Ready and Able.

Hartford Life uses a team of athletes with disabilities to promote its group disability insurance plans, which are focused on helping employees return to work.

Hartford Life Insurance Co. has found a unique way to differentiate itself in its market by assembling a team of world-class athletes to help spread the word to employers and employees that active and fulfilling lives need not end when disabilities strike.

Hartford's Team Ability, part of its Break Away program, is made up of seven athletes who are partially paralyzed or have visual impairments, yet they can zoom down ski slopes at 70 mph, rumble over rough terrain in off-road wheelchairs or compete in judo, swimming or track-and-field events. They also hold jobs in schools, law firms and businesses.

Employers like a return-to-work focus in their disability plans not only because it has a positive effect on their employees, but also because it saves them money. As a result, many insurers offer such plans in this competitive product line. But Hartford is the only one to provide support for these athletes and to sponsor world-class sporting events, disability advocacy groups and recreational programs. On behalf of the Simsbury, Conn.-based company, the athletes work with field offices and producers as guest speakers during business presentations and in seminars throughout the United States. "This is also about educating producers and customers about overcoming the challenges people with disabilities face, and how claimants can return to active, productive lifestyles, which is something this company continually stresses," said company spokesman Mitch Gross. "It's part of our philosophy and culture."

The Break Away program gives Hartford a competitive edge, said Beverly Gregory, assistant vice president of Marsh USA, part of the San Diego, Calif.-based broker and consulting firm Marsh & McLennan. Gregory said her office places various lines of coverage with various carriers, and the Break Away program "brings to the forefront in a tangible way" that Hartford has value-added programs.

Although Hartford does not track the revenues produced by the program, Lizabeth H. Zlatkus, executive vice president at Hartford Life and the director of the group benefits division, said it has been a "net winner" for the company. Break Away, created in 1995, was directly responsible for many sales in 2000, more than in prior years, she said. Also, Zlatkus said there is a positive financial effect on the claims side because the program aims to get claimants back to work sooner.

Last summer, Hartford won a group term life insurance contract with the city of Logan, Utah, due in part to a presentation by Chris Waddell, one of the Team Ability members. Brad Kupfer, the broker who negotiated the deal, said other sales are pending in Utah through his agency One of the largest employers in the area with about 400 employees, the city of Logan agreed to a two-year guaranteed contract that pays Hartford in the low six-figures in annual premiums. The city provides base coverage, and employees may voluntarily add to their coverage.

Logan had some administrative problems with its previous insurer and was looking for a name-brand company offering a competitive product, but it also wanted a program that would encourage employees to lead a healthy lifestyle, Kupfer said.

A Media-Savvy Spokesman

That is where Waddell stepped in. He had been a top-ranked skier with a chance to make the U.S. Olympic Ski Team when a skiing accident paralyzed him from the waist down in 1988. Less than a year later, he was back on the slopes with a mono-ski, a device for people who have no use of their legs. In three more years, he became the top male mono-skier on the U.S. Disabled Ski Team. He is a five-time Paralympic gold-medal winner with four at the 1994 Lillehammer Paralympics. He still competes as an alpine skier and a wheelchair racer, and he works as an actor, a model and the owner of a company that operates ski camps for the disabled.

Sherry Anderson, a Logan representative, was at Kupfer's agency, Fred A. Moreton & Co. in Salt Lake City, when Waddell made a presentation to the agency last spring, Kupfer said. He and Anderson decided the Hartford program would be a good fit for the city. Waddell then spoke to city employees. "I wasn't involved in the deal-making or negotiations, but the crux was they wanted me to come speak," Waddell said. "As a result, they changed their insurance to Hartford."

Kupfer said David Schneeweiss of Hartford's western regional office in Denver arranged for Waddell's visits, designed a competitive package and implemented the changeover without administrative problems. But Waddell, who lives in Park City, Utah, was a big factor. "He has celebrity status around Utah because of the ski industry," Kupfer said. "He's very recognizable, very charismatic, and has a fun personality to which people readily cling.

"Everyone has experienced trials in their lives, and Chris' is a great story to which people can connect," he added. "He's an ordinary person, and he's not egotistical about his accomplishments."

Of the seven team members, Waddell is the one "constantly in front of the media," Zlatkus said. "His own personality is that he's a star. He's been on CNN, and he gets a lot of media exposure due to who he is. He's into coaching, and he's a consultant to the Salt Lake City Paralympics organizing committee." While not as famous, the other team members are just as adept at speaking, she said. "They teach people about the power of their abilities and tell employers and brokers why Hartford is different."

Of course, motivational speeches mean little without a competitive product, and big employers are sophisticated buyers. "A client like a city often has bidding regulations, so there are a variety of factors, and there are other good carriers that are big, reputable insurance companies," Zlatkus said. "But if the contracts are similar, what breaks the tie?"

Hartford has contracts with the team members and sponsors them for many of their athletic events. But these contracts aren't as grandiose as for those athletes who are pictured on a box of cereal. "Our stipends are significantly less," Zlatkus said. "You have to think about our product line. Our athletes are not well known, but they have captured the spirit we believe in. They've overcome disability, have an attitude that they will work again, and they have become accomplished in their sport. So it's been a long-term relationship. We're in the business of helping people return to productive life."

Events for the Disabled

In December, Hartford sponsored the Hartford Ski Spectacular as part of its Break Away program. With about 700 people attending in Breckenridge, Colo., it was the nation's largest winter sporting event for people with disabilities, according to Zlatkus. As the national corporate sponsor of the annual event, Hartford works with Disabled Sports USA, a nonprofit organization committed to helping disabled people recapture their lives through sporting events. Athletes, coaches, staff members and people who work with adaptive ski equipment attended the event. Many attendees were beginners learning how to ski.

As part of Break Away, Hartford sponsors a sailing competition in Newport, R.I.; a theater for the deaf; golf tournaments to benefit the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes; and the annual National Sports Festival for the Disabled organized by the U.S. Cerebral Palsy Athletic Association and held in New London, Conn.

Hartford developed the return-to-work concept in disability insurance about seven or eight years ago, but the idea spread quickly to most carriers, Zlatkus said. Previously, disability insurance was focused on limitations, the idea that the insured couldn't do something and, therefore, needed to receive a benefit. "That can foster dependency kind of like welfare," she said. "It was founded for good reasons, but we don't want to foster dependencies, and people don't want to be dependent." The return-to-work concept proved to be good not only for the employee, but also for the employer and productivity, she said. Disability plans with return-to-work incentives cost employers less in premiums, but they have generated greater business volume for insurers, Zlatkus said.

Group disability and integrated-benefits products are designed to do more than replace income. Hartford designs rehabilitation programs for its return-to-work plans, offers individualized return-to-work assistance and helps plan members locate rehabilitative resources and services.

Kupfer estimated that return-to-work disability contracts have increased to about 20% or 30% of the total disability market. Fred A. Moreton, the largest agency in Utah in terms of premiums, works in property/casualty, surety bonds, employee benefits and loss control. It writes about $200 million in premiums and has about 100 employees, including some in an office in Boise, Idaho.

Diane Astle, human resources director for Logan, said the city didn't buy the Hartford Life plan just because Waddell visited and spoke. "But he certainly was an inspiration," she said, "and just the fact they have a sensitivity toward people with disabilities left an impression."

The city bids its benefits every two years. Before Waddell's visit, officials were interested in Hartford because it was a recognized name, was known locally, had local representation and provided benefits at no additional cost compared to previous coverages, Astle said. "But Chris was very inspirational and helped seal the deal," she said.

                     1999 Top Group Disability Writers
                            Rank based on 1999
                           net premiums written
                                             1999
                                           Market       1999 Net Percent
Rank Company                         State  Share       Premiums  Change
  1  Unum Life Ins Co of America        ME 17.89% $1,102,068,574 -16.54%
  2  Hartford Life & Accident Ins       CT 11.44     704,928,201   11.49
  3  Life Ins of North America          PA  7.97     491,092,151    9.75
  4  Standard Ins Co                    OR  7.73     476,382,541   11.53
  5  Fortis Benefits Ins Co             MN  5.73     352,653,361    9.98
  6  Provident Life & Accident          TN  3.79     233,532,673   71.78
  7  Guardian Life Ins Co of America    NY  3.09     190,544,845    9.86
  8  Paul Revere Life Ins Co            MA  2.99     184,319,379  -10.60
  9  First Unum Life Ins Co             NY  2.88     177,347,160   20.69
 10  American General Assurance Co      IL  2.73     168,447,419  260.21
           1998 Net Percent       1997 Net Percent
Rank       Premiums  Change       Premiums  Change
  1  $1,320,470,599  -3.29% $1,365,367,819   7.92%
  2     632,278,299   -2.40    647,813,387   14.78
  3     447,473,971   -5.87    475,354,636   14.11
  4     427,119,264   11.69    382,428,089   16.26
  5     320,645,816   13.36    282,851,284    5.58
  6     135,951,457  104.42     66,505,342  -26.64
  7     173,441,864   23.29    140,682,616   11.91
  8     206,182,357  -11.04    231,758,192   19.95
  9     146,949,654   12.71    130,375,030    9.70
 10      46,763,526  917.20      4,597,268  -15.13

Source: A.M. Best voluntary response questionnaire. The complete study, which includes data from 181 companies, is available in Best's Sales Studies, Health Sales Results, 2000 edition.