American Equity CEO Remembered as One of the First Women to Lead a US Life Company
June 21, 2012 by Fran Matso Lysiak
Best’s News Service – June 20, 2012 12:28 PM
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa – Wendy C. Waugaman, chief executive officer and president of American Equity Investment Life Holding Co. who died after a battle with cancer, is being remembered as a trailblazer who helped build the company.
Waugaman, who died at 51, was one of just a few women to serve as the CEO of a U.S. life insurance company, John M. Matovina, now CEO of American Equity, told Best’s News Service on June 19. Through its subsidiaries, the West Des Moines, Iowa-based American Equity (NYSE: AEL) underwrites a broad line of fixed annuities and life insurance, with an emphasis on selling indexed and fixed-rate annuities.
She was “an integral member” of the management team when she joined the company in 1999, and helped build it into the industry leader in the indexed annuity business that it is today, Matovina said. Waugaman was “dedicated to the success of American Equity,” he said.
Waugaman became CEO in January 2009 after serving as chief financial officer and chief counsel for American Equity since 1999, Matovina said. He said he worked with Waugaman as an employee of American Equity since 2003 but their relationship goes back to the late 1980’s or early 1990’s when she worked as a lawyer with the Whitfield law firm. The firm served as outside counsel to the Statesman Group, an insurance holding company where he was CFO, he said.
“We first met Wendy as part of the due diligence process involved in American Equity’s IPO in 2003,” said Steven Schwartz, an equity analyst with Raymond James & Associates, noting she “was one of the smartest and nicest people I ever had a chance to work with.” At the time of her elevation to CEO, “she was, to the best of my knowledge, the only female running a major life insurance company,” Schwartz said.
“The life insurance industry owes Wendy a debt of thanks,” Schwartz said. Under her leadership, American Equity spearheaded the ultimately successful battle against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Rule 151 A. “As a lawyer, she was uniquely suited to this task.”
In December 2008, the SEC voted to reclassify indexed annuities as securities, not insurance products. But in the summer of 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered that SEC’s Rule 151 A — to regulate indexed annuities as securities—be vacated (Best’s News Service, July 13, 2010).
Soon after, the SEC was to be barred from regulating them under an amendment included at the last minute within Congress’ financial services regulatory reform bill (Best’s News Service, July 20, 2010).
Recently, Best’s News Service reported American Equity Investment Group showed the largest percentage increase in admitted assets among the top 50 U.S. life/health insurance companies in 2011, according to a newly released A.M. Best Co. Statistical Study. In terms of percentage change, American Equity and just four other companies, showed double-digit increases among the top 50 companies (Best’s News Service, June 18, 2012).
American Equity Investment Life Insurance was ranked third in sales of indexed annuities in the United States in 2011 — at $4.3 billion, according to AnnuitySpecs.com (Best’s News Service, March 28, 2012). American Equity showed a 17.1% jump in admitted assets to $24.97 billion and moved up a notch in rank to 39 from 40 in 2010 (Best’s News Service, June 18, 2012).
Earlier this month, American Equity said Waugaman, who also was a member of the company’s board of directors, would take a medical leave of absence, effective immediately (Best’s News Service, June 12, 2012).
American Equity Investment Life Insurance Co. currently has a Best’s Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent).
(By Fran Matso Lysiak, senior associate editor, BestWeek: fran.lysiak@ambest.com) BN-NJ-06-20-2012 1228 ET #