Bears Care LIC strives to leave a lasting impact in the areas where we hold meetings. For the 2025 LIC Final Expense Workshop, we have partnered with Bears Care, the charitable arm of the Chicago Bears. Bears Care is committed to improving the quality of life for people in the Chicagoland community, especially disadvantaged children and their families, through targeted programs supporting education, youth athletics, and medical research and health awareness. We invite you to contribute: Donate Here.
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Managing Final Expense Profitability: In managing life products, especially small face life products, mortality is the biggest factor in achieving profitability and expected results. Tiny improvements in execution can mean big increases in profitability when you sell large volumes of small policies. Are you managing every aspect of this process? This annual workshop held in June includes detailed presentations covering all areas of final expense administration, management, and marketing. Attendees hear from industry experts, case studies, and discussion with peers at other companies, and have ample time for networking with fellow attendees and vendors interested in working with final expense companies.
This year’s LIC Final Expense Workshop is hosted by Optimum Life Re, and the venue will be The Drake Hotel in Oak Brook, IL. The meeting will begin at 8:00 a.m. on June 17, and end by noon on June 18, 2025.
For maximum visibility and to show your support of LIC’s work in the industry, please consider becoming a Sponsor of the LIC Final Expense Workshop: www.loma.org/LICSponsorships.
Who Attends the LIC Final Expense Workshop
Senior management from companies involved in—or interested in—the final expense business will find this meeting extremely beneficial. Past attendees have been about equally CEO/C-level, senior management, and middle management involved in executive, actuarial, claims, distribution/sales, marketing, operations/administration, product line, underwriting, and legal/compliance.
Companies registered to attend:
Aetna (Lead Director Product Management/Development)
Citizens Inc. (VP/Senior Actuary)Continental General (Chief Actuary, VP/Life Actuary, Head of Sales, Chief Transformation Officer, AVP Business Transformation, AVP New Business & Underwriting, and SVP/Chief Operating Officer)
Converge Re (Senior Director, Actuary)
CSA Fraternal Life (Compliance Manager)
CVS/Aetna (Director, Senior Actuary)
ELCO Mutual (National Sales Director, VP of Operations)
EMC Life (Actuarial Manager)
Emtech Group, Inc. (Senior Sales Executive)
EnrollHere (VP of Partnerships)
Epoq (Business Development Director)
Equisoft (VP Insurance Solutions)
Everest (Director of Business Development)
ExamOne (Strategic Account Executive)
Friedland Consulting Services (Principal)
GPM Life (Manager-Distribution)
Guarantee Trust Life (Product Actuary)
illustrate inc (AVP Business Development)
Innova Solutions (Senior Director of Sales of L&A Insurance)
InsurTech Express (CEO)
iPipeline (Director-Sales)
Kansas City Life/Old American (RVP, Assistant Actuary)
Kemper (Director)
Liberty Bankers Insurance Group (CEO, VP Life Operations, and Senior VP/National Sales Manager Life Division)
Management Data Inc. (Solution Architect)
Milliman (Principal and Consulting Actuary, Actuarial Analyst)
Munich Re (2nd VP/Business Development Actuary, AVP/Marketing Actuary, Sr. Underwriting Consultant, Senior VP)
Mutual of Omaha (Vice President and Actuary)
Old American Insurance Company (AVP Sales & Marketing, Regional Directors, AVP/Associate Actuary)
Optimum Life Re (Senior VP Pricing and R&D, AVP Client Services, VP Business Development)
RGA (VP/Actuary, Executive Director Underwriting Innovation, Director of Underwriting Innovation, Associate Director-Client Audit, VP Business Development, and VP Strategic Underwriting Initiatives)
SBLI (Chief Actuary, Chief Distribution Officer)
Senior Life (President and Chief Operating Officer)
Sons of Norway (Chief Underwriter and Compliance Officer)
Todd Adrian is an experienced leader in competitive intelligence and product development with over 28 years in the life insurance industry and over 25 years focused on product development, market analysis and competitive intelligence. As Senior Marketing Manager, Product Development at Americo, Todd has a proven track record of analyzing industry trends, identifying emerging opportunities and launching products that have helped Americo sustain success in the Final Expense market.
Denis Clifford is Chief Growth Officer at Afficiency. In this role, Denis is responsible for Sales, Marketing and Business Development initiatives and the profitable execution of Afficiency’s business mission. Denis brings more than 20 years of hands-on distribution experience serving the industry as a manager, leader, consultant, and advisor within distribution (Ash Brokerage) and life carriers (SBLI). A highly regarded member of the life insurance community, Denis was the 2022 recipient of the Life Insurance Direct Marketing Association’s “Vision Award.”
He currently resides with his family in Andover, MA and is a member of industry trade associations NAILBA, NAIFA, and a current board member of LIDMA.
SVP, National Sales Manager, Liberty Bankers Insurance Group
David Decker started his career in sales with MetLife in 1986. After 21 years at MetLife, he left to become the President of Guardian Life’s independent IMO, Innovative Underwriters. Most recently, he was the Head of Distribution at Royal Neighbors of America before joining Liberty Bankers in 2024 as the SVP of the Ordinary Life Division.
Vice President, Strategic Underwriting Initiatives U.S. Individual Life, RGA
Scott Grandmont is Vice President of Strategic Underwriting Initiatives. He leads a team that drives underwriting innovation through thought leadership, program development, research & development and data & analytics functions. In addition, his organization supports RGA’s Risk Dimension (rx scoring solutions) and underwriting workbench capabilities. He brings a wealth of experience relating to market, product and underwriting program development.
Prior to joining RGA in 2015, he was Executive Director of Underwriting Automation at Clinical Reference Laboratory (CRL). Previously, he was the Chief Underwriter for Phoenix Life and an Underwriter at Mass Mutual. His Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in business administration is from Western New England College and his Master of Science (M.S.) degree in management is from the American College. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Life Underwriters (FALU), a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), and a Fellow of the Life Management Institute (FLMI). He is also a past president of the New England Home Office Underwriting Association (NEHOUA), a past AHOU Planning Committee member, and a past member of Association of Life Underwriters’ exam group.
Senior Vice President, US Pricing, and Actuarial R&D, Optimum Life Reinsurance
Michel Hébert is an actuary and Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. As the Senior Vice President at Optimum, Michel leads the actuarial pricing for all lines of business and manages the analytics team. This team is renowned for developing the PEARL benchmarking tool for Final Expense and Fully Underwritten business, utilizing predictive analytics to deliver valuable insights that help insurance companies manage and improve their profitability. With 30 years of actuarial experience, Michel has held various roles at Optimum over the past 16 years. Outside of his professional achievements, Michel is a competitive individual who enjoys playing tennis, cycling, fishing and performing as a saxophonist in a jazz band.
Nathan Hill is a Vice President and Actuary within RGA's US Individual Life division, where he is responsible for pricing traditional individual life YRT and Coinsurance quotes since 2019. Prior to his current role, Nathan worked in RGA's Financial Solutions area with a focus on financial reinsurance and reserve financing pricing and risk management starting in 2012. Prior to RGA, Nathan worked at The Hartford and Country Financial on the direct side, and has been working as an actuary for over 18 years. Nathan is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA). He holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Director, Underwriting Innovation U.S. Individual Life, RGA
Mark James, Certified FALU, FLMI, ACS is a member of the Underwriting Innovation Team with RGA’s U.S. Individual Life division. He joined RGA in 2023 and has worked in the industry for over a decade, serving in underwriting capacities for both direct carriers and reinsurers. Mark’s current focus is on the analysis of digital health data and underwriting rules, as well as in initiatives around application and product design. Mark is active with several industry associations, and previously served on the ALU committee as an Exam Writer.
Al Klein is a Principal and Consulting Actuary with Milliman, located in Buffalo Grove, IL.
Al’s expertise includes mortality and longevity. He is responsible for Milliman’s life experience studies, which includes traditional products, final expense, COLI/BOLI, and simplified issue and consults with his clients on all of these topics.
Al has been a regular attendee of the LIC Final Expense Workshop for about 15 years and is a frequent speaker at this and many other industry meetings.
Bill Mehilos is a Principal and Consulting Actuary at Milliman based in Indianapolis
He joined the firm in 2017 and has 20+ years of experience with life insurance products. Bill’s life insurance experience includes:
Product/Actuarial consultant on countless whole life, term, and universal life products in all markets
Product development lead and subject matter expert on pricing and underwriting for many final expense whole life products in the senior market and term products in the younger market.
Lead actuarial consultant to many carriers working with the leading technology driven IMO’s (Insurance Marketing Organizations)
Actuarial and product strategy consultant to most worksite life carriers
Consultant and modeler in various capacities for valuation and other financial reporting, where he led:
Liability modeling in several actuarial appraisals used in merger/acquisition analysis
Quarterly and annual financial reporting exercises for companies of various sizes
Illustration actuary for two mid-sized companies
Bill is a co-author and lead consultant for Milliman’s annual Worksite Life Surveys since its inception in 2018 and serves as a board member of NASBI (National Association of Supplemental Benefit Insurers). He also volunteers his time to assist on the Society of Actuaries’ Innovation and Technology Steering Committee and the Life Insurance Counsel with its annual Final Expense surveys. He regularly speaks on life insurance trends in product and actuarial topics at many industry events.
Before joining Milliman, Bill worked at Trustmark Insurance Company for 15 years, where he was responsible for the life insurance pricing and profitability monitoring.
Executive Director, Strategic Underwriting Initiatives, RGA Reinsurance Company
Becky Riehm is Executive Director for the Strategic Underwriting Initiatives team at RGA Reinsurance Company. She has over 35 years of experience in the life insurance industry.
Currently, she manages application design projects which include program management, creating/refining applications including reflexive questions, automating underwriting rules, and analysis and implementation of third-party evidence rules. She collaborates with client companies on monitoring performance data and refining rules to increase straight through processing.
Prior to joining RGA in 2019, she was a Staff Underwriter at TruStage (formerly CUNA Mutual Life Insurance Company) working as an underwriter, auditor and representing new business and underwriting in numerous life and annuity product development initiatives. She served as liaison to compliance/legal to ensure regulatory forms and procedures were in place.
Becky received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa in Business, Economics, and Finance. She is a Fellow of the Life Management Institute* (FLMI), Associate, Customer Service (ACS), and a Certified Professional Underwriter. She currently serves as board chair at her local credit union and is board treasurer at her local humane society.
Be one of the first to hear the highlights of LIC’s annual Final Expense Survey Report with the added benefit of discussing implications of the results with your peers.
The report will be available in early June. Participants receive the full report for free, and others can purchase it at www.loma.org/LICSurveys.
Discussion Leader: John Clinton, Director of Business Development, Everest Funeral Package
The LIC Final Expense Study is all about past performance. During this session we will analyze sales data and other market drivers for a forward-looking view of the final expense marketplace. How does past performance indicate future potential? What are the factors influencing market growth or possible barriers to growth? At its conclusion we hope you gain useful go-to-market insights including product design, distribution and other elements to success.
Speakers: Michel Hebert, FSA, FCIA, Senior Vice President Actuarial and R&D, Optimum Life Reinsurance
This presentation explores several core aspects impacting life insurance performance and sustainability in the senior market.
Persistency: Analysis of policy persistency using lapse data, commissions, and chargebacks and how compensation structures influence retention.
Claims Experience: How rescission and reformation of claims during the contestable period—especially in smoker misrepresentation cases—can shape future loss ratios and reveal deeper portfolio risks.
Misrepresentation: Misrepresentation is large factor in mortality review and directly correlated to agent behavior. We will give an overview of agent monitoring tactics, digital application tracking, and pattern recognition methods.
Policy Design: Our session also examines the pricing adequacy of Graded and Return of Premium (ROP) products, comparing them against standard issue products while noting limitations on disclosing mortality specifics.
Cause of Death Analysis: Lastly, we touch on the leading causes of death in the senior demographic, and how recent and future medical advancements can affect this line of business.
Speakers: Bill Mehilos, FSA, MAAA, Principal & Consulting Actuary, Milliman Al Klein, FSA, MAAA, Principal and Consulting Actuary, Milliman
At last year's Final Expense Workshop, an attendee's question about agent monitoring led to much discussion and exchange of ideas. Milliman has developed a unique approach to determining which agents are bringing your company better (or worse) business, allowing you to identify agents who need additional training and/or corrective action. We plan to explain the approach, how it can help you, and additional beneficial ways it can be applied.
4:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Hot Topics in Final Expense – Facilitated Discussion
Gary Fencik, who played 12 seasons with the Chicago Bears from 1976 to 1987, remains the franchise's all-time leader with 38 interceptions. Gary grew up in Barrington, Illinois, played receiver at Yale University, and was the leading tackler on the Bears' 1985 Super Bowl XX championship team, one of the most iconic teams in professional sports history. He will share some of his insights and experiences and also introduce this year's LIC Final Expense Workshop community engagement partner: Bears Care.
Speakers: Scott Grandmont, CLU, FALU, FLMI, FLHC, AIRC, ARA, ACS, Vice President, Strategic Underwriting Initiatives, RGA David Decker, CLU, ChRC, CLTC, Senior Vice President, National Sales Manager – Life Division, Liberty Bankers Insurance Group Denis Clifford, Chief Growth Officer, Afficiency
Panelists will share experiences, insights, and relevant information on current final expense insurance distribution, including challenges, opportunities, strategies, and innovation successes.
Speakers: Nathan Hill, FSA, MAAA, VP and Actuary, RGA Mark James, FALU, FLMI, ACS, Director, Underwriting Innovation, RGA Becky Riehm, FLMI, ACS, Executive Director, Underwriting Innovation, RGA
Case study looking at product development from the point of view where pricing and underwriting considerations intersect, and what we can learn from this experience for final expense product development.
10:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Closing Discussion
11:00 a.m.
Adjourn
Registration
Earlybird Registration (until May 20, 2025):
LIC Members: $1,020
LOMA/LIMRA Members: $1,220
Nonmembers: $1,320
After May 20, 2025:
LIC Members: $1,220
LOMA/LIMRA Members: $1,420
Nonmembers: $1,520
Group Discount (insurance companies and fraternals only): After the first paid registrations, additional registrations from your company are 50% off using the promo code GRP50.
The American Fraternal Alliance is sponsoring $100 off registration for its fraternal leaders: register at the AFA Website (www.fraternalalliance.org/lic-education).
Sponsorships
Get extra visibility at the meeting by being a sponsor! Sponsorship includes one registration. Click here to reserve your sponsorship.
Cancellation Policy
All cancellations must be received in writing - please submit your request to customer.service@limra.com. Cancellations received before May 20, 2025 will be refunded, less a $75 processing fee. Cancellations received from May 20 to June 10, 2025 will be refunded, less a $375 processing and administrative fee. No refunds will be issued after June 10, 2025.
Optimum Re will be hosting the meeting at The Drake Oak Brook, a historic four-diamond icon set on ten tranquil acres, just a short drive from Chicago O'Hare and Midway Airports.
Book your hotel room for the nights of June 16 and 17. The meeting will start at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, June 17 and end by noon on Wednesday, June 18.
The LIC Room block rate of $189/night ended May 28, 2025. To check availability, call The Drake at (630) 571-0000. They MAY give you the LIC rate but we can't guarantee it now that we're past the deadline. As of June 3, the hotel DOES still have rooms available at the current rack rate of $269/night.
You also can try booking your reservation on The Drake's website for any date, e.g., June 17, and then call (630) 571-0000 with your confirmation number to request your reservation be changed to June 16-18 (otherwise cancelled).
If The Drake confirms by phone that they are sold out, here are two nearby hotels:
The Drake Hotel is about 20 minutes from O'Hare International Airport (ORD) and 30-60 minutes from Midway International Airport (MDW). Complimentary parking is available. Check-in is at 4 p.m., check-out is 11 a.m.
Sponsors
Thank you to the following companies for their sponsorship support of the 2025 LIC Final Expense Workshop! Learn more about sponsorship opportunities here.
