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Industry veteran to lead annuity product development and inforce management

West Des Moines, Iowa – September 12, 2023 –Sammons^® Financial Group, Inc. announced the appointment of Linda Durman to the new position of Vice President, Annuity Product Development and Inforce Management. The change combines two separate, yet closely related, actuarial teams. The Annuity Product Development and Inforce Management teams joined under Durman’s leadership on September 11, 2023.

In this new role, Durman moves from the Sammons Financial Group Risk Management team to the Sammons Independent Annuity Group leadership team to directly oversee annuity product development and inforce management. In that capacity, she will collaborate on new product ideation, working closely with annuity leadership to prioritize and coordinate product introductions while simultaneously managing inforce account priorities. Durman reports to Rob TeKolste, president, Sammons Independent Annuity Group.

“At Sammons Financial Group, we are fortunate to have talented people and strong, high-performing teams in place. To compete in the dynamic and aggressive annuity industry, we must have a united focus on new product development and inforce management,” said TeKolste. “We are also skilled at being flexible, which is obvious when an opportunity to adapt emerges. This is one of those cases as we have the talent in place to meet our current needs and changing market demands.”

Durman has been with the company since January 2014 when she joined as vice president, Annuity Product Management. At that time, she effectively built the product management and inforce management teams. She will leverage this prior experience on the annuity team, as well as her product development expertise at other companies, to support the growth in the annuity group’s product positioning and inforce initiatives.

“Linda’s tenure with Sammons Financial Group and her broad experiences will help to grow the value of the fixed annuity business,” TeKolste said. “Competitive new sales and a disciplined approach to managing our inforce business are critical to achieve both our earnings and profitability goals.”

Durman was most recently Sammons Financial Group’s Vice President, Risk and Asset Liability Management (ALM). In her time on the Corporate Services team, she transformed the ALM process, developing it from a reporting exercise to robust and actionable management information supporting the company’s ALM, liquidity management, SFG Bermuda valuation, and various risk initiatives.

“I lead through collaboration and teamwork, united around our common purpose and shared values,” Durman said. “I look forward to rejoining the annuity leadership team and to the changes ahead as we manage the diverse product and inforce priorities.”