in December 2023, when more than 16,700 Southwest flights were canceled and 2 million passengers stranded, and how insurance companies' systems could face similar risk.
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AM Best Upgrades Credit Ratings of ELCO Mutual Life and Annuity
AM Best has upgraded the Financial Strength Rating to B++ (Good) from B+ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating to "bbb" (Good) from "bbb-" (Good) of ELCO Mutual Life and Annuity. The outlook of the Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.
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AM Best Upgrades Credit Ratings of SWBC Life
AM Best has upgraded the Financial Strength Rating to A- (Excellent) from B++ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating to "a-" (Excellent) from "bbb+" (Good) of SWBC Life Insurance Company (SWBC Life) (San Antonio, TX). The outlooks of these Credit Ratings (ratings) have been revised to stable from positive.
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McKinsey Offers Advice on Building New Businesses
A recent McKinsey article discusses ideas to overcome the challenges insurers face in building and scaling new-business ideas.
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Annuities Selling at Record Level
InvestmentNews highlighted insights from LIMRA's recent annuity sales report, noting that total sales are up 28% in the first half of the year, with RILAs and fixed annuities rising.
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Gartner Survey Reveals Growth as Top Strategic Business Priority
Growth remains the top strategic business priority for both CFOs and CEOs, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. Forty-five percent of CEOs surveyed ranked growth in their top 3 strategic priorities, down from 53% in 2022, while 62% of CFOs put it in their top 3, up from 59% in 2022.
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Mercer Advises on How to Attract, Retain and Engage Gen Z
Research and insights on Gen Z are discussed in an article by Mercer Marsh Benefits, suggesting ways companies should rethink their approaches to job design and rewards.
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LIMRA: U.S. Life Insurance Premium Rebounds in the Second Quarter 2023
After three consecutive quarters of declining premium growth, total U.S. life insurance new annualized premium was $4.04 billion in the second quarter, a 2% increase, according to the preliminary results from LIMRA's U.S. Retail Individual Life Insurance Sales surveys and estimates.
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AM Best Assigns Credit Ratings to Investors Preferred Life Insurance Company
AM Best has assigned a Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and a Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "a-" (Excellent) to Investors Preferred Life Insurance Company (Rapid City, SD). The outlook assigned to these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.
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Nikki Pethtel Is New President & CFO at Investors Preferred Life
Nikki Pethtel has been named President and Chief Financial Officer for Investors Preferred Life following the retirement of Alan Jahde.
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Upcoming LIC Events
LIC Summer CEO Forum (reserved for insurance company CEOs)
The Chateaux at Deer Valley, Park City, UT
August 28-30, 2023
LIC Laws & Legislation Committee Conference Call
September 22, 2023, 2-3:30 pm ET
LIC Operations Committee Meeting
Hosted by Catholic Life, San Antonio, TX
September 26-27, 2023
LIC Technology Committee Meeting
Hosted by GPM Life, San Antonio, TX
September 27-28, 2023
LIC HR Committee Conference Call
October 12, 2023, 2-3:30 pm ET
LIC Investment & Capital Management Committee Meeting
Hosted by Catholic Order of Foresters, Naperville, IL
October 18-19, 2023
LIC Annuity Committee Conference Call
November 2, 2023, 2-3:30 pm ET
LIC Preneed Forum
Hosted by National Guardian Life, Madison, WI
November 15-16, 2023
LIC ERM Committee Conference Call
November 30, 2023, 2-3:30 pm ET
LIC Supplemental Products Committee Virtual Meeting
December 7, 2023, 2-3:30 pm ET
Mark Your Calendar!
LIC Annual Conference
The Westgate Hotel, San Diego
February 7-9, 2024 (CEO Forum is February 6-7)
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LIC 2023 Premier Sponsors
Many thanks to the following companies! As LIC Premier Sponsors, they support all LIC events throughout 2023.
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 customizes 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
Trilogy Actuarial Solutions
Let Us Be Your In-House Actuaries. We are a trio of actuaries with a combined 45 years of experience providing exceptional service to insurance companies, fraternal benefit societies, and marketing organizations. We can support your existing actuarial staff or serve as your entire in-house actuarial department. We understand the value of a dedicated in-house team and we will endeavor to replicate this experience for you. Our goal is to seamlessly integrate into your organization and culture. www.trilogyactuarial.com
thinktum
thinktum is a technology company with a strong commitment to innovation, leadership and a responsibility to give back to the communities in which we serve. thinktum's dimmpl platform offers modular InsurTech systems that support true end to end functionality via multiple distribution models. Whether it be face-to-face or non-face-to-face, affiliate or direct-to-consumer, dimmpl supports you from early prospecting straight through to policy delivery. 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
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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 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.
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Feature Article (Full Text)
The Hottest Topics Right Now
By Dean Lambert, Executive Director, LIC
My first six months as LIC's Executive Director have been exhilarating. I have been learning right along with LIC members through committee meetings and conferences, and via LIC Connect, our very active online community for members. The key takeaway for me is one I've heard from many of you: Our network is strong because of the willingness to share.
Thinking about my contribution to this issue of the LIC Bullet, I decided to do some sharing myself. Since February, LIC held thirteen forums, conferences, committee meetings and workshops. "Exhilarating" might actually be an understatement! Here's a fraction of the topics covered during LIC events since February:
- Agile project management
- Training and development
- Emerging insurance technologies
- Product development and ERM case studies
- Talent/recruitment challenges
- Distribution models of the future
- The benefits and unintended consequences of artificial Intelligence
- Leveraging machine learning to optimize profitability
- Compliance management
- Data analytics and predictive modeling for final expense mortality
- Consumer insights
- Marketing trends
- Growth trends in Home Service
All subject matter we address is generated by meeting participants; topics suggested through event registration process. Why is this important to remember? As all insurance executives are painfully aware, the pressure on company resources makes it imperative to receive a return on whatever you invest to manage and grow your business – LIC member dues are no exception. By providing open channels to understand the problems you need to solve, our content is always member-centered, relevant and fresh. Sure, some topics are perennial. However, approaches, challenges and solutions are ever changing.
LIC keeps members plugged into a network of vibrant and thought-leading insurance leaders whose willingness to share experiences lifts up the entire group. So, although companies may "trade paint" in the marketplace, everyone who participates obtains insights to take home and apply to their own strategies and tactics. It is a most efficient way to source vendor partners, be more efficient in product development, understand compliance challenges, and understand how future technologies might impact consumer journeys and internal processes.
In the coming months, we'll be exploring concepts such as disruption, finding focus in a world of chaos, agent incentives and employee engagement, increasing investment returns while managing risk, and of course, economic issues that continue to challenge financial services organizations.
I cannot close without mentioning some of the outreach we have been doing to improve accessibility to, and relevance of, products and services from LOMA and LIMRA for the small-to-midsize companies. This includes LOMA's award-winning education such as designation programs, insurance immersion, recruiting and assessment, and benchmarking tools. We have been communicating with LIMRA product teams involved with consortia research, compliance training, recruiting and onboarding, to provide a greater understanding of LIC member needs including more affordable pricing.
Please feel free to contact me at any time via email (dlambert@limra.com) or by calling (515) 414-6895. I am always interested to know what business concerns might be "keeping you up at night" and also to get to know the stories of the companies in this industry.
Thank you for your interest in and support of the Life Insurers Council.
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