New hire will focus on scaling the Vantis Life brand digitally to expand consumer reach

WINDSOR, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Vantis Life Insurance Company (Vantis Life), a life insurance provider offering solutions to individuals and financial institutions servicing middle-income Americans, announces the hiring of Manuel Lirio as AVP of Consumer Direct Marketing.

In his new role, Lirio will bolster the Vantis Life brand online by leveraging message development, social media marketing, and search engine optimization techniques to expand the company’s consumer reach. Lirio’s hiring coincides with Vantis Life’s broader push into the direct-to-consumer market to complement its decades of success offering life insurance solutions through community banks, credit unions, and financial institutions.

“Today’s consumers are interacting with businesses and making transactions online more comfortably and frequently than ever before. Gone are the days when corporate mailers and phone calls served as the primary avenues to market life insurance. In our digitized world, reaching consumers happens online more than anywhere else,” said Craig Simms, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Vantis Life. “As we push into the direct-to-consumer market, Manny’s expertise leveraging digital marketing to explain the simplicity and affordability of life insurance products is a perfect fit for Vantis Life.”

Lirio joins Vantis Life with decades of experience expanding corporate brands online with SEO, messaging, and social media development strategies. He was previously part of a team that used these techniques to bring a professional liability startup to profitability in its first year of business. He has also served as the Director of Digital Marketing at The Hartford.

“By building on their success in distributing policies through financial institutions, Vantis Life is primed for rapid growth in the direct-to-consumer market,” said Lirio. “By relaying to consumers the simplicity and affordability of life insurance with a digital marketing campaign that directly speaks to their unique needs and desires, we hope to place these important financial products into the hands of more Americans.”

About Vantis Life

Established in 1942, Vantis Life Insurance Company’s primary goal is to provide families affordable life insurance products. Vantis Life markets its products through financial institutions and direct to the consumer. The Company prides itself on providing simple, easy-to-afford products to middle-income American families and supporting these products with attentive and personal customer service. Vantis Life is a separately operated subsidiary of The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company.

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Gregory FCA for Vantis Life

Jen Diehl, 610-228-2124

[email protected]

Source: Vantis Life Insurance Company

MEXICO CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good), the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “bbb+” (Good) and the Mexico National Scale Rating of “aa+.MX” (Superior) of Insignia Life S.A. de C.V. (Insignia) (Mexico City, Mexico). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

The ratings reflect Insignia’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

The stable outlooks reflect Insignia’s ability to return to positive bottom-line results and maintain a consistent performance that benefits from increased operational and financial flexibility by being a subsidiary of MAPFRE S.A. (MAPFRE).

The ratings also reflect MAPFRE’s commitment to support Insignia’s financial position in the form of capital contributions to help it withstand adverse situations and preserve its risk-adjusted capitalization at a level supportive of the current assessment.

Insignia was established in Mexico City in 2008, as a life insurance company that underwrites individual and group life through a commercial network of more than 3,000 agents and 10 offices distributed throughout Mexico. Insignia ranks within the top 25 companies within the life segment in the country, with a market share of less than 1% as of September 2025.

Insignia’s balance sheet strength assessment reflects the stabilization of its risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), with underwriting and investments risks standing as the main components of required capital. A key factor going forward for AM Best’s assessment of Insignia’s balance sheet strength will be financial support from MAPFRE.

Insignia has improved its performance since it recovered from COVID-19 losses, achieving stabilization of its loss and acquisition ratios in recent periods. Technical results are stabilizing and consistent over the years, being diminished by administrative expenses, which are expected to decrease given the new synergies obtained by being part of MAPFRE. Profitability has been backed by investment income, as Insignia’s investment strategy continues to be conservative and provides a steady flow of revenue to back its underwriting results.

Negative rating actions could take place if Insignia’s underwriting and bottom-line results deteriorate to a level not supportive of the adequate operating performance assessment. Positive rating actions may occur if there is additional demonstrated support from Mapfre Group.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best’s website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best’s Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best’s Credit Ratings, Best’s Performance Assessments, Best’s Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best’s Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright © 2026 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Sebastian del Rio
Associate Financial Analyst

+52 55 1102 2720, ext. 117

[email protected]

Alfonso Novelo
Senior Director, Analytics

+52 55 1102 2720, ext. 107

[email protected]

Christopher Sharkey
Associate Director, Public Relations

+1 908 882 2310

[email protected]

Al Slavin
Senior Public Relations Specialist

+1 908 882 2318

[email protected]

Source: AM Best