Bestow to sell its life insurance company to Sammons

By Susan Rupe

Bestow Inc. announced Thursday it will sell its life insurance company to Sammons Financial Group.

Bestow Life Insurance Co. will transition to Sammons as soon as the state of Iowa approves the deal, following the required hearing scheduled for May 28. Bestow Inc. will continue to leverage its technology and platform as part of the company’s strategy plan “to become the dominant technology platform for the life and annuities industry,” Bestow CEO and cofounder Melbourne O’Banion said in a statement.

Bestow began as a digital platform for life insurance. In September 2021, the company purchased Centurion Life and established Bestow Life. “We accomplished that and now we will move forward with our Enterprise SaaS strategy without needing a life insurance company. This transaction was a great financial outcome for our investment in our carrier,” O’Banion said.

"Jonathan Abelmann and I founded Bestow after realizing that the traditional, time-consuming process of purchasing life insurance doesn't meet modern consumer expectations. Our goal was to make buying life insurance online easy and fast. Once we launched our platform, we saw its potential to transform the entire insurance industry,” O’Banion said.

“We successfully accelerated our platform innovation and demonstrated its value across the value chain through the acquisition of Centurion and the establishment of Bestow Life Insurance Company. At the same time, we began growing and scaling our carrier partnerships and have become valuable strategic allies to our partners. We're now exclusively focused on serving our partners and the insurance industry as a technology platform. We're excited to continue enabling outcomes as an enterprise provider in the life and annuity space.”

Sammons Financial Group has been a partner and investor with Bestow for many years. O’Banion said the two companies will work together to explore future growth opportunities that will benefit both organizations.

With the sale of Bestow Life, Sammons will own a third life insurance company, joining member companies Midland National Life Insurance Company and North American Company for Life and Health, a Sammons spokesman said.

“This opens avenues for introducing new products, expanding our distribution channels, and other growth initiatives,” Sammons said. “This acquisition is poised to both strengthen our core business and perhaps expand into new areas of the financial services space. Over the next 12 months, we will announce additional details on our plans to bring additional value to the marketplace with Bestow Life.”

With the sale of its life insurance business, Bestow will focus solely on serving the insurance industry as a technology platform, growing and scaling its current partnerships, and eyeing future platform and product development.

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on X @INNsusan.