Lockton Acquires Agency That Serves Advisors: Deals

Integrity Marketing has relationships with about 325,000 independent agents. It expects to help insurers sell enough coverage to generate about $3.5 billion in new annual premium revenue.

Advisors Insurance Brokers was founded in 1992. It has been distributing life insurance, long-term care insurance, disability insurance, fixed annuities and indexed annuities.

Integrity Marketing is not saying how much it's paying for Advisors Insurance Brokers, but it said that Kevin Johnson, Advisors Insurance Brokers' chief executive officer, will become an Integrity Marketing managing partner.

CNO Financial Group Inc., Carmel, Indiana, has agreed to pay about $50 million to acquire DirectPath LLC, a Burlington, Massachusetts-based provider of benefits communications, compliance and educational services.

DirectPath can enroll workers in benefits over the telephone and through online meetings as well as through face-to-face meetings. It works through about 7,000 benefits brokers and reaches employers with a total of about 2.5 million employees.

CNO bought DirectPath to get employers' attention and strengthen CNO's ability to sell insurance products to workers at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the workplace environment, CNO executives said.

Michael Byers, the chairman and chief executive officer of DirectPath, will become co-president of CNO's worksite division, according to CNO.

Reinsurance Group of America Inc., Chesterfield, Missouri, has agreed to acquire 100% of the share capital of Hodge Life Assurance Company Ltd. of London from Julian Hodge Bank Ltd. of Cardiff, Wales, for a price that was not disclosed.

Hodge Life has the equivalent of about $780 million in liabilities. It's helped its parent offer annuities, and arrangements that older homeowners can use to tap home equity. It plans to stop writing new business Feb. 19.

RGA needs approvals from regulators to complete the deal. It did not say when it hopes to close on Hodge Life.

— Read Integrity Marketing Acquires The Brokerage Resource, on ThinkAdvisor.

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