Western & Southern Completes $1.55 Billion Purchase Of Gerber Life

Western & Southern Financial Group announced the completion of its purchase of Gerber Life Insurance Company, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Nestle S.A., on Dec. 31, 2018.

The purchase includes a long-term license to use certain Gerber Life intellectual property, including the Gerber Life name and logo, in connection with certain financial services. The deal brings a leading direct-to-consumer life insurer and renowned brand to Western & Southern's diversified family of financial services businesses.

The $1.55 billion purchase was announced by Nestle and Western & Southern in September.

Gerber Life, headquartered in White Plains, New York, brings its valuable product offerings and focus on protecting families to the Cincinnati-based company that began selling life insurance door to door 130 years ago and is now one of the strongest life insurance groups in the world.

"We are thrilled to welcome Gerber Life to our family of companies," said John F. Barrett, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Western & Southern. "As we said when we announced the purchase agreement, this iconic and trusted consumer brand is a compelling fit for Western & Southern, which has always been a human institution serving human needs with tailored financial solutions that are easy for our clients to understand. Our two companies share a common mission of providing financial strength and security to the ones we love."

Founded in 1967 as a financially separate affiliate of the Gerber Products Company, "the baby food people," Gerber Life specializes in providing simplified life insurance products to underserved middle-income families as well as medical stop-loss insurance to small and medium-sized businesses. Nestle, the largest food and beverage company in the world, acquired Gerber Products and Gerber Life in 2007.

Gerber Life's $52 billion of life insurance in force and 3.6 million individual life policies will expand Western & Southern's policyholder base and enhance its product profile by increasing its ratio of life insurance business to annuity business.

Approximately 500 associates make up Gerber Life's workforce, distributed between the company's headquarters in White Plains and an operations center in Fremont, Michigan. Current plans call for all to remain in place.