Byron Allen, President/CEO, American Savings Life Insurance Company

Dan Gardner, Author

 The media are partly to blame for not holding experts to account when their predictions fail. But more fundamentally, the answer lies in psychology and the brain’s profound aversion to uncertainty: We believe because we want to believe. But we don’t have to be suckers for soothsayers. If we understand the psychology that compels us to believe, we can learn to distinguish between reasonable forecasts and the tales of confident experts. And that can help us make good decisions that leave us better prepared for the future. No matter what happens.

Dan Gardner is a New York Times best-selling author, speaker, consultant, and freelance writer/editor. His three books on psychology and decision-making -- published in 25 countries and 19 languages -- have been praised by everyone from The Economist to Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman.

Dierdre Woodruff, Sr. Vice President, Puritan Life Insurance Company of America
Dan Shinnick, CEO and Board Chair, BetterLife

Hear about direct to consumer marketing from two companies that were both very early in committing to D2C but used two different products for this initiative. Learn why they chose this route, what’s worked and what hasn’t worked in terms of executing your plan, and what their expectations are for the future.  

Eugene Shafronsky, Head of Strategy, thinktum inc

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the primary driver of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), significantly impacting the insurance industry. With some insurance lines of business starting to incorporate AI into their systems, most of the Life Insurance sector has been experiencing several challenges in succeeding at tech innovation. With AI and 4IR forcing the race for the most optimized, personalized user experience, organizations must continue reinventing themselves to remain in the game. The session will focus on:

• AI and 4IR impact the insurance industry.
• Existing AI implementation-related challenges.
• Current and upcoming industry trends.
• Observations from and experiences with the global market.
• An alliance to make the industry better for all.

Thinktum is an innovation enabler in the insuretech space. Current developments include various no-code and low-code insurance turn-key solutions, with an AI-driven personalized risk-assessment engine as its current core asset.

Michael Fosbury, President & CEO, Columbian Mutual Life Insurance Company
Dan Acker, President & CMO, SILAC Insurance Company
Alan Jahde, JD, L.L.M., CEO, Investors Preferred Life Insurance Company

Many smaller companies struggle with growth but each of the companies on this panel offer a unique perspective of success: a start-up, an established company that pivoted into a new product line, and one with a long history of success that has attracted outside capital to fuel future growth. Bring your questions and share your perspective in this interactive discussion with Q&A. 

LIC’s traditional annual banquet is a chance to enjoy fine dining, develop old and new friendships in the industry, and hear a light-hearted State of the Association address as the leadership changes from outgoing LIC Chair Byron Allen, President/CEO, American Savings Life Insurance Company, to incoming 2022 Chair Francois Duguay, Executive Vice President & Chief Actuary, Optimum Life Reinsurance.

Francois Duguay, Executive Vice President & Chief Actuary, Optimum Life Reinsurance

S. Jay Olshansky, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago and Lapetus Solutions, Inc.

The rise of human longevity in the 20^th and 21^st centuries has brought forth new challenges and opportunities. While many more people will live to extreme old age in this century than ever before, the challenges imposed by aging bodies will lead to unprecedented increases in frailty and disability, and incredible new opportunities for those that achieve old age in good mental and physical health. In the first part of this talk Dr. Olshansky will explain why such limits to human longevity exist, what the prospects are for life extension in this century, as well as why aging biology is on the verge of a breakthrough that will enable medicine and public health to slow down the rate at which we age. The consequence will be an extension of healthy life—perhaps the most precious commodity that exists.

Given the limits imposed by our aging bodies and the breakthroughs in aging science that are forthcoming, how is it possible to navigate the landscape of predicting survival and health by industries that rely on such assessments? In the second half of the talk, Dr. Olshansky will run a live demonstration of a new kind of “Minority Report” that allows for remote assessments of health and longevity by combining the scientific tools of AI, epidemiology, genetics, and aging biology. These are ideal tools to use in a Covid and post-Covid world where biological information drawn from body fluids will be supplemented or replaced by new tools of assessment science developed just within the last decade.

Jay Olshansky is a professor at University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health and co-founder and chief scientist at Lapetus Solutions. The focus of his research is on estimating upper limits to human longevity, population aging, forecasts of longevity, slow aging in people (the “longevity dividend”), and the reemergence of communicable diseases. A board member of the American Federation of Aging Research, Olshansky authored The Quest for Immortality and A Measured Breath of Life and co-edited Aging: The Longevity Dividend. During the last 25 years, Dr. Olshansky has been working with colleagues in the biological sciences to develop the modern "biodemographic paradigm" of mortality—an effort to understand the biological nature of the survival and dying out processes of living organisms.

Jeff Shaw, CLU, ChFC, Executive Director, LIC

From LIC’s unique vantage point as THE trade association for small to midsize life insurance companies, we have the ability to synthesize what we’ve heard and learned throughout the year, data and research we have special access to, and the insight that comes from having a finger on the pulse of what matters to companies like yours. While we’re still considering the most timely and practically useful ideas to focus this time on, anyone who has heard Jeff Shaw’s trademark closing presentations can attest that this will be an engaging and interactive discussion about this segment of the life insurance industry and how we can ensure its success and competitiveness into the future!