MINNEAPOLIS, June 29, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GWG Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: GWGH ), the parent company of GWG Life, a financial services company committed to transforming the life insurance industry through disruptive and innovative products and services, announced that insurance technology expert Tom Nodine has joined as its Executive Vice President to lead the development and commercialization of its M-Panel technology, the groundbreaking application of epigenetic science to advanced underwriting techniques for the global life insurance industry.
Nodine, an acknowledged expert on technology in the insurance business, has consulted with GWG Life since October 2016 to help assess the potential of its epigenetic life expectancy technology and how it can be commercialized in life insurance and related industries. GWG Life holds the exclusive license to the “DNA methylation-based predictor of mortality technology” developed by Dr. Steve Horvath at UCLA, and is the first company to apply epigenetic technology in the life insurance industry.
“Since Tom began working with us, he has helped us to translate Dr. Horvath’s technology into a commercialized actuarial underwriting testing protocol, as well as focