Symetra Financial CIO To Leave Next Month

By Cyril Tuohy

InsuranceNewsNet

George N. McKinnon, senior vice president and chief information officer of Symetra Financial, will leave the company June 30, the company has announced in a government filing.

Margaret A. Meister, Symetra executive vice president and chief financial officer, will take over McKinnon’s responsibilities until he can be replaced, the company also said.

In another executive announcement, Symetra Life Insurance Co., the company’s life insurance subsidiary, announced that John Scanlon has joined the company as regional vice president of its institutional markets segment.

Scanlon will be responsible for generating more sales of corporate-owned life insurance (COLI), the company said.

COLI policies are life insurance contracts taken out by a company on the lives of employees whom the company considers to be of key importance to its operations. The company pays the premium but is also the primary beneficiary if the executive dies.

Companies find COLI policies attractive because of the tax advantages the policies offer.

Scanlon will represent Symetra’s institutional life programs to specialty brokers focused on COLI markets. He will report to Laura Johnson, Symetra’s vice president of institutional markets.

“John’s extensive expertise in the COLI marketplace combined with his legal, securities and insurance background make him an outstanding addition to Symetra’s institutional markets team,” Johnson said.

Before joining Symetra, Scanlon was managing partner at MCB Solutions, focused on consulting for bank-owned life insurance (BOLI) and COLI transactions.

BOLI assets held by commercial banks, savings banks and savings associations reached $143.84 billion in 2012, a 4.3 percent increase from 2012, according to market data from Michael White Associates.

Bank-owned life insurance is used to recoup the costs to banks of paying for employee benefits and to offset liabilities for retirement benefits.

Before joining MCB, Scanlon spent 10 years at Sun Life Financial, where he was responsible for growing their institutional markets business.

He previously held marketing and sales roles for a range of products including annuities, mutual funds and life insurance at several life insurance companies, the company said.

Scanlon earned a law degree from the New England School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio. He holds Chartered Financial Consultant and Chartered Life Underwriter designations from The American College.

Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. Cyril may be reached at cyril.tuohy@innfeedback.com.

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Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. He can be reached at cyril.tuohy@innfeedback.com.