Finding the Biggest Opportunities in Life Insurance (w/Brian Kass, President CMFG Ventures at Cuna Mutual)

Brian Kaas is President at CMFG Ventures the M&A and corporate venture capital fund for Cuna Mutual, and is Board Member at multiple #insurtechs. Brian is leveraging his insurance law background to lead the deals that will help drive the industry forward.

✅Brian sees insurtech as still 5 to 7 years behind where fintech is today, with more early-stage entrants than maturing companies to scale

✅Direct-to-consumer insurtechs in life insurance have a particular set of challenges, where name-brand recognition plays a major role

✅With auto insurance, you renew your policy every year, whereas with life insurance you have less frequent meaningful touchpoints to the customer

✅Brian sees interesting trends/opportunities in embedded financial services, being present at the merchant-customer point-of-sale 

✅Insurtech investing has a significant problem with ensuring diversity and so Brian helped launch a second fund purely focused on providing capital to companies founded by underrepresented demographics across the board

Follow the Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

Brian Kaas is President and Managing Director of CMFG Ventures, LLC and oversees all aspects of CUNA Mutual’s venture capital program. Additionally, Kaas serves as the Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at CUNA Mutual Group.  He is responsible for evaluating and executing a broad range of acquisitions and other strategic transactions for the organization.  He serves as a board member for several financial technology start-up companies and is a frequent speaker on emerging fintech trends.  Kaas joined CUNA Mutual Group in 2012.

Prior to joining CUNA Mutual Group, Kaas was a partner at the national law firm of Foley & Lardner.  Kaas has a broad range of legal and corporate experience, particularly in the areas of complex commercial transactions including mergers, acquisitions, reinsurance and corporate restructurings.

Kaas graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School with a Juris Doctorate. He also received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in Public Policy and Administration with an emphasis in Legal Affairs.