Dave Levenson, LIMRA and LOMA President and CEO, highlights several key initiatives that reflect our ongoing mission to empower members with knowledge, insights, connections, and solutions.
LIMRA and LOMA’s 2026 Mid-Year Highlights
On behalf of my colleagues at LIMRA and LOMA, thank you for your continued support of the Association. We are committed to exceeding your expectations and delivering meaningful value to your organizations. As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or your Member Relations Director if there are areas you’d like us to explore or if you need additional information.
We’ve had a strong and productive first half of 2026. LIMRA and LOMA continue to advance our mission of empowering our members with knowledge, insights, connections, and solutions.
Our core work is highlighted below in the four pillars of our purpose statement — knowledge, insights, connections, and solutions.
Membership and Member Value
LIMRA and LOMA continues to be the world’s largest trade association serving the financial services industry. In the first half of 2026, we’ve welcomed 39 new companies, bringing total membership to 636 organizations and 55 countries. Over the past 12 months, domestic members have received savings and benefits valued at an average of 4.93 times their annual dues.
Value by Elevating Industry Visibility Through Media
Our media relations team amplified LIMRA and LOMA’s presence across top-tier business and trade outlets, highlighting positive industry trends such as strong performance in retail life insurance and annuities. In the first half of this year, total coverage was more than 4,100 articles, representing 86 percent SOV — an increase of 14 percent year-over-year compared with industry peers. Coverage spanned leading publications, including Barron’s, Bloomberg, Kiplinger, MarketWatch, MSN Money, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, and many others.
Our core work is highlighted below in the four pillars of our purpose statement — knowledge, insights, connections, and solutions.
Knowledge
Building on a longstanding commitment to professional development, the first half of 2026 brought strong momentum across LIMRA and LOMA’s industry-leading education and professional development offerings. Member engagement continued to grow across designation programs, leadership development experiences, and digital learning platforms. Noteworthy milestones include the expansion of Industry Advantage, a fifth consecutive sell-out of the Strategic Leadership Experience, and the successful debut of the AI Leadership Experience, which attracted 90 executives from 40 member companies, with demand already driving plans for an additional offering in 2027.
Fellow, Life Management Institute (FLMI) Designation
The Fellow, Life Management Institute (FLMI) remains the gold standard for demonstrating broad knowledge of the life insurance industry. Through June 30, 2026, over 13,270 individuals took a combined 21,327 courses toward completing their FLMI designation. To date, we have awarded 674 FLMI designations to individuals worldwide, raising the total number of recipients to almost 115,000. On July 1, 2026, we launched a revised version of Meeting Customer Needs with Insurance and Annuities (LOMA 281). Not only does this revised course improve the learning experience for all first-time FLMI learners, but it also helps establish the direction of an updated learner experience for other FLMI course revisions to come.
Finance for Insurance Leaders: Master the Language of Numbers
This 2-day, in-person program continues to provide managers in nonfinancial roles with practical insight into the financial concepts that drive insurance business performance. Member interest remains strong, particularly among organizations looking to strengthen business and financial acumen across senior leadership teams. Members interested in experiencing the program firsthand are encouraged to attend the open-enrollment session hosted by Allianz Life Insurance in Minneapolis on September 15–16, 2026.
Hear from program participants: In this video, participants share how the program transformed their understanding of insurance financials and empowered them to make smarter business decisions.
Insurance Immersion
Interest in this instructor-led program continues to grow, with increased participation across both in-person and virtual offerings. Member companies that are expanding their workforces and cross-training their employee resources are using the program to accelerate industry knowledge and broaden business perspectives across their workforces. The virtual open-enrollment session of October 6–9, 2026 provides an excellent opportunity to evaluate this unique, engaging learning experience. Watch the video to hear from participants and get a feel for this engaging program.
Industry Advantage
Industry Advantage continued its strong momentum in the first half of 2026, expanding its award-winning platform to 240 courses and 20 curated learning paths on topics from product knowledge and communication skills to artificial intelligence — nearly 45 added since launch. Adoption is accelerating, with 35 carriers now subscribing and integrating content into their learning ecosystems. During Q1 and Q2, we introduced four new courses and two learning paths, and we enhanced six current learning paths to ensure relevance and impact.
