Closing the Coverage Gap: Live from LIMRA Annual 2026

Open (00:28)

Paul Tyler Hi, I'm Paul Tyler, and we are excited to be here at the LIMRA Annual Conference, recording a special episode of the L&A Hub podcast. And here today with me are two great people: James from Nasdaq, Dave from LIMRA. No titles, just names.

James Caparosa That's James. We like it like that. Thanks, Paul. We appreciate being here, and it's gonna be a great conversation. Nasdaq is very excited and thankful to be partnered with LIMRA and Zinnia as we continue to move these conversations forward around Life Insurance Awareness Month. Specifically for us, Paul, here at LIMRA, I think about LIMRA as the backbone of the industry as far as the industry data and education that really drives us forward. At Nasdaq, we think of ourselves as the trusted fabric of the global financial system. And it's really important for us to be at the center of the conversations and help our partners that are all here be better informed, drive innovation, drive tomorrow, drive what's next. So that's why we're excited to have these conversations with some of our best partners in the industry today.

Paul Tyler Yeah. And Dave, what are you looking forward to most in the conversations we're gonna have?

Dave Levenson Yeah. So, Paul, I think the theme of the conference is very purposeful, which is driving what's next. There's a lot of change going on in our industry when I think about AI, when I think about changes in things like GLP-1 drugs and the impact on longevity. There's just a lot of change. Interest rates are higher today than they were several years ago. So that just means more value is being put into the product. So a lot of positive momentum, a lot of positive things. And I think that's going to help us certainly address the coverage gap, which is a big part of Life Insurance Awareness Month.

Paul Tyler Well, listen, I can't wait to hear the conversations.

The Gap: Bob Jurgensmeier, Ameritas (02:30)

Paul Tyler Here to my right, to introduce our next guest, is Tina Beckwith, Chief Marketing Officer for LIMRA. Tina.

Tina Beckwith Thank you so much. And to talk to us about why this gap exists, we're here with Bob Jurgensmeier, CEO at Ameritas. So Bob, thank you so much for being here.

Bob Jurgensmeier My pleasure. Great. Love the topic, and definitely part of our conversation at Ameritas as well.

Tina Beckwith So I can only imagine. You've spent most of your career on the actuarial side before becoming CEO, and you now serve on LL Global's board of directors. Taking into account your actuarial experience and all the research, why do you think this gap exists?

Bob Jurgensmeier Well, as I put those two things together, first of all, the actuarial side of it, and actually Dave talked about it this morning in the opening session, it's demographics. That's the reality for us. We've got an aging population, we've got the marriage trends, we've got delayed parenthood, and all those things are not exactly super positive for the life business. But what I like is the research side that tells a more uplifting story for us, which is there's this massive need there. And what I also like is not just that there's a need, but the research says the people know they need it. They believe they need it. And so I think that's the exciting part.

And so even though they know they need it, why do we still have the gap? I don't think it's about a lack of messaging. Life Insurance Awareness Month has been around. So many great messages, so many powerful personal stories, but they're just not reaching the right ears in the end, or at least enough of them. And so for me, too many people that have the need, they know it, they just aren't being asked. And some of that is about not showing up where they're at, whether that's showing up where they're at in their digital life, with social media, now AI, those kinds of things, whether it's their workplace, whether it's in their local communities. And so I think when we show up where they're at, we've got a chance to deliver those great messages, and then maybe make taking action a little bit easier than it has been for them.

If we see an opportunity to make investments toward that, that's appealing.

The Experience: Tom Dempsey, Integrity (04:57)

James Caparosa Hello, I'm James Caparosa, and we are here at the LIMRA Annual Conference, continuing the conversation around Life Insurance Awareness Month. Joining me today are my fellow hosts, Paul Tyler with Zinnia, and Bill Nash, Vice President, Head of Member Relations and Sales at LIMRA. Paul, Bill, thanks for joining us. Bill, I'm gonna turn it over to you.

Bill Nash Thanks, James. To dig into the experience of buying and selling life insurance today, I'm with Tom Dempsey, Chief Distribution Officer from Integrity. Once the consumer decides to begin the process, where does it most often break down?

