AmeriLife, a Frequent Financial Services Firm Buyer, Raises More Cash

What You Need to Know

The companies are not saying how big the Genstar investment will be, but Genstar will emerge with a joint partnership with Thomas H. Lee.
Thomas H. Lee Partners acquired control over AmeriLife from J.C. Flowers in 2020.
Since then, AmeriLife has grown its financial professional relationship count to 300,000, from 140,000.

A company that has been an active buyer of life insurance, health insurance and retirement services firms appears to have a big new pot of cash.

AmeriLife Group announced today that it has received a “strategic investment” from Genstar Capital — a large, San Francisco-based private equity firm.

The companies are not disclosing the size of the investment, but they are saying that Genstar will end up as an equal to and joint partner with Thomas H. Lee Partners.

Thomas H. Lee acquired control over AmeriLife from yet another large private equity firm, J.C. Flowers & Co., about two years ago. AmeriLife did not give the value of that financing transaction, either, but it reported in 2019 that it had refinanced about $395 million in corporate credit facilities.

“Genstar’s investment will accelerate our growth and help us continue to build out our platform to provide superior support to our carrier partners, our affiliates and our agents,” Scott Perry, AmeriLife’s chairman and CEO, said in a comment included in the deal announcement.

What It Means

If you own a financial services firm, AmeriLife-led transactions may help determine its valuation.

And AmeriLife affiliates may be doing business with an increasing number of your own clients and prospects.

AmeriLife

AmeriLife is a Clearwater, Florida-based company.

In 2020, it had relationships with about 140,000 insurance agents and advisors and 50 insurance agency locations.

It says it now has about 90 offices, and relationships with about 300,000 financial professionals and 5 million consumers.

AmeriLife recently announced that it had completed a transaction with Bachmeier, Gudis and Associates, a Philadelphia-based insurance marketing organization that was founded in 2008, in a deal described as a “partnering.”

An AmeriLife spokesman said the company is bullish about its deal pipeline.