Life Insurer CEO: Vision Matters

The 15th annual Life Insurance Awareness Month 2017 Life Insurance Awareness Month campaign today.

Peter Tedone, president of Vantis Life Insurance Company, said in a recent interview that one of the most important, most time-consuming tasks for a life insurance company leader today is coming up with a vision that includes millennial outreach. Somehow, Tedone said, life insurers have to make young adults aware of the need for life insurance — and of the reality that families may need more life insurance than a typical employer-sponsored plan provides.

Tedone recalled a time when he learned that his own son and daughter-in-law were expecting a baby. “I was thinking, ‘I hope he has life insurance,’” Tedone said. Tedone talked to his son and found out that his son did have life insurance: group life coverage with a death benefit equal to just 200% of his salary. “I said, ‘Wow, that’s not going to do it.’”

(Related: Life Agents Face Internal Awareness Threat: Marvin Feldman)

Most life insurance advisors say families need a death benefit equal to at least 700% of a working parent’s annual earnings.

Tedone’s son bought more coverage.

Tedone said the life insurance industry has to find a way to persuade more baby boomer generation parents to have similar conversations with their own children, to put the idea of protecting their families against the risk of death on their radar.

Vision Check

Tedone has been president of Vantis Life, a company with roots in the savings bank insurance market, since 1987. Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company acquired the company in December 2016.

He said he sees developing a vision as a process for taking a broad view of the company, and of the world. While developing a vision, a company decides what markets it wants to reach, and how it intends to reach those markets.

(Image: Thinkstock)

“How do we want Vantis Life to be viewed in five to 10 years?” Tedone asked.