Thomas M. Marra, new chief executive officer of insurer Symetra Financial Corp. and the former president and chief operating officer of Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. — plans to make individual life insurance an early focus for the newly public Symetra, according to insurancenewsnet.com.
Symetra Financial’s board of directors named Marra as its president and CEO. He succeeds Randall H. Talbot, who led the company for the past 12 years and is leaving “to pursue other opportunities,” insurancenewsnet.com reports, citing a Symetra statement.
This Bellevue, Wash., company, spun off from Safeco Corp. in 2004 to an investor group that includes Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Corp., Â has been run well and in “very good shape,” said Marra, 51, during a Tuesday conference call with equity analysts. He served as president and COO at The Hartford from 2007 to 2009.
Based on its size, the diversity of Symetra’s businesses “is a real plus,” Marra said. It’s four business segments each contribute almost 25 percent, he said. “That’s a really good start.”
However, “if there’s one place I’ll put a little more slant in terms of my effort,” it will be on individual life insurance, Marra said, noting that will be an area of focus “pretty early on.”
Marra said having a position in fixed annuities is “probably our lead strategy,” but noted he has some “concerns” with them.
Symetra has been expanding its distribution, Marra said, who pointed to the work Talbot did in terms of expanding into banks. That channel, over the long haul, will be a “big opportunity for all product lines,” he said. However, “I still think that banks are going to be the leading provider of individual life insurance over the long haul.”
Symetra’s four operating segments are group, which includes medical stop-loss insurance and group life, accidental death and dismemberment and disability income insurance to employers; retirement services, which includes fixed and variable deferred annuities and group annuities to various qualified retirement plans; income annuities; and individual, which includes term, universal and variable life insurance.
Marra joined The Hartford in 1980 as an actuarial student and subsequently held more senior positions at the company, including executive vice president of Hartford Life, starting in 1996; chief operating officer of Hartford Life starting in 2000; and president of Hartford Life, beginning in 2002.
