Name: MassMutual CEO: Millennials are driving the surge for life insurance
Uploaded: 2021-10-21
Duration: 7 min 20 s
Description: CEO Roger Crandall says “Covid certainly put this on people’s minds.”

CEO Roger Crandall says “Covid certainly put this on people’s minds.”

MassMutual CEO: Millennials are driving the surge for life insurance

Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Leadership

MassMutual CEO: Millennials driving surge for life insurance

Roger. So good to see you again and to talk about mass mutual life insurance, you know, it looks like you're having a very strong year so far sales of life insurance policies up 25%, which is amazing because that's compared to pretty flat numbers in past years. And I found it interesting that much of the demand came from millennials. Tell us what's behind all this. Well look, we are really, really pleased to see our sales being so strong. And I'd like to say it's because there's a mutual company. Uh people become members of our company when they buy a policy from us are great agents and financial advisors are great marketing, but I have to tell you, Covid certainly put this on people's minds. Uh and uh we knew that people uh were underinsured and this had a lot of people remember that and we've been really pleased to see the success that we've had. Well, it's understandable why people would feel the urgency to buy life insurance because of their experiences in the pandemic. But do you see that pace of business continuing post pandemic going forward? I'm really optimistic because first it's not just about life insurance for mortality, which is the risk of dying too young, which is what people typically think about. But our products are also great to make sure that you're accumulating to make sure that you've got money for long term care needs, for example. And certainly everybody knows in their own family and friends as people who are getting older and they need to need to have money for their retirement, not just retirement, but for their long term care needs disability protection. Certainly if you lose your job because you can't work, that's certainly important. So I think the, the underinsured nature of America and as you mentioned, particularly younger americans millennials, um, once you start thinking like this, it's not an on off switch, this becomes part of how you think. So I'm quite optimistic about the future. And I understand that you've simplified the process of buying insurance, you know, when most of us think of getting insurance, we picture a long, tedious process, complicated applications, medical tests dealing with an insurance agent, but you've made it easier and faster thanks to going digital. Right? Absolutely. I think you were generous when you describe the life insurance find process, uh, anything that includes uh, someone showing up at your house with a scale to start the process and then it goes downhill from, there is not the most consumer friendly process. So we've been investing significantly in just making it easier and quicker to go through that process because for the vast majority of folks, um, it can be done using machine learning models, artificial intelligence and making it just quick so that people can just get on with their lives. So that's certainly part of we think is what's behind the growth that we see in a mass mutual. So what else are you doing to reach more people, especially with millennials, that you were just talking about? What's it going to take to sell more policies. This ease of doing business is absolutely critical. So meeting people the way they want to be met. So you can apply for a policy right on your phone. For example, of course, if you want to meet with someone in person now, people are very comfortable meeting with person virtually using a zoom or Microsoft teams are just just based on as you look ahead to 2022. Do you see that Covid will once again be the big headline risk for businesses or will we turn our focus to getting back to work and facing the new reality? Yeah, I am really optimistic that the widespread availability of vaccines, boosters have needed the rest of the world catching up in vaccinations and Covid not going away. We all, we all know that, you know, coronavirus is once they get out that they don't go away, but they can be managed. So I'm optimistic for 2022 we're gonna be spending a little less time talking about Covid, uh, and more time talking about all of the other Business challenges, but also opportunities going forward. How do things look Roger to you on the investment side of your business? You manage a huge portfolio about $240 billion. As you know, the markets have been very volatile recently, investors are worried about their financial assets. What's your take on the markets looking ahead and the outlook for 2022, if you kind of step back for a second, the assets that we manage the back, our insurance liabilities. We take a very long term view. I honestly have no idea what the markets are going to do tomorrow or next week or in the next three months, but I'm very confident that investing in both the debt and equity of great companies and great businesses is a great long term investment. I don't know which way the market goes tomorrow, but in the long run, I think the worst part portfolio makes a lot of sense for everybody. Roger, let's talk a little bit about leadership. You have a great track record of leading your company with purpose and doing good in the communities where you do business and we'd like to hear a little bit about your latest project investing in black owned businesses and tech startup. Tell us why this is so important to you right now. We're really excited to be able to launch the mass mutual catalyst funds, which is a $50 million fund focusing on investing in black and African american owned businesses in massachusetts as well as in technology businesses outside of greater boston. Then really this came out of conversations with black and African American executives and business leaders at mass Mutual in our business resource group. They identify the fact that there hadn't been enough investment in black owned businesses and we agreed and decided to start the catalyst fund. It's off to an excellent start looking forward to getting it fully invested and even doing more in the future. So what do you hope to accomplish? What we're trying to do is is really help black owned businesses grow, create wealth for their owners, hire more people, uh, and provide great goods and services to their customers. So we think it's a, it's a, it's a very, very, very positive the thing that we can do given that we are a long term investor in and all the things we do. You've been ceo of mass mutual for 11 years now, you know, that is amazing given the 10 year for most Ceos in the Fortune 500 is much less than that given all your experience, how has the pandemic influence the way that you're leading mass mutual today and maybe making you a more effective leader because of what you've learned during the pandemic boy. It's the pandemic really did change everything. So for me, the big, the big difference was all of a sudden I could actually meet with so many more employees. Um, I used to travel extensively and I go and people would know I was coming to the office and it was kind of a big deal and and now I'm able to have virtual skip level meetings all over the country all over the world. Indeed. Uh, I think I've actually gotten to know people better and they've gotten to know me. I've done a whole series of, of the selfie videos just walking around with my iphone just reaching out to employees to touch face. So I think, you know, trying to use this technology to see more more folks has been really great, it's more humanizing than seeing people kind of buttoned up in the office. So that's really been been to me a real positive that's come out of this.