LifeShield Agrees to Acquire Individual Assurance Company Parent

A privately held life insurer with ties to Oklahoma City’s MidFirst Bank may be getting into the Medicare supplement insurance business.

The MidFirst affiliate, LifeShield National Insurance Company, says it has agreed to acquire IAC Group, the parent of Individual Assurance Company, for a price that was not disclosed.

David Brooks, LifeShield’s president, said in a statement that the deal will help LifeShield improve its operational capabilities.

The deal “will enable both companies to become leading providers of products in the senior market,” Brooks said in the statement.

LifeShield

The Midland Group, a company owned by the family of George Records and by Records family trusts, controls both LifeShield National and MidFirst Bank. MidFirst Bank says in its financial report for the first quarter that it believes itself to be the second largest privately owned financial institution in the United States, with about $19 billion in assets.

LifeShield National is licensed to operate in 43 states. It’s best known for sales of short-term health insurance, life insurance, critical illness insurance, accident insurance, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance. Most of its customers are individuals, associations, school districts, and small and midsize businesses.

The company had about $92 million in assets in 2018 and $90 million in national premium revenue, according to the Texas Department of Insurance.

Individual Assurance

IAC is an Edmond, Oklahoma-based company that started out in 1956 as Institutional Agencies Corp. The company formed a Missouri-domiciled life insurer — Individual Assurance Company, Life, Health & Accident — in 1973. The company moved its official state of domicile to Oklahoma in 2014, according to the Missouri Department of Insurance.

Individual Assurance is now best known for selling Medicare supplement insurance, group term life insurance, and life and health policy administration services.

The Deal

LifeShield says the boards of both LifeShield and IAC Group have approved the LifeShield-IAC Group deal. The companies still need to get approvals for the deal from state insurance regulators.

Once the deal is completed, Individual Assurance will continue to operate under its current name, as a subsidiary of LifeShield, LifeShield says.

Brooks plans to oversee IAC Group as well as LifeShield.

Jim Harlin, who is now the chairman and chief executive of IAC Group, will serve as a consultant, LifeShield says.

All IAC Group employees will continue with the company after the deal is completed, LifeShield says.