It looks like long-term and hopefully lucrative investments are the name of the game for heavy hitters like Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Kevin Durant, and Jay Z. Their latest investment is about to help many families when their at their most vulnerable points – when they’re faced with the passing of a close loved one.
They’re Latest Investment
It’s just been announced that Will Smith’s Smith Family Circle, Jay Z’s Arrive (a subsidiary of Roc Nation), Downey’s Downey Ventures, and Kevin Durant’s Durant Co. have each invested major money into a new life insurance company called, Ethos. Other investors include Stanford University and a credit financing company in Silicon Valley. The total raised among all of them was $11.5million.
The reason many are talking about Ethos, is because they’re plans actually keep the best interest of their clients in mind, instead of the typical money grubbin’ practices that most life insurance companies are built on nowadays. But there are even more reasons. According to Black Enterprise, despite a growing economy, life insurances plans are decreasing severely in the U.S., with less than 60% of the population insured (that’s tens of millions of people).
Via BE: Lack of knowledge is what can be attributed to the statistics. The process has been known to be extremely lengthy and confusing for consumers. Additionally, it is managed by agents who don’t necessarily have the client’s best interest at heart thus they are not in alignment with the customer’s needs. Due to this fact, tens of millions of families are going unprotected.
Ethos has made the process much more seamless. It solves a lot of the pain points that consumers have had in the past. People can apply and qualify for a policy after a 10-minute application versus the 10 weeks it takes through a more traditional process. Additionally, the platform provides a non-commissioned licensed agent available to give unbiased guidance and unlike other life insurance plans, more than 99% of Ethos customers have required no medical exam or blood test to get a policy.
Smith’s & Jay Z’s Reps Speak on It
In a statement, Kosaku Yada, the CEO of Smith’s company, Smith Family Circle, said:
“As an organization built on family-first principles, we admire Ethos’ mission to simplify life insurance and ultimately empower people to protect their families. We’re focused on supporting ideas that positively impact people’s lives and we’re thrilled to help Ethos do that.”
Neil Sirni, the president of Jay Z’s Arrive stated:
“Ethos is working to make life insurance more accessible and affordable for people, through transparency and technological efficiency. … We’re excited to help them achieve that goal.”
Led By Seasoned Industry Veterans
The actual founders of Ethos, Peter Colis and Lingke Wang, have a ton of history in the life insurance industry, having worked together for Ovid Life, a life insurance marketplace. According to Colis, Ethos’ CEO:
“Life insurance is about families, financial empowerment, and protection. Intrinsically, it is a good thing. But somewhere along the way, protecting profits, not people, became the industry’s passion. We have the opportunity to rebuild a broken industry and put honesty at its core, ultimately expanding life insurance accessibility to the millions of US families who have college debt, mortgages, spouses, and children to care for, and who want to be financially empowered to live their lives without worry. We are proud to partner with Sequoia and our other investors on this mission.”
It’s wonderful to see Smith, Jay Z, Durant, and Downey invest in such a good cause that will hopefully benefit millions of families when they need it most.
