Prosperity Life Group life insurance

Overview

Prosperity Life Group is the marketing name for an investor-owned group of U.S. life and annuity insurers: S.USA Life Insurance Company, SBLI USA Life Insurance Company, Shenandoah Life Insurance Company, National Western Life Insurance Company and its subsidiary Ozark National Life. The NAIC files them together as the Prosperity Life Insurance group, which ranked #63 among U.S. life insurance groups by 2024 individual life direct premiums written, according to NAIC market share data. It had about $398.4 million in premiums and a 0.25% market share.

The group was assembled by private investors through acquisitions of older insurers, two of which demutualized as part of the deals. Since September 5, 2025, it has been owned by JAB Insurance, the insurance arm of JAB Holding Company, which bought it from Elliott Investment Management. Prosperity reported about $29.3 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2025, and about one million policies. Most of its current sales are fixed and fixed indexed annuities and universal life, sold through independent agents, marketing organizations and banks. It also offers block and flow reinsurance to other insurers.

Because so much of the group came through acquisitions, many customers own policies first sold under names such as Shenandoah Life, SBLI USA (the former Savings Bank Life Insurance Fund of New York) or National Western. SBLI USA is a separate company from the Massachusetts insurer profiled at SBLI.

History

The oldest piece is Shenandoah Life, founded in 1916 in Roanoke, Virginia. The Savings Banks Life Insurance Fund began selling insurance in New York in 1939 and became SBLI USA Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1999. S.USA Life became a subsidiary of SBLI USA in 2000.

Prosperity Life Insurance Group was founded in 2009 by Black Diamond Capital Partners and Reservoir Capital Group. It acquired Shenandoah Life through a sponsored demutualization: when a mutual insurer goes public in 2012 and SBLI USA the same way in 2014. Elliott Management acquired majority ownership in 2019, and Nicholas von Moltke became chief executive. Prosperity formed a Bermuda reinsurer, Prosperity Life Assurance Ltd., in 2020 and an asset manager, Prosperity Asset Management, in 2022.

In August 2024 Canada's iA Financial Group completed its purchase of two S.USA blocks: final expense and term life products totaling more than 115,000 policies and more than $100 million in annual premiums. Servicing of those policies is now handled by iA's American Amicable Life Insurance Company of Texas (see American-Amicable).

The largest deal came in July 2024. On July 9, 2024, S.USA completed its roughly $1.9 billion all-cash acquisition of National Western Life Group, paying $500 per share. National Western Life, founded in 1956 and long based in Austin, Texas, sold universal life, whole life, term and annuities through independent agents. Its subsidiary Ozark National Life came with it. As part of the deal, National Western Life Insurance Company moved its domicile from Colorado to Arizona.

JAB Insurance completed its purchase of Prosperity from Elliott on September 5, 2025. Michael Ferik, a former Guardian Life chief financial officer and head of individual markets, succeeded von Moltke as CEO on October 15, 2025. The group says it has hired EXL, a third-party administrator, to process payments, claims and service requests on some contracts, including those with numbers starting 902 or 922. If your policy has been sold or moved to a new administrator, see when your life insurance policy is sold to another company.

Life insurance products

Prosperity's current life lineup centers on universal life:

• Indexed universal life. S.USA Legacy Benefit, NWL Lifetime Returns Select and NWL Lifetime Returns Solutions let you split policy value between a fixed account and index-linked accounts that share in market gains without losing value in down years. See Indexed universal life (IUL) explained.
• Single premium fixed universal life. S.USA Legacy Solution, and SBLI USA Legacy Solution in New York, are funded with one premium and credit a guaranteed rate for a period, then never less than a minimum rate.

The company says its universal life plans use simplified underwriting: no medical exam, with eligibility based on health questions, application information and third-party data. Larger face amounts or some circumstances may need more underwriting. Only SBLI USA plans are sold in New York.

Term life is still issued by S.USA through Ladder, the online agency, which names S.USA as one of its carriers in most states except Connecticut and New York. Prosperity no longer sells the S.USA final expense and term products sold to iA in 2024.

Other products

Annuities make up most of the group's lineup. They include fixed annuities and multi-year guaranteed annuities (S.USA and SBLI USA Select Choice and Select Choice Plus), fixed indexed annuities (Prosperity PathPro and PathPro Max, the NWL Ultra, Impact and Dynamic series, and S.USA and SBLI USA Safe Solution) and the NWL Protector One single premium immediate annuity. Withdrawal charges and market value adjustments can apply to early withdrawals. See fixed indexed annuities: caps, participation rates and trade-offs for the trade-offs.

Buying and service

You buy Prosperity products through a licensed independent agent, marketing organization or bank, or Ladder for term. Prosperity does not quote or sell directly on its own site.

Each company keeps its own service line: S.USA 866-787-2123, National Western 800-922-9422, SBLI USA 877-725-4872 and Shenandoah Life 800-848-5433. Owners of S.USA final expense or term policies now administered by American Amicable call 800-746-1670. A shared customer portal serves S.USA, National Western, SBLI USA and Shenandoah policies. Former MyNWL users need to register again with multi-factor authentication.

Claims

Beneficiaries download the claims package for the right company from Prosperity's Start a Claim page, then mail the completed claimant's statement with a certified death certificate showing the cause of death. Each beneficiary completes a separate package. Extra documents are needed when the beneficiary is an estate, trust or minor, or when proceeds are assigned. Special forms apply if the death occurred outside the U.S., resulted from homicide, or happened within two years of issue or reinstatement (the the two-year contestability period).

Claim questions for SBLI USA, S.USA and Shenandoah Life go to 877-725-4872; for National Western, call 800-531-5442, option 5. The company does not publish average payout times.

Ratings and reputation

On November 5, 2025, after the JAB acquisition closed, AM Best removed the group's ratings from under review and affirmed an A- (Excellent) financial strength rating with a stable outlook for S.USA, SBLI USA, Shenandoah Life, Prosperity Life Assurance and National Western Life. AM Best assessed the balance sheet as very strong and operating performance as adequate. It also affirmed a B++ (Good) rating for Family Life Insurance Company of Houston, a JAB affiliate. Prosperity's website lists A- financial strength ratings from S&P Global (for S.USA and National Western only) and from Kroll Bond Rating Agency, as of September 2024.

No Prosperity company was ranked in the J.D. Power 2026 U.S. Individual Life Insurance Study.

Who it suits

Prosperity mainly suits people buying an annuity or a single-premium universal life policy through an independent agent who has compared it with other carriers. It also matters to the many people who own older Shenandoah, SBLI USA, S.USA or National Western policies. Families looking for large, fully underwritten term or permanent coverage from a mutual will find a narrower menu here. Policyholders should expect continued change in ownership, administrators and systems.

• Strengths: A- (Excellent) from AM Best and A- from S&P and KBRA; a broad fixed and indexed annuity lineup; no-exam universal life; a New York company (SBLI USA) for New York residents.
• Weaknesses: Owned by an investment holding company, with changes of control in 2019 and 2025; blocks sold to other insurers and servicing moved to third-party administrators; several phone numbers and portals depending on the issuing company; no ranking in J.D. Power's study.

How to contact Prosperity Life Group