Tom Dempsey The life experience is different depending on what carrier you're talking about. There's not a streamlined set of circumstances, so it's an inconsistent process, and a lot of the burden is put onto the customer. First of all, it's not a simple process, right? So the more simple you can make the process, the better. And it has to go into underwriting if it's a fully underwritten life insurance product. And obviously there's a 20 to 30 to 40 day lag before you actually get a result. If you were trying to make a more complex, complicated process in a world that is all about time and experience, I don't know if you could create one.

James Caparosa You've been at the forefront of building a platform that really changes the experience you mentioned for the advisors and the consumers. If you look back at what you've accomplished, has it changed the economics? Has it made it easier for the consumer? Has it made it more for the agent?

Tom Dempsey And so we've done that on the health side. We don't charge for the opportunity for an agent or an agency to use our technology, frankly, because the way we make money is when a person gets the protection that they deserve. And so that's really the driving philosophy for us. So when you ask about economics, it does improve the economics, but it improves the economics in the entire system.

Paul Tyler All right, Tom. I'm gonna make you Oz for a day. You get to wave a magic wand and have every carrier build one thing first. What's going to improve completion most for the consumer?

Tom Dempsey It would be greater interconnectedness on the fundamentals on the front end of the process. You heard us talk early on about how there's just so much disconnection, where Carrier X has a different application process because they have different underwriting requirements, because they have different new business and case management, all the different components. I go into it as an agent. Now, if you're an agent, you're not gonna sell 40 carriers, but you have access to 40 carriers, right? Or in our case, like 93 life carriers, as an example. I can't name more than 20 of them, you know what I mean? So at some point there has to be some consistency.

It's the one thing that the wealth side has done very well. Annuities are moving it forward. It's still disconnected in the middle part, but on the front end, at least there's some synergy. At the end of the day, the more that we can make the experience better on the front end, which is greater interconnectedness... Until we get to that place in this industry, there's still going to be friction. You want to do more business, you got to make it easier, and you got to make the experience better.

Distribution: Scott Truka, Simplicity Group (08:12)

Paul Tyler Today we have a leading distributor here, another great partner.

James Caparosa Yeah. I'm honored and excited to introduce Scott Truka, partner with Simplicity. Scott, welcome. Thanks for joining us.

Scott Truka Thanks for having me.

Paul Tyler Talk to us a little bit about what has to change in the industry to reach another generation of insurance buyers.

Scott Truka Yeah, I think it all starts with education. That's why I love Life Insurance Awareness Month. It really gives us and our partners in distribution permission to start talking about life insurance, whether we're very comfortable with it or maybe it's not a core part of our practice. It is the month that we have permission to start talking about this, specifically what can make it easier.

You have to identify the hurdles within the life insurance business, I think, to identify those opportunities. And I think one would stick out with underwriting. How do we streamline that? At Simplicity in particular, we have our own underwriting team, so we can pre-qualify those candidates on the front end and make sure that we're positioning them with the best carrier depending on the needs of the client. The other piece of that, I think, is technology. Our industry is embracing technology. At Simplicity, we are embracing technology to make sure that it's a seamless process, to make sure it's a good experience for everyone, and everyone remembers why they filled out that application, and we can protect more families.

James Caparosa Scott, I'm super interested in the vantage point that you have, Simplicity being a leader on the distribution side of the business, life and annuities. This conversation is more geared towards life insurance, Life Insurance Awareness Month. You work with all carriers, right, across the ecosystem. Is there one thing that stands out that carriers are doing really, really well when it comes to underwriting, just the experience of purchasing life insurance for the customer? And is there one main area that you see break down a lot that we can improve upon?

Scott Truka Yeah, I would say we have so much data in our hands today, and carriers have so much data in their hands, that I think it allows us to speed up the process. And I do think this is a time-sensitive business, when somebody applies and takes that leap to say, you know what, you're right, I do need some life insurance for whatever that need is. So I think the time is there.

The Next Generation: Rob TeKolste, Sammons Financial Group (10:24)

James Caparosa We're here at the LIMRA Annual Conference, continuing the conversation around life insurance awareness and helping more consumers close the protection gap that exists in the marketplace today. Joining me in the conversation is Paul Tyler with Zinnia. Paul, welcome.

Paul Tyler Thank you.

