Even as life insurance payouts increased, Securian buckled down and saw growth for 2020

As a provider of lifetime coverage, St. Paul-based Securian Money understood more than most corporations the devastating impression of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like other organizations, Securian despatched staff home to do the job remotely, know-how investments designed the shift less difficult and streamlining some procedures aided them much better provide customers. It issued new COVID-relevant rewards and stipends for staff. It even included 250 much more staff in 2020.

The pandemic meant Securian paid out $275 million in COVID-linked everyday living coverage benefits to clients, about 8% of the statements it paid in 2020. That outlay impacted the company’s net income, which fell 44% in 2020.

But Securian’s leading-line profits grew 4% and the corporate credit rating company Fitch Rankings not too long ago reiterated Securian’s AA rating and “stable” outlook.

At 141 decades outdated, it is 1 of the oldest providers in St. Paul and in the state. While the gatherings and troubles of the previous 12 months were being unprecedented to particular person occupations, the business has survived significantly extra in its extensive record, Chris Hilger, its chairman and chief govt, explained.

Hilger said he is proud of the reaction that the organization built in satisfying its reason and promise by having care of its customers, supporting its personnel in their shift to a do the job from dwelling natural environment, and raised its economical commitments to the local community.

In an interview in Securian’s reworked corporate boardroom, Hilger reviewed three disaster-administration rules he and other executives created to guideline their decisions via final calendar year.

Some excerpts from that dialogue:

Q: What was it like top the firm previous calendar year?

A: It was an unexpectantly gratifying 12 months to be main a life insurance firm. It wasn’t without the need of its nervous times. But it was unquestionably in hindsight a yr that we are all actually, genuinely proud of.”

It is about the several, lots of approaches that we took care of the persons who count on us. Whether or not it was our associates, our clients, and this was a time in which we essential to create upon our good legacy of becoming supportive of the community additional broadly speaking.

Story carries on

We celebrated this all year extensive.

Q: You formulated 3 crisis concepts to manual your decisionmaking, what ended up they?

A: Having care of the individuals who depend on us protecting our economic strength and making certain that we do not get so caught up in the disaster of the second that we overlook about getting ready for the foreseeable future.

You can get form of hunkered down if you are not watchful and we quite early on reported, hey, we have to just take care of the urgent issues listed here, but allows not fail to remember to be ahead on the lookout, forward thinking and really generate the factors that we will need to generate to be effective and prosper extensive-phrase.

Q: When did you occur up with those principles?

A: This topic of uncertainty was really getting to be pervasive. I imply as a lifestyle insurance plan organization you are contemplating about how lots of dying advantages are we going to need to have to fork out to all people folks, for illustration…. I keep in mind it was about the initial of April wherever I very first communicated our disaster-administration ideas and we as a leadership group actually were being capable to advantage from wondering about items with a lengthier-term point of view anchored in those people ideas.

Q: You established COVID-linked added benefits and a $500 property-office environment stipend for workforce, however nonetheless compensated out 12 months-close bonuses?

A: We decided to take a authentic reason-pushed technique to contemplating about the bonuses that we compensated our personnel.

Our money results in the typical system would have resulted in pretty little reward currently being paid out out to our workforce. That’s just the actuality, yet we ended up having to pay around 90% of our focus on bonuses to our personnel. And I think that the response was a real vote of self-confidence in the company.

Q: How did you handle local community companions last calendar year?

A: In a year when our earnings were likely to be down, this was not a year to pull again from the money aid we had been likely to supply the neighborhood. So definitely we improved our economical contributions 25% to $8.5 million bucks. There was just so a great deal will need in the community you couldn’t overlook. You can get caught up with your quarterly earnings final results and say perfectly we are not in a place to be able to do so, or you can say hold out a minute, we have got to stage up.

Q: How is Securian thinking about the return to business office?

A: This is likely to be a large changeover. It was a huge transition leaving — heading distant. It could be an even even bigger changeover coming again. I assume we require to be clever and learn as we commence to welcome people today again into the office. We are likely to be thoughtful about it.

We believe in coming together. We want to be in a position to discover what coming collectively seems like, and once more it will be unique. We’ve been here for 141 years and we want to be portion of St. Paul coming again to lifestyle and the vitality that comes from being part of these communities. So we will appear back but it will be unique than it was in the past to be absolutely sure.

It truly is going to be truly essential to enhance the amenities to assistance the style of collaboration that we are likely to be on the lookout for in the potential

Q: What have been some management classes you figured out past yr?

A: Amount one particular: Preparation matters a good deal. 1 of the issues I really like about being part of this organization is the preparation that we undertook. Not for this specific event mainly because nobody knew this occasion was coming on, but preparing we took that seriously aided us.

No matter whether it truly is the massive technological innovation investments that we have created, the area enhancements we are starting to make. Fairly frankly, the economic strength that we created up. It was extremely comforting to have the financial energy of this firm when you believe about navigating all the uncertainty that was there. That was not our worry, our worry was hardly ever, hey, are you going to make it.

The second large lesson that I have is don’t underestimate the perseverance, resilience, and innovation of your personnel when it matters. When you are in a disaster you can count on that. I normally hoped it was there — but traveling shades. It was amazing to me how nicely our staff stepped up and just created it occur.

Patrick Kennedy • 612-673-7926