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In this episode, we ask:
- Have you ever seen How It’s Made?
- How do insurance companies operate?
- How do insurers manage their finances, so they enough money to pay claims?
- How do insurance companies put your money to work?
- How have they managed to do this for well over a century without fail?
- How do they manage challenges, like pandemics?
- Who is Mary Ward, SVP and CFO from the Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York?
- What is a mutual life insurance company?
- What about the culture?
- What about the team?
- Why is it important to work with a mutual owned company (vs. a publicly traded company)?
- What about dividends?
- What about assumptions?
- What are the options?
- What about a return of premium?
- What are the goals?
- Who does the insurer want to please?
- How long has SML been in business?
- How have they paid dividends for 132 years, even through the Great Depression and Covid?
- What happens when mortality levels go up?
- How many dividend paying stocks have paid out over 132 years? Do you know of any?
- Where do insurance companies put the money?
- What about invested assets?
- What about liabilities?
- What is the risk appetite?
- Why are insurers risk averse?
- What about regulations and stress testing?
- How do the investments line up with mortality rates?
- What about NAIC rankings?
- What about diversification?
- Why do insurers steer clear of stocks?
- What about real estate and infrastructure debt?
- What was happening with the banking trouble?
- Why didn’t we hear about insurance company trouble?
- Who pays death claims every day?
- What about New York State testing?
- What if you have extreme mortality?
- How often must SML prove their capacity to manage extreme mortality events?
- What about permanent products, such as whole life insurance?
- What about cash value?
- What is the value of having life insurance in place?
- What are the key performance indicators for Security Mutual?
- What about $3B in assets in 2022, despite Covid?
- What about Houston, Texas?
- What is a capital to asset ratio? Why does it matter?
- How does capital grow?
- What about risk based capital?
- What about being strategic and managing reserve capital?
- What about long-range thinking?
- What about a new facet on the gem?
- What about the opportunity and flexibility of working with whole life insurance?
- What about questions?
- What are the takeaways?
- What about choosing a reliable, secure provider?
- What about exploring whole life insurance?
- What about researching before you make a decision?
- What about the track record and history of these companies?
- How long have they been paying guarantees and dividends?
- What about seeking out professional advice?
- Would you like to meet with Mark or one of Mark’s colleagues?
Mary Ward is the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, where she oversees the Company’s fiscal functions, including strategic initiatives, financial reporting, expense management, and relationships with rating agencies and regulatory bodies, and is also Co-Chair of the Enterprise Risk Management Committee.
Outside of work, she enjoys outdoor activities, and spending time with her family. Mary received her Bachelor of Business Administration, Accounting, and Business Management from St. Bonaventure University.
Marty Greenbaum is a top franchise consultant with over 30 years of experience in franchising. He served his family’s franchise opening hundreds of locations and then grew an extremely successful marketing agency in franchising helping brands achieve their goals. He’s a Certified Franchise Executive and Founder of Smart Franchise Investing and is dedicated to helping people make smart decisions when it comes to franchise ownership. He’s helped hundreds of people explore franchise ownership, serving them as a franchise consultant, educator, and matchmaker. Email Marty at marty@smartfranchiseinvesting.com
Kate Chattic is a homeschooling mother of seven, yes SEVEN, children! Two of those kids have grown up and flown away to new adventures, but while they were teenagers they aided her in starting a business on Amazon in 2015 that grew to become the full-time income for their family. It took just 2 years to bring her husband, Nate, home from his job to join his family in the business and homeschooling the children. Now their time is spent running their business, teaching others how to sell on Amazon and sharing how to utilize life insurance creatively! 
Kirby Atwell served 6 years as an officer in the US Army, after Graduating from West Point Military Academy. While serving in the military he developed a strong interest in real estate, and he bought his first rental property in 2006. In 2011, he left the service to pursue real estate full time. He started his first real estate investment company, rehabbing over 100 properties either to flip or keep as rentals in the Chicago area. Today, Kirby primarily focuses on investing in high-cash-flowing vacation rental properties. He owns a portfolio of vacation rentals in northern Indiana, where he lives on a 45-acre farm with his wife and young kids. He also helps others who work a full-time job to buy and set up their first high-cash-flowing vacation rental through his signature program called The First Vacation Rental Investment Blueprint. Kirby is the host of the Living Off Rentals podcast and YouTube channel.
Mike Grimm is the president and founder of 
Cheri S. Hill, “Wealth Protection Diva” has been a successful entrepreneur/business owner/premier business strategist for the past 30 years as President & CEO of
John Ensley is president of JEnsley Financial, a fiduciary, financial planning company and Registered Investment Advisor. John holds a Chartered Financial Consultant® designation from the American College of Financial Services and is one of an elite group of highly trained Bank On Yourself® Professionals. 
Lester N. Himel discovered the use of specific types of Life Insurance to enhance and expand the performance of investment portfolios several years ago; this after spending 28 years in a variety of positions on Wall Street. Like most financial professionals, he considered stocks, bonds and similar instruments as the core of a reasonable investment approach. In those last several years, Les has found the better way.