Mercer acquires Transition Assist

Mercer, a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, reached a definitive agreement to purchase Transition Assist, a retiree exchange specializing in helping retirees in employer-sponsored plans select Medicare supplemental health care insurance. The retiree exchange offers solutions through a licensed call center and professionally-trained benefits counselors. Transition Assist will become part of the full suite of solutions offered by Mercer Marketplace.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Retirees in sponsored plans have been leading the way in the migration toward exchanges as a better way to shop for benefits,” said Sharon Cunninghis, leader of Mercer Marketplace Exchange Solutions. “Transition Assist was among the first to see this opportunity.”

See also: Acquisitions boost insurers’ performances

In other industry news:

The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company named Lynn A. Nolan, CLU, ChFC, CASL, RICP to the Economics, Finance and Taxation Department advisory board at Widener University.

As a board member, Nolan will help direct the department’s undergraduate, Master of Science in Taxation and Financial Planning and CFP Certificate Programs. Board members also assist the department in finding internship and job opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students.

Nolan is the director of Retirement Planning Services at Penn Mutual and provides sales and technical support in the areas of ERISA qualified retirement plans, SIMPLE, SEP, Traditional IRAs, ROTH IRAs, Nonqualified Annuities and Life Insurance.

She is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor’s degree in speech communications and holds a Pennsylvania Life & Annuity insurance license, and Series 6 & 63 registrations with FINRA.

Nolan is a member of the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) Retirement Plans Committee, Society of Financial Service Professionals, American Society of Pension Plan Actuaries (ASPPA), and is an Associate Editor of the FSP Journal and currently president of the National Pension Directors Association.

Daniel P. Mulheran, LLIF, ChFC, CLU has been elected to the Mutual Trust Holding Company board of directors.

Mulheran served as president, Individual Life Distribution, at ING U.S. LLC, from 2007 until his retirement in 2013. During this same period, he also was on the board of directors of ING America Equities. Prior to this period, from 2002-2007, Mulheran was senior VP and head of IGA Distribution, U.S. Life Group, at ING U.S. Financial Services.

After serving in the U.S. Navy and receiving a baccalaureate in business from California State University, Hayward, Mulheran built an insurance and financial services practice, Mulheran & Associates Inc., where he served as president and principal from 1976-2002. Mulheran is also past-president of the Minneapolis Life Underwriter’s Association.  

Principal Financial Group has cut the approval process for life insurance to 48 hours or less with its Principal Accelerated Underwriting program by eliminating the need for paramedical exams or lab testing for qualifying individuals.

Through the program, information is gathered through traditional underwriting sources including an application and a check of MIB, motor vehicle reports and prescription records. The industry leading Principal TeleApp is completed through a brief telephone interview between a TeleApp interviewer and the applicant to collect the applicant’s personal history. For qualifying individuals their application can be approved within 48 hours or less with a Super Preferred or Preferred rating. Eligible applicants include individuals aged 18-60 applying for any retail life insurance products for face amounts up to $1,000,000.

See also: How life insurers can differentiate themselves in the marketplace