A significant addition is the Fraud Prevention Training Learning Path, developed to help member organizations meet evolving compliance and regulatory requirements. The path covers critical topics including account takeovers, anti-money laundering, and financial exploitation of vulnerable adults, with assessments to validate learner understanding. New Business Fraud and Claims Fraud courses will be launched in October 2026.
To further recognize professional growth, Industry Advantage now offers Certificates of Completion and Digital Badges, providing meaningful recognition of achievement while helping organizations increase learner engagement, strengthen retention, and demonstrate measurable returns on their professional development investment.
Strategic Leadership Experience
Our Strategic Leadership Experience program, delivered in partnership with Wharton Executive Education, continues to be a premier offering for developing next-generation industry executives. The 24-month experience enables executives to shape the future of our industry by adapting business strategies to leverage market opportunities, manage risk, and develop talent. Over 85 companies will participate this summer. The new Class of 2028 launches in August and marks our fifth consecutive sell-out; cohort three graduated in June. To sustain ongoing alumni connections, the program’s Alumni Network has been expanded to include twice annual LIMRA and LOMA sponsored development, Wharton-led reunions, a formal oversight committee, and an exclusive in-person event at the LIMRA Annual Conference.
AI Leadership Experience
As announced in December, our new 6-month AI executive education program, in partnership with Wharton Executive Education, launched in May of this year for 90 executives across 40 companies. Designed exclusively for our industry, the 6-month experience combines on-campus and virtual learning to equip executives with the strategic insights needed to lead transformational change. Executives will gain the clarity and capability to align AI with business priorities, ready the workforce, manage governance and risk, and turn vision into measurable results. The response has been tremendous, with a waitlist; a second program will be offered in 2027.
Insights
Since its founding in 1916, LIMRA has been the industry’s trusted source for research and insights. Today, our thought leadership is more actionable than ever — guided by our Board and advisory boards to focus on the topics that matter most. In the first half of this year, we delivered 103 research deliverables across life, annuity, and workplace benefits, along with numerous supporting marketing materials. We also issued 64 benchmark deliverables, including participant and membership-wide reports and 39 additional research reports. Below are featured research pieces to explore.
2026 Insurance Barometer Series
Today’s consumers wish for more from their life insurance. Explore key findings from the 2026 Insurance Barometer Study.
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- Infographic: More Features, Less Complexity? The Life Insurance Paradox
- Animated graphic: Life Insurance Through the Consumer Lens: What They Expect from Modern Life Insurance
- Report: 2026 Insurance Barometer Study
- Upcoming webinar: Reaching the Elusive Consumer – Life Insurance in Rapidly Changing Times
Benefits in Focus: 2026 BEAT Series
Learn about what carriers can do to help employers deliver more relevant, accessible, and impactful solutions that strengthen satisfaction, loyalty, and long-term workforce stability.
The Growth of In-Plan Annuities in the U.S. Retirement Plan Income Annuity Market
The U.S. 401(k) market is entering a new phase: from a savings accumulation system to a retirement income delivery system. Dive into how the U.S. retirement market is increasingly shifting from a focus on saving for retirement to generating retirement income with in-plan annuities emerging as a key solution for providing guaranteed lifetime income within 401(k) plans.
Empowering Annuity Producers to Drive Industry Growth
Annuity sales have surged to new highs over the past 5 years. What sparked this unprecedented growth? While rising interest rates and market volatility played a role, Changes in Annuity Production: Who’s Driving Growth and What’s Next looks beyond market conditions to uncover advisor-level factors that truly drive results.
