Security Mutual Appoints Hunsinger to Second VP

The Recruiting Specialist Award recognizes the importance of a recruiter in an agency or firm in both ordinary/traditional and multiline sectors. Prior to joining Life Solutions Group, Jason Pratt was manager of agency recruitment at a national financial services company where he was responsible for the selection process in the company’s four offices. Pratt’s earlier professional experience includes positions as a division lead and director of recruitment and selection during which his group was awarded for outstanding results in recruiting and sales.

Barbara Hume has joined the Insured Retirement Institute as its vice president of Membership. Hume brings to IRI more than 30 years of industry experience in retirement services and annuity sales and marketing. Most recently, she was the chief marketing officer for Annuity/Retirement and Distribution Marketing at Sun Life Financial.

Before Hume joined Sun Life, she was the chief marketing officer for Data Life, a software solutions provider for the insurance industry. During her career Hume also has served as the divisional vice president, Investment and Income Division at MetLife; vice president, Annuities and Retirement Services at Prudential Investments; and vice president, Variable Product Management at Connecticut Mutual Financial Services.

Hume earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Maine and is a graduate of the Executive Development Program at the Wharton School of Business.

Northwestern Mutual, Milwaukee, Wis., has begun a multi-year philanthropic program to fight childhood cancer through the Northwestern Mutual Foundation.

To kick off the program, Northwestern Mutual donated nearly $500,000 in grants to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and Starlight Children’s Foundation.

The partnerships will start a range of programs and events in communities across the country. The company is establishing the Northwestern Mutual Childhood Cancer Research Fund and Family Travel Fund in partnership with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. In early 2013, it will also fund Great Escapes and Fun Centers around the nation through Starlight Children’s Foundation.

The Northwestern Mutual Childhood Cancer Research Fund will support ALSF’s initiatives to fund critical research, including:

• Innovation Grants to provide vital seed funding for experienced medical investigators with a novel and promising approach to finding causes and cures for childhood cancer;
• Young Investigator Grants to encourage the best and brightest young scientists to enter the field of pediatric cancer research; and
• Program Infrastructure Grants to speed up the process of enrolling children with cancer in clinical trials.

Unum, Chattanooga, Tenn., (NYSE:UNM) has earned the ClearMark Award from the Center for Plain Language for its guide on filing a disability claim. Judges at the recent ClearMark Awards named the guide the best document in its category.

Judges praised the guide’s clear timeline and direct, jargon-free language. The revision of the guide was part of a much broader effort across the company to make Unum’s communications to its customers simpler and more effective.

“This recognition is a great indication of the value of the work we’ve done to simplify our communications in every area of the business,” said Chris St. John, Consumer Strategy director at Unum. “Our industry is complex, so it’s a challenge to make plain language the standard. But we’re focused on making it happen.”