James Caparosa And Dave Levenson, CEO and President of LIMRA and LOMA.

Dave Levenson Morning, James.

James Caparosa Welcome.

Dave Levenson Thank you. Well, there's another person joining us as well, and that's Rob TeKolste, who is President of Sammons Financial Group. Rob, what do you think we have to do as an industry to really get to the next generation of consumers?

Rob TeKolste I think the key here is how do we become relevant to this group? The fundamentals of our business have not changed. People need to buy life insurance, people need to buy annuity products. But what has changed is their expectations. Consumers today want things faster, quicker, less friction. They want a better individual experience as well. So our opportunity here is to put all of this together into a better package ultimately for the consumer. That involves a lot of things, right? Part of it's technology, part of it's culture, part of it's people, part of it's just the overall solution. Part of it, as we talked about in the board meeting two days ago, is just how do we tell our story better as well. If we can do all of this, we've got a tremendous opportunity to reach that next generation.

James Caparosa I couldn't agree more. Rob, all the thoughts you shared with us today are very insightful. I think you highlighted a lot of the critical areas that we're continuing to hear at the conference. And I think the main point that I'm taking away from the discussion is what you just said, the action piece, right? Really taking what we're learning, what we're hearing, what each of the leaders sitting down with us in these conversations are sharing, and putting it into action. So I want to thank you so much. Really insightful conversation.

The Technology: Kartik Sakthivel, John Hancock (12:31)

Paul Tyler With me is Kaye Hacker, the new Chief Administrative Officer for LIMRA. Thank you for joining us. Would you like to introduce our guest?

Kaye Hacker That would be great. Thanks for the introduction. And I really want to introduce my friend here. He's the CIO at John Hancock, Kartik Sakthivel. Welcome to the podcast with us. We look forward to talking about technology with you a little bit.

Kartik Sakthivel Yeah. I'm excited to be able to talk technology with you folks. It's a little bit of a surreal feeling being on this side of the curtain, having been at LIMRA and LOMA for eight and a half years.

Kaye Hacker Well, great, great. Well, let's start with an easy one. Could you talk to us a little bit about your technology strategy at John Hancock? Where are you focusing, and where are you really seeing results?

Kartik Sakthivel I like to tell people, given all the things with AI, given all the things with technology, it is a super exciting time to be a technology professional, second only to being a technology professional at John Hancock. We are in growth mode. John Hancock is in growth mode, and it's a privilege to be able to have technology front and center supporting our strategy. But with that is execution, execution, execution. From a technology prism, having that predictability, Kaye, of time, cost, and quality is how technology organizations earn the right to do more, right? While AI has consumed the oxygen in the room, and rightfully so, and we are 100% indexed on AI, with Manulife being an AI leader across the industry, I think it's incredibly important for us at John Hancock to focus on execution.

James Caparosa So let's stay on the AI theme, either from the lens of John Hancock or, even more, at an industry level, because this is Life Insurance Awareness Month. We all heard how AI is going to take over the world. How's it going to take over life insurance in the next couple of years?

Kartik Sakthivel Yeah, great question. Let's just reorient ourselves and start with why. According to LIMRA data, there are 100 million Americans that are uninsured and underinsured, right? A hundred million Americans. That is unconscionable for the richest country on the face of this planet, right? In history. The second data point I would add: James, when you think about life insurance, it is Life Insurance Awareness Month, it is the only financial product that you're not purchasing for yourself, right? You're buying it for somebody else. That's incredibly empowering, right? So if we have the ability to use math, science, data, AI, and technology, as our global chief technology and operations officer, Seamus, says, to be able to help customers live longer, healthier, better lives, that's a win.

So from an AI perspective, in our industry, let's be honest. No one's accused the insurance industry of being on the bleeding edge of technological innovation, right? That never happened. But we are bringing AI capabilities to bear. Like most other industries, we focused on building out productivity, right? Productivity is an easy lift, it's an easy gain, because you can measure the value coming out of that. But we're also extraordinarily careful. According to LIMRA research that we did in 2023, our organizations prioritize ethical issues in models versus methodological issues or performance, right? Ethics is number one. It's not just a regulatory and compliance aspect; it's because that's who we are as an industry. So it's extremely important for us to make sure that any AI capabilities that we bring to bear are decidedly focused on making sure that we're getting the most out of our colleagues, our employees, in order to support our customers, in order to protect more American lives. So if you think about where the use cases are, we have AI use cases across the value chain today, and we'll continue to do so.

