Executives from CNO Financial Group Inc. dared to express hope Wednesday when they posted their earnings for the first quarter.
Executives from Aflac Inc. took a somewhat more cautious approach to talking about the future.
Both companies focus on selling health insurance products other than major medical insurance, along with life insurancek. Both have been selling individual products at the worksite.
Gary Bhojwani, CEO of CNO, noted that his company has achieved record life insurance sales and watched annuity sales come close to pre-COVID-19 levels.
CNO sees long-term opportunities ahead, "as we look forward to a world beyond COVID," Bhojwani said.
Daniel Amos, Aflac's CEO, stated that his company's first-quarter earnings were strong partly because the COVID-19 pandemic kept the insureds from using the usual amount of care.
"We continue to expect these pandemic conditions to remain with us through the first half of 2021, but look for improvement in the second half of the year as communities and businesses open up, allowing more face-to-face interactions," Amos said. "We are encouraged by the production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, but we also recognize that vaccination efforts are still in the early stages around the world."
In the United States, Amos said, small businesses will likely be in recovery mode for most of the year, and larger businesses are focusing on getting employees back to the worksite.
Both Aflac and CNO reported much stronger earnings for the latest quarter than for the first quarter of 2020.
