A team from Unum Group met with investors Wednesday and presented a slidedeck full of details of interest to agents and brokers.
Rick McKenney, the company’s president, and eight other executives talked about the Unum’s recent financial performance, and the company’s outlook for 2018.
The executives said they see good sales and premium growth trends, and expect to report earnings at the top end of the predicted range, according to the slidedeck.
(Related: Unum Enters Health Stop-Loss Market)
The executives also gave some details about operations at each of its major divisions. That includes the Unum US business, the Colonial Life worksite benefits unit and the “closed block” unit.
The closed block unit is the division that oversees Unum’s long-term care insurance (LTCI) business. Unum no longer writes new LTCI coverage, but continues to manage a large amount of in-force LTCI coverage.
Unum’s comments on its own U.S. divisions may show what’s really happening in the markets for health-related products and employee benefits other than major medical insurance.
Unum filed a copy of the slidedeck with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The copy is available here.
Here are five highlights about Unum’s divisions, drawn from the slidedeck.
(Image: Thinkstock)
1. Health plan stop-loss numbers
Unum began offering health plan stop-loss insurance, or insurance that protects sponsors of self-insured employer health plans against catastrophic risk, this summer. The first stop-loss coverage sold through the new program will take effect Jan. 1, 2018.
Unum says in the slidedeck that it expects to generate about $10 million in stop-loss sales in 2018, with sales growing rapidly from there over the next three years.
2. Starmount deal impact numbers
Unum acquired Starmount Life Insurance Company and its affiliates, which are major sellers of dental and vision benefits, in August 2016.
Unum began offering dental and vision plans powered by Starmount in about half of the United States this year. Unum is offering Starmount-backed dental and vision plans throughout the United States for 2018.
Unum had received 40,300 requests for quotes for group dental and vision coverage as of mid-November, up from 8,300 requests for group dental and vision quotes in 2016, according to the slidedeck.
“In 2017, regions with access to Starmount dental experienced 10%-15% higher disability and life quote activity versus other regions,” according to the slidedeck.
3. Colonial Life distribution force
Voluntary and worksite insurers have been much more visibly focused on working with traditional insurance agents and brokers than many other types of insurers have been in the past few years.
Colonial Life has a total of 10,000 career agents and 14,000 brokers under contract.
At Colonial Life, Unum says, the number of new sales representatives is up 2.8%.