James Caparosa As you're thinking about the future of technology, where would you say the biggest investments should be made?

Kartik Sakthivel So a few things, right? Number one, look, legacy systems are going to be an albatross around our industry's neck, right? They inhibit our progress, inhibit our growth, not just because it's a legacy system, but because of the gold mine of data contained within it, right? So that's number one. So make sure that you're focused on paying down your technical debt, your legacy systems.

Number two: data, data, data, right? It's almost like our industry woke up 10 years ago like, my God, we've got gobs and gobs of data everywhere. We should do something cogent with it, right? So focus on your data. I promise you, you will not be able to realize great AI with poor data, right? That's not going to happen.

Number three, investments in AI. Obviously, everybody's doing it. It's not another wave of technology. It's here to stay. So make sure you capitalize on it.

But the one thing we never should under-index on is culture, right? Culture, culture, culture. Culture is going to eat strategy for breakfast. The faster the pace of change, the more acutely important it is for your organization to focus on culture. Look, AI is not just technology for technology's sake; it is a business process transformation. So as soon as you start transforming your business processes, that's when the antibodies come out, right? "We've always done it this way." It doesn't matter. It's important for you, as stewards of your organizations, to be able to navigate your firms through this cultural transformation.

The Product: Chris Blunt, Peak Altitude Equity (17:28)

Paul Tyler Sean, do you want to do the honors in our intro?

Sean Grindall I would love to, Paul. Thank you. And pleased to be joined here today by Chris Blunt, who is CEO of Peak Altitude Equity. And we're gonna talk about the gap in insurance today. So, Chris, I know the last seven years you've really had the privilege of leading product across life insurance, annuities, institutional distribution, and most recently you moved to lead distribution. As you think about the consumer out there, the gap that we have in product, particularly around life insurance, what do you think is the biggest mismatch?

Chris Blunt Yeah, I would say, and it's an obvious point, but our industry has grown largely through larger premiums to more affluent clients. And so I think the biggest gap has been in the middle market. Product design needs to be a little bit different when you're playing in the middle market. Premiums are a bit smaller. You need them to do more. And then I think process becomes in many ways more important than product itself, meaning you've got to figure out how to make the process seamless, more automated. So I think the development of more and more digital products is going to be a real benefit in the middle market.

James Caparosa Chris, that's great. I actually wanna stay on that topic for a second, from a product lens. How much of what you're seeing is being derived at a product level, where you're thinking about product versus what's good for the carrier, agent, and the consumer? Where do you see that balance being struck?

Chris Blunt Yeah, it's a great point. Obviously it's gotta work for everyone. And I think, take network marketing, for example, which is one of the few channels that has been penetrating the middle market and doing a great job where all the young family formation is.

Paul Tyler Chris, maybe talk a little bit more about the experience that carriers really have to provide to target that middle market, because a lot of people don't have big balances in their checkbooks. And when we're talking to the middle market, pulling money for a premium on the wrong day of the wrong month can really blow up a policy that an agent spent a lot of time cultivating. If we really want to get there, what...

Sean Grindall Want to build on that, Chris. So as you think about the future, right? If you look at today, we have those that are purchasing insurance. They know how it fits in their plan, they have confidence in it, they tend to buy more. And then you think about the hundred million Americans who are self-identifying that they don't have enough insurance. So as an industry, as carriers, what do we need to do from a product perspective to engage those 100 million that know they need insurance but just haven't taken that step?

Chris Blunt Yeah, it's probably the biggest frustration for all of us. I've sadly been doing this now for 40 years, my fortieth year in our industry. And it's the one area where you think, wow, I would have thought we would have made much more progress by now, as you look at uninsured, underinsured. The gap is massive. I think it's a couple of things. It's how we position the product. So again, I think living benefits to a younger person are much more appealing. People love combination products. So I think that's a feature of our industry as well, meaning they love the idea that these premiums aren't wasted. One way or another, I'm gonna use them. Either I'll build some cash for retirement at some point, or if I need it for long-term care, for example, I can use it for that benefit. So I think there's a huge education piece. We talked about this at the LIMRA board meeting in some depth over the last couple of days: what more can LIMRA do? What more can our industry do to change the narrative around both life insurance and annuities?

