Q&A with Tom O'Regan, CEO at Madison Logic

Media 7 | May 17, 2021

Darcy Shapiro, Chief Operating Officer, Americas at Cover Genius is a leader in the Americas region of a global Insuretech company with a demonstrated history of working in many facets of the insurance and technology industries. She is skilled in product development and innovation, portfolio management, underwriting, claims management, process design, compliance, legal, partnerships, strategy and implementation.

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MEDIA 7 | December 5, 2019

Andrea Lechner-Becker, Chief Marketing Officer at LeadMD is an experienced Marketing and Sales Executive with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. Skilled in Business Process, Marketo, Sales, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and IT Service Management, Andrea is also a strong business development professional and a storyteller. MEDIA 7: What inspired you to get into marketing? ANDREA LECHNER: Frankly, not having better options. I originally attended the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse thinking I’d major in Archaeology. I wanted to be Indiana Jones! But, after visiting the archaeology building – i.e. the cold, dark basement of the science building – where a girl sat to piece together pieces of an old Native American vase, I knew archaeology was not going to be the right path for me. And so, without being good at science and a major in art or art history was unlikely to pay my bills, I decided to go into “business”. I originally registered as a management major, but took my first marketing class and thought it was more interesting and switched my sophomore year. That was pretty much it. I’d never been involved in business classes or DECA in high school – I didn’t really know what to do or what jobs in marketing were even possible. I dumb lucked myself into it really. M7: As a storyteller, do you relate the brand to a story or story to the brand? AL: Both? Neither? I think there are stories in every brand, because there are people working on the brand and people engaging with the brand and people using what the brand creates. People, most often a single person, are at the heart of great stories. You can start with the “point” of the story you’re trying to tell. Say you have a software that help accountants better create reports for board meetings. It’s likely you’ll want to tell a success story about an accountant getting promoted to CFO in part because your software helped better communicate their work product to the board. You could have the idea for that and go looking for that story in your customers. OR, you could hear that story, and say, “That’s amazing!” and share it with customers, partners and internal people. Stories are all around us – the most important thing is to keep your ears and eyes open for finding them.

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MEDIA 7 | November 28, 2019

Ed Breault, Chief Marketing Officer at Aprimo is a marketer with over 18 years of industry experience. At Aprimo, Ed is responsible for the global brand and growth which includes all Paid/Owned/Earned media, Brand Experience, Product Marketing, Industry Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Strategic Communications, Content Marketing, Analyst Relations, Alliance Marketing, Public Relations, Events, Demand Generation and Account-Based Marketing. MEDIA 7: What’s your superpower? ED BREAULT: I would say it’s applying the full spectrum of art and science that is required in marketing today. Not just left or right brained, but whole-brained strategy. Being human yet data-driven and really understanding numbers and (the right) metrics to make connections to business drivers. Add storytelling to that, so I can effectively communicate to my team, the CEO and CFO as well as my Board of Directors on those metrics, and connecting all that we are doing in marketing to the mission of the business. Then quickly shifting gears to the art and creative aspects of marketing that are required to engage an audience and tell great commercial stories that take complex concepts and craft them in a way that is interesting for people to pay attention to. I have to be the ultimate point of truth for the brand. M7: At Aprimo, how have marketing leadership roles and responsibilities evolved over the past few years? EB: There are so many dimensions needed by marketing leaders today. There are several elements driving this evolution, it’s the new experience battlefront that is emerging and also marketers themselves driving changes. From a market perspective, there is a clear appetite for disruption and consumers are wanting more experiential elements to their buying experience and interactions with brands. Take a few direct to consumer disruptions like trialing products in-home, purchasing directly from a brand or even wanting to ensure that the producer’s trade practices are in line with the buyer’s or even a regulator’s for that matter. Then we want to try before we buy, and we emotionally care about the supply chain of products. Do we TRUST this brand to do business with them? Behind all of this is a story that needs to be told, and it is those marketers who know their audience well and make connections that will win the commercial game. Back to the marketer, there are so many diverse backgrounds that marketers bring now and I’m really intrigued by those who have unconventional backgrounds because they contribute something uniquely new to the field. I love hearing about the marketer’s journey.

