Page 16 - 2015 Ameritas Annual Report

business unit overview
At Ameritas, our mission is to help customers enjoy life to the fullest by reducing their nancial uncertainty and increasing their assets Built on a foundation of great nancial strength, we offer a competitive array of insurance, employee bene ts, and nancial products and services, delivered with a people-centered approach that builds enduring relationships
Ameritas Mutual Holding Company is made
up of the business units whose 2015 activities
are reported on these pages Together, these business units offer life insurance, including universal, variable universal, whole and term policies; disability income insurance; xed, variable and indexed annuities; group health care plans, including dental, vision and hearing care plans; retirement plans for businesses, not-for-pro t organizations and governmental entities of all sizes; public nance services; mutual fund management; and comprehensive nancial planning and investment services
Individual Business
Designed to meet the diverse needs of our customers, the Ameritas individual division offers life insurance, disability income insurance and annuity products through a growing network of nancial professionals
In 2015, life insurance coverage increased $4 1
billion over the prior year to $87 4 billion, protecting more than 424,000 policyholders Ameritas disability income insurance safeguarded the incomes of nearly 79,000 policyholders and provided $299 0 million in monthly disability bene t protection to small business owners and individuals nationwide Ameritas also helped 74,000 customers manage $5 0 billion of personal wealth through a host of xed, indexed and variable annuity products
Consistent with our mission to provide proven, trusted and valued insurance and nancial solutions over lifetimes, we continue to enhance our individual life, annuity and disability income products As
an example, we expanded the availability of our Care4Life Acceleration rider
Group Business
Through the group division’s dental, vision and hearing care insurance offerings, we now enhance the lives of 6 4 million Americans For 2015, annualized premium and premium equivalent exceeded $1 11 billion across all distributions New sales grew 11 4 percent and customer retention was again well above industry averages, indicating satisfaction and driving plan renewals The Ameritas dental network grew by 6 9 percent, reaching more than 406,000 access points with 110,000 unique providers Our call center remains among the best in the business, earning a Center of Excellence award from BenchmarkPortal for the ninth consecutive year
This year, the division launched an integrated data warehouse, providing members with reports to
help customers better understand the value of their bene ts A new network leasing opportunity now offers members more choices and lower out-of-pocket expenses and an individual dental plan was created
in collaboration with the individual division We also reorganized our sales regions to increase service levels, and enhanced the national accounts sales and support unit that serves our largest groups
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