James Caparosa Chris, I'm gonna take a personal route here. We're at the LIMRA Annual Conference, it's the end of September, we're talking about life insurance, it's the tail end of Life Insurance Awareness Month. Is there any personal connection for you with life insurance, whether it's personal or something you've seen working with agents and advisors over 40 years in the industry?

Chris Blunt Yeah, yeah. This is a tough one. I'll try not to get too emotional here. But I recently lost my brother. We've all seen it in our careers, and having spent a long time in the insurance industry, we understand the social purpose of what we do and how important it is. I would say for me it was extra personal, right? To see the role that it played. At the end of his life, he was incredibly focused on wanting to leave a legacy for his two girls. And it sort of consumed his final thoughts, the pride that he had that he could help them jumpstart their lives, have a little less financial stress. That was pretty important. So every once in a while you get a very real why we do what we do.

James Caparosa Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. It's a great reminder. Sometimes we just go about what we do day to day, and there's a human, there's a person, at the other end of that policy that we're selling.

Chris Blunt You know, at F&G we started introducing more agents into town hall meetings, and a number of them told their personal stories, like what I just shared. And you could see heads nodding. A prior boss of mine used to say this all the time: our core product is a social good, and we can never take that for granted. We don't sell polluting chemicals and then spend time on charitable work trying to make up for it. At the end of the day, what we do is incredibly sacred.

James Caparosa Thanks again for sharing.

Paul Tyler Yeah, well, thanks so much for coming by. I guess, any recommendations to the industry for 2027, and priorities that we all should be focused on?

Chris Blunt Yeah, I would play a little bit off some of our board discussions, and I would say cohesion. The real goal for all of us is to grow the pie. Life insurance and annuities are underutilized tools in the toolkit. So there tends to be more of a battle of, I want to take premiums from you, you want to take premiums from me, as opposed to: there's a massive opportunity here. There are multi-trillions of dollars of assets at play. And so whatever we can do as an industry to make it easier, make it simpler, increase the wallet share of protection products relative to traditional investment products, can be a huge win for everybody.

Sean Grindall I really thank you for taking the time here today to spend with us, share your thoughts, and talk about the conversation we've had over the last couple of days.

Chris Blunt Awesome. Thank you.

Close (24:00)

Paul Tyler So, Dave, we had some great conversations with a terrific set of leaders. What were your biggest takeaways?

Dave Levenson Well, I'm gonna throw out a few things, Paul. I'll probably echo a lot of what they were saying, but certainly, if we're gonna address the coverage gap, we've got to keep things simple. We've got to pump up our marketing and make sure that our message is getting out to more people. We've got to meet people where they are. And we've got to really focus on that middle class. I think we've done a pretty good job with the higher net worth and estate planning. And I think we've done a really nice job with final expense, but we still have that middle that really could benefit a lot from what we bring. Today's a unique time, too, because with interest rates a little bit higher, I do think that enables us to put even more value into the product. With people living longer, that enables the price to come down a little bit. So I think this is a really carpe diem time, and I'd love to see us get after it.

James Caparosa Yeah. Dave, that's really great to hear. Resonates a lot. And for me personally, this conference is always a great one. It's one I put on the calendar because there are so many leaders in the industry here. And not just the conversations happening in the breakouts; there are a lot of conversations that happen after, right? And a lot of what I'm talking to my peers about is what's next in 2027 and beyond for the industry, and how do we move everything forward together? Is there one thing you're looking for from leaders across the industry as far as what we do next to activate some of what we're learning here at the conference?

Dave Levenson We have a hundred million Americans that are underinsured or uninsured. There's plenty for everyone. And I think the one message that I have is that the way the industry has been behaving for the last several decades, just continue that, which is all about collaboration. We solve the problem working together, not working by ourselves. And historically our industry has done a really nice job with that. And I just think if we can continue that, things are gonna be really bright for us, and certainly for the customers we serve.