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CORE INSURANCE

SECURIAN FINANCIAL | September 30, 2022

To provide greater assistance to employees growing their families, Securian Financial in a first among insurance carriers is adding “BenefitBump” as a value-added service. The BenefitBump service can be used with Securian Financial’s group hospital indemnity insurance issued by Securian Life Insurance Company. BenefitBump improves outcomes for both employers and employees by helping growing families navigate their employers’ benefits and time off programs to build plans for balancing work and life. The program was designed for all paths to parenthood, including childbirth, adoption and families seeking fertility support. Participants are provided with education tools and live support from licensed emotional health clinicians. “Employees expecting a new child are often overwhelmed with information and unaware of all the benefits available to them through their employers, BenefitBump’s trained care navigators are experts in workplace benefit programs for expecting parents. They guide parents through the journey of growing their families from pre-birth planning to post-birth childcare while ensuring that they are maximizing their available benefits. For employers, this can be a powerful tool for retention, especially of working mothers.” -Darin Reeser, regional director of supplemental health benefit sales for Securian Financial According to ongoing BenefitBump participant survey responses, 66% of participants say the service reduces stress and anxiety and 83% say it increases benefit awareness and utilization. In addition, a 2021 study of program participants found that 98% successfully returned to work. Group hospital indemnity insurance is a workplace supplemental health policy that pays a pre-determined benefit to insured employees who experience a hospital stay covered by the policy. Employees can use the benefit to pay for out-of-pocket expenses not covered by their major medical insurance, or however they wish. With Securian Financial, insured employees do not have to experience a hospital stay to use BenefitBump. In fact, according to BenefitBump, since the service’s inception, nearly one-fifth of participants have engaged the service while family planning. Workplace supplemental health benefits on the rise According to a study conducted by benefits broker WTW, more employers are turning to supplemental health benefits to help protect employees from big medical bills and loss of income. The study, conducted between February 23 and March 12, 2021, found that among 238 organizations employing 3.7 million people, 42% offered group hospital indemnity insurance and 57% offered group critical illness insurance. By 2022, 65% of the organizations said they would offer hospital indemnity insurance to their employees, and 76% said they would offer critical illness insurance. Additionally, LIMRA, a life insurance researcher and trade organization, reported recently that workplace supplemental health benefit premium rose 6% in 2021, to nearly $2.6 billion. A group insurance leader Securian Financial offers group life, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) and supplemental health insurance products to employers nationwide. The company specializes in large public and private employer plans with 1,000 or more participants. Since issuing its first group life insurance policy in 1917, Securian Financial through its subsidiaries, Minnesota Life Insurance Company and Securian Life Insurance Company has grown to become the third-largest direct writer of group life insurance in the United States. The company is the top provider of group life insurance to state governments, 16, and has an extensive list of Fortune 500 employer clients, including 18 of the Fortune 100. ABOUT SECURIAN FINANCIAL At Securian Financial, we’re here for family. And we’re here because of it. We’re guided by our purpose: helping customers build secure tomorrows. Since 1880, we’ve been building a uniquely diversified company that has outlasted economic ups and downs while staying true to our customers. We’re committed to the markets we serve, providing insurance, investment and retirement solutions that give families the confidence to focus on what’s truly valuable: banking memories with those who matter most.

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CORE INSURANCE,LIFE INSURANCE

CL Life & Annuity Insurance Company and Insurance Technologies | September 26, 2022

