Chief Executive Officer & Director, Ambac Financial
Search every verified Gary Bhojwani interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Gary Bhojwani, CEO of CNO Financial Group, has discussed the company's focus on middle-income Americans approaching retirement. He stated that 11,000 people turn 65 each day and that this demographic needs to prepare for retirement regardless of economic conditions. Bhojwani said that CNO's clients typically have total assets between $100,000 and $200,000, which he contrasted with larger companies that focus on those with assets over $1 million. He described CNO's distribution model as using face-to-face agents, phone, and online channels, and said the company provides both its own and third-party products based on consumer need. Bhojwani has commented on the sustainability of Social Security, stating that he personally believes changes such as raising the eligibility age or reducing benefits are likely, as the program was not designed to fund people for 20 to 30 years of retirement. He noted that surveys of baby boomers have shown a preference for guaranteed returns over higher potential returns with market risk, and that annuities are the only products that can guarantee lifetime income by pooling longevity risk. Bhojwani described CNO's investment portfolio as heavily invested in bonds and said the life insurance industry is the largest buyer of corporate debt in the United States.
“There's still 11,000 folks turning 65 every day. We've got this population that's just coming through and the reality is that no matter what's happening in the economy, they need to prepare for retirement.”
“Most of our Medicare is sold through our Bankers Life subsidiary. We have several hundred offices around the country and we believe that the right way to serve this population is to actually rely on face-to-face agents and build that relationship.”
“People instead of worrying about dying too young, they're actually much more worried about living too long, meaning outliving their assets. And so that will continue to be a pressure and presents an opportunity for us.”
“We take in money from consumers and then we make 10 and 20 and 30-year promises. And how we keep those promises is with investments. We have an investment portfolio north of $35 billion, heavily invested in bonds.”
“The single largest buyer of corporate debt in America is the life insurance industry. Nobody finances more American companies than life insurers.”
“We are not at this time projecting or planning for any changes to Social Security with the new administration. But personally, I do not see how we don't change it somehow—either means test it, raise the eligibility age, reduce the benefits at some point in time, or some combination of those things.”
“When Social Security was started, the average lifespan wasn't 65 years old, let alone the eligibility age. It was never meant to fund people for 20 and 30 years. It was never designed for that.”
“Most of our clients have a total asset pool of between $100,000 and $200,000, so much more modest. The bigger companies are all focusing on Americans with assets north of a million dollars.”
“Even during the COVID period when there was so much uncertainty, the demand stays strong and we've been able to continue growing right through those cycles. We expect that to happen this time as well.”
“Interest rates absolutely impact our business. We have the Fed decision on tap this afternoon. Our investment portfolio is heavily invested in bonds, so changes in interest rates affect how we keep our promises to customers.”
“The focus of the investor Day last year was to help our clients and investors understand that we were pivoting CNO to a growth story, and we've just been incredibly fortunate with our associates, agents, and partners doing a wonderful job kicking this growth story into high gear.”
“During the pandemic, people really started to pay attention to things like life insurance and health insurance, so we certainly saw an uptick in demand coming out of those periods of time.”
“People have gotten back to more traditional concerns like worrying about retirement and how they're going to plan for that part of their life, balancing fears of dying too soon or living too long and outliving their money, and those are things we have an opportunity to help with.”
“In our consumer division, we focus exclusively on middle income America; our mission is to secure the future of middle income America by providing competitively priced products that meet their needs through a unique distribution model including phone, online, and agents.”
“We are not worried about whether we've manufactured the product or distributed somebody else's; if our consumers need it, we want to provide it, which gives us a broad product portfolio focused on middle American consumers.”
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