Securian paid $850M worth of COVID-related death benefits in 2021

Securian Financial has paid out more than $1.1 billion in COVID-related death benefits to nearly 14,000 families since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

The total includes $850 million in benefits in 2021, which the St. Paul-based provider of insurance and investment products said decreased its operating earnings by about 6% to $109 million. However, strong returns on investments meant net income increased 28% to $312 million, according to preliminary results released Monday.

Chris Hilger, the company's chief executive, said 2021 was a successful year despite continued challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

"We provided our customers with financial security and peace of mind during a time of great uncertainty," he said in a news release. "We also kept our employees safe and again increased our investments in the community."

The seller of life insurance and retirement products including annuities and 401(k) plans saw total revenue increase 6% to $7.3 billion in 2021. Excluding certain non-recurring items, top-line revenue, the company's main sales metric, was up 5% to $6.6 billion.

Securian's total amount of insurance protection it offers customers climbed to over $1.4 trillion in 2021, while assets under management increased nearly 9% to $106.1 billion.

At Securian's annual employee meeting — held virtually again because of the pandemic — the company also announced that profit-sharing would be 5.9% of employees' annual salaries. The company employs 3,000.

Securian said that due to company growth and the need to replace retiring employees it beefed up its employee recruitment and hired nearly 400 new employees during the year while retaining more than 91% of its current employees.

During the year, Securian also made key strategic acquisitions that helped fuel its continued expansion into the Canadian market. In September, it closed on its third acquisition of a Canadian company in the past five years, a deal for Toronto-based Armour Group, a seller of credit and specialty property and casualty products through automobile dealers and other outlets.

And in December, Canadian Premier Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Securian, announced it was acquiring the association and affinity and creditor group businesses of Canada of Sun Life Assurance Company. That deal is still pending approvals.