Bestow to Focus on Tech, Sell Life Insurance Unit

Bestow has decided to sell its Bestow Life Insurance Co. subsidiary.

The Dallas-based insurance technology firm said last week that it will focus on providing services for other life and annuity enterprises, rather than on writing its own insurance.

Sammons Financial, the parent of North American Company for Life and Health, a life insurer that has written some of the products sold by Bestow for years, has agreed to acquire Bestow Life.

Iowa insurance regulators have scheduled a May 28 hearing on the acquisition. Sammons hopes to get the regulatory approvals it needs to complete the purchase by June.

What it means: Life insurers may have a hard time exciting clients, but the moats keeping other players out of their market continue to be wide.

The strategy: Melbourne O’Banion, Bestow’s chief executive officer and co-founder, said the company bought Bestow Life to show life and annuity companies what its systems can do.

“We accomplished that,” O’Banion said.

Bestow: Bestow was founded in 2016 and has raised about $137 million in capital from Sammons and other investors.