Insurance Technologies, LLC., a provider of sales and regulatory automation solutions for the life and annuities insurance industries, announces that CL Life and Annuity Insurance Company (“CL Life”), a provider of insurance products that offer policyholders stable growth, tax deferral and income planning, has launched FireLight® e-Application. CL Life implemented FireLight to get new products to market quickly and efficiently while providing a superior digital agent and customer experience. “We wanted a digital solution that enabled quick speed to market and supported our digital strategies to make submitting annuity business with CL Life an easy and friendly process for agents, FireLight is the industry leader in the annuity and life market and provides us with the features and integration capabilities to efficiently create modernized and accelerated sales processes.” -Gary Sorensen, Director of Marketing & Sales, CL Life CL Life now provides agents with an easy way to sell CL Life annuity products through FireLight’s dynamic wizard e-application experience. The streamlined experience CL Life created includes e-Signature built-in into the sales workflow. So, agents can collect required signatures quickly and submit complete in-good-order application packages direct to CL Life. At Insurance Technologies, we know the importance of having the resources and tools to get products to market quickly and efficiently, We are happy to be able to supply CL Life the innovation and team support to create new digital sales processes and experiences and introduce new products to the industry quickly,said Clint Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Insurance Technologies. CL Life implemented FireLight with its new MYGA product released this month. Insurance Technologies has been a great partner in meeting our business, integration, and workflow requirements, The team at Insurance Technologies was easy to work with and provided the consultative support we needed to meet our implementation goals. We were able to go from concept to implementation in just eight weeks, said Sorensen. By using the standardized templates and rules within FireLight, we were able to provide a quick and efficient implementation experience, meeting CL Life’s timeline of two months, We are proud of the partnership with CL Life and look forward to working with them as they offer new products and expand their digital journey,said Moore. About CL Life & Annuity Insurance Company Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, CL Life and Annuity Insurance Company seeks to provide insurance products specially designed for retirement assets that offer stable growth, tax deferral, and income planning. Its mission is to provide competitive products that meet the financial goals of policy holders, investing in assets for the purpose of growing policy holder premiums aimed at generating strong returns with the flexibility to secure their future. CL Life is an affiliate of Crestline Investors, Inc., an institutional investment management firm with approximately $15.4 billion in assets under management. About Insurance Technologies Insurance Technologies provides innovative sales and regulatory automation solutions to the insurance industry. Offering a suite of integrated sales solutions, from pre-sale functions to quoting and illustrations through e-application and e-delivery to post-sale services, Insurance Technologies provides carriers and distributors the sales capabilities and tools to create automated and cohesive sales experiences for their advisors and clients across the life and annuities insurance industries. The unique architecture and flexibility of its solutions deliver front and back-office configurability and usability to support multiple business strategies, encourage cross-channel growth and evolve with regulatory changes.

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LIFE INSURANCE

Sapiens | September 28, 2022

Sapiens International Corporation, a leading global provider of software solutions for the insurance industry, announced today that a major financial services entity has selected Sapiens to deliver its life insurance service in the Americas. Sapiens' award-winning CoreSuite for Life & Annuities and DigitalSuite SaaS solution will provide them with next-generation customer sales and service experience. The companies solidified the partnership at the Insurtech Conference (ITC) on September 20. Sapiens CoreSuite for Life & Annuities is an end-to-end, cloud-native solution complete with enhanced digital capabilities to support whole life, universal life, wealth accumulation products and annuities. This will power this financial services entity with an advanced, simplified 360°degree view of customers within the policy administration system, across all distribution channels and communication streams. Sapiens DigitalSuite offers a dynamic, digital engagement and enablement platform for insurers to provide a unified, omni-channel experience. "We are very excited to partner with this financial services entity on their next-generation life insurance operations, Sapiens Core administration solution and the pre-integrated digital enablement platform will enable them to offer life insurance services that are customer-centered, in an innovative way, based on our cloud-native solutions." -Jamie Yoder, Sapiens North America President & General Manager Sapiens is attending the ITC Conference (Booth #2239) between September 20-22, at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and available to meet and discuss offerings and solutions. About Sapiens Sapiens International Corporation empowers the financial sector, with a focus on insurance, to transform and become digital, innovative, and agile. Backed by more than 40 years of industry expertise, Sapiens offers a complete insurance platform, with pre-integrated, low-code solutions and a cloud-first approach that accelerates customers' digital transformation. Serving over 600 customers in 30 countries, Sapiens offers insurers across property and casualty, workers' compensation and life markets the most comprehensive set of solutions, from core to complementary, including Reinsurance, Financial & Compliance, Data & Analytics, Digital, and Decision Management.

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