LifeCompass and AnnuityCompass
LifeCompass passed a major milestone this spring as all but two remaining Retail Individual Life Insurance Sales Survey participants joined the platform. LifeCompass now covers 98 percent of premium with 57 companies live and four in development. The team is now moving to focus on implementing enhancements and feedback from participants and launched breakouts for final expense and life/LTC hybrid sales in the first quarter. AnnuityCompass is currently at 42 companies and 86 percent of benchmark participant sales. We’ve added a new dashboard, Highlights, to include nonparticipants and industry totals.
Experience Studies Pro
Experience Studies Pro, our subscription-based platform developed with the Society of Actuaries, continues to be the industry’s leading source for actuarial experience data. So far this year, we have released one study and plan to deliver five more before year-end. We now have 41 subscribers — growing across larger carrier and small/medium company categories to further our goal of broad industry adoption. Additionally, we began a regulator awareness effort, including study-specific deep dive webinars, to educate regulators on the industry data and the Experience Studies Pro program.
Applied Research Solutions
So far this year, our Applied Research Solutions team has completed three custom projects and four consortia studies with close to 45 members, covering topics such as beneficiary engagement, direct-to-consumer and digital channels, consumer perceptions and application of AI in call centers, annuity process efficiency, and authentication preferences among both consumers and financial professionals. We have multiple custom projects in progress and are currently accepting sponsors for two new consortia studies:
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- The Words We Use: Consumer Perceptions of Annuity Language
- AI in Action Operations Series
Connections
Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors, composed of 25 senior executives, plays a vital role in guiding our work. We are grateful for their leadership and support. Chris Blunt served as Board Chair during the year, and Wade Harrison served as Vice Chair. Additionally, we welcomed two new Board members in June: Jolee Crosby (Reinsurance Canada, Swiss Re) and Jay Kaduson (Voya Financial).
Advisory Boards
Our advisory boards bring together more than 100 executives representing approximately 75 member organizations. Meeting throughout the year, these groups provide valuable perspectives that help shape our priorities and ensure we continue delivering meaningful value to industry leaders. We are grateful for the leadership and commitment of this year's advisory board chairs and vice chairs:
Retirement Plans Advisory Board
Chair: Don MacQuattie, Raymond James & Associates, Inc.
Vice Chair: Jeff Cimini, Principal Financial Group, Inc.
Workplace Benefits Advisory Board
Chair: Kara Hoogensen, Principal Financial Group, Inc.
Vice Chair: David Payne, Standard Insurance Company
Annuity Advisory Board
Vice Chair: Wesley Severin, Symetra Financial
Life Insurance Advisory Board
Chair: Dawn Behnke, Pacific Life Insurance Company
Vice Chair: Achim Schwetlick, National Life Insurance Company
Canadian Executive Advisory Board
Chair: Rino D’Onofrio, RBC Insurance
LIMRA and LOMA 2026 Conference Series
The first half of 2026 has been a dynamic conference season. We’ve successfully hosted nine member conferences so far. Attendance has remained strong, with satisfaction ratings exceeding 87 percent across all completed events — affirming the value of our programming and the strength of the networking opportunities we provide.
Best Minds Retirement Symposium
In June, we launched the inaugural Best Minds Retirement Symposium, an event that quickly emerged as a high-impact forum for the industry to address the most pressing challenges in retirement security. This event exceeded attendance expectations with over 180 registrants, reaching full capacity ahead of schedule. This strong demand underscores the industry’s appetite for a more unified approach to advancing protected lifetime income solutions and retirement security.
Member Collaboration Groups
We continue to strengthen our role as a trusted industry convener by expanding opportunities for member collaboration and peer-to-peer engagement. Today, nearly 70 active committees and study groups meet regularly to share insights, address common challenges, and advance strategic thinking across the industry. Among these are 23 exclusive CxO groups that bring together senior executives to discuss critical business priorities and emerging industry trends. This year, we expanded our executive forums with the addition of a new group focused on issues that are increasingly shaping the future of our industry. Our Chief AI Officer Group brings together senior leaders responsible for artificial intelligence initiatives to explore the responsible adoption, governance, and scaling of AI across their organizations. This group exemplifies our commitment to creating meaningful opportunities for members to learn from one another, build valuable connections, and collectively address the opportunities and challenges facing our industry.
