Zurich North America sells US corporate life and pensions business

Aflac Incorporated's insurance subsidiaries American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus and American Family Life Assurance Company of New York have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Zurich North America's US Corporate Life and Pensions (Group Benefits) business, which consists of group life, disability and absence management products.

Aflac of Columbus and Aflac of New York will reinsure on an indemnity basis Zurich North America's US in-force group life and disability policies with annualized earned premium of approximately $115 million. Aflac will also acquire assets needed to support the group life and disability business, along with an absence management platform.

Additionally, Aflac and Zurich have entered into an agreement with Benefit Harbor LP to transfer the assets and employees of Benefit Harbor Insurance Services, the outsourced platform supporting the group life and disability business of Zurich North America, to Aflac. Aflac has separately expanded its relationship with Benefit Harbor to provide certain specialized services to group life and disability clients.

Further to this transaction, Aflac's acquired group benefits business will be included as a partner within Zurich's Global Employee Benefits Solutions Partner Network, allowing Aflac to offer its employee benefit products to Zurich's global clients with a US presence.

Aflac said the transaction is a part of its strategy for capital deployment into growth initiatives. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2020.

"We are very excited to acquire the Group Benefits platform of Zurich North America," said Teresa White, president of Aflac US. "This strategic transaction further enhances our value proposition to brokers and employers and aligns with our vision of being the number one distributor of benefit solutions to the U.S. workforce."

Richard Williams, Jr., executive vice president and chief distribution officer of Aflac US, added: "This transaction, together with last year's acquisition of Argus Dental and Vision, expands Aflac's value proposition and enhances our position on the first page of the employee benefits enrollment. We intend to build upon the strong framework created by Zurich by continuing to grow Aflac's group benefits business and provide a more holistic product set to brokers and employers."