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Life Health > Annuities

Zinnia Closes on Business That Includes AnnuityNet

By Allison Bell

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A company that owns Policygenius, and is part of Eldridge Industries, the owner of Security Benefit, is now a top annuity distribution infrastructure player.

Zinnia, the Eldridge Industries company, said Monday that it has closed on the purchase of AnnuityNet and other life and annuity technology businesses from Ebix.

AnnuityNet was a pioneer in annuity distribution technology. It continues to dominate that market, along with iPipeline and Hexure.

Operations at AnnuityNet and its siblings “will be uninterrupted for customers and partners, providing continuity for the life insurance and annuity ecosystem,” Zinnia said.

Zinnia has put the 770 employees who came over from Ebix via a new Life and Annuity Exchange Solutions division.

What the deal means: Zinnia said it aims to build “modern rails” for the insurance industry.

Zinnia is part of Eldridge, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based holding company, or company that buys and controls over companies.

Eldridge acquired Security Benefit, an annuity issuer, in 2017, then turned Security Benefit’s technology arm, SE2, into a separate company. SE2 changed its name to Zinnia in 2022.

Eldridge may be best known for its 40% stake in Penske Media, the publisher of Variety, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter.

Zinnia acquired a web-based life insurance distributor, Breathe Life, in 2022, and a second web-based life distributor, Policygenius, in 2023.

AnnuityNet: The firm is a consortium backed by life insurers formed AnnuityNet in 1997. Ebix, a Georgia-based technology company, acquired the company in 2006.

Ebix has had problems with a gift card business in India. To deal with these issues, Ebix has filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas. Ebix is selling its life and annuity businesses to pay its creditors.

In addition to AnnuityNet, Zinnia is getting the LifeSpeed life insurance distribution tech business, the WinFlex product illustration system business, the TPP insurance underwriting system  business, the SmartOffice customer relation management business and a consulting business.

Details of the deal: Ebix originally met with 12 potential life and annuity business buyers in early 2023, and nine made offers, according to a court filing. Later, Zinnia and three other companies made offers.

Zinnia announced in December 2023 that it had agreed to pay at least $400 million for the life and annuity businesses, to create a floor for a court-supervised bidding process.

Zinnia received bankruptcy court permission to acquire the assets in February.

Credit: Adobe Stock

Allison Bell

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