Solutions
The Lifetime Income Initiative
Earlier this year, we rebranded the Alliance for Lifetime Income into LIMRA’s Lifetime Income Initiative (LII) and expanded its reach so that all LIMRA members are now automatically members of LII without an incremental dues increase to the membership. Since then, we have strengthened industry engagement through a Lifetime Income Advisory Board of C-suite leaders from 38 companies, including active participation from 17 of the top 20 annuity distribution firms.
We have expanded outreach to financial professionals through speaking engagements with several of our carrier and distribution member companies, all the while deepening collaboration with industry partners, including IRI, NAFA, and ACLI. Together, these efforts reflect a true 360-degree approach to retirement security, engaging consumers, financial professionals, and industry stakeholders to advance protected lifetime income solutions.
Compensation Surveys
Continuing to build on the success of the last 50 years, LIMRA and LOMA delivers the industry’s most comprehensive compensation benchmarks, covering executive and nonexecutive home office roles, life and annuity wholesalers, and workplace benefits sales professionals. These studies provide critical insights for navigating wage inflation, evolving job roles, and talent retention. In 2026, we are streamlining data collection, enhancing our data processing, and expanding the positions covered. We expect participation from over 130 companies across the United States and Canada, contributing data on approximately 325 positions and more than 70,000 individuals — continuing to make this one of the most robust compensation datasets in the industry.
LIMRA Data Exchange (LDEx) Standards
Our focus remains on advancing industry standards that promote efficiency, consistency, and stronger outcomes across the benefits ecosystem. A key priority is the continued development of the LDEx Benefits Quote Management (BQM) Standard, which is currently in the proof-of-concept phase with a goal to finalize and release in 2026. Building on this work, LIMRA is launching the LDEx Standards® Organizational Certification Solution, a new validation and certification program designed to help organizations protect digital transformation investments, reduce integration expenses and risks, accelerate interoperability, and demonstrate market reliability through conformance with LDEx Standards. Supporting both the U.S. workplace benefits market and the Canadian group and health industries, this reinforces industry-wide adoption of LDEx Standards.
Fraud Prevention Solutions and FraudShare 2.0
LIMRA continued to strengthen industry-wide fraud prevention, compliance, and operational efficiency through a series of high-impact initiatives. FraudShare 2.0 is tracking toward Q3 launch in partnership with Verisk Analytics, bringing enhanced real-time fraud detection capabilities to the industry, while member engagement efforts advanced benchmarking and best-practice sharing through participation from 60 companies in LIMRA’s Annual Financial Crimes and Fraud Prevention Benchmarking Study. LIMRA remains a leader in AML compliance support — more than 100 member companies enrolled over 220,000 agents in its AML Education Program, which consistently receives exceptional satisfaction scores. Responding to member needs, LIMRA and ACLI consolidated their compliance and fraud events into a single conference that is attracting record interest and launched two new industry-led collaborative groups — the Individual Life Data & Business Standards Exploratory Committee and the Agent Insights Task Force — to drive greater standardization, interoperability, risk management, and data-sharing across the life insurance ecosystem. Together, these efforts demonstrate LIMRA’s leadership in advancing fraud prevention, compliance excellence, and industry modernization.
Trustworthy Selling
In 2026, Trustworthy Selling continued to strengthen its position as the industry’s gold standard, earning recognition from Selling Power as a Top Sales Training Company for the sixth consecutive year. As organizations seek to build client-centered cultures beyond traditional field sales, we have expanded the program’s reach to include contact center representatives and sales associates who support top producers across multiline distribution organizations. This broader adoption reflects the versatility and impact of the Trustworthy Selling methodology throughout the sales ecosystem. We are also proud to highlight Western & Southern Life’s recent case study, which demonstrates the program’s measurable business value. The company reported significantly stronger sales results among participants, including higher policy placements, premium production, and advisor engagement, reinforcing the power of combining consultative selling, structured coaching, and leadership commitment to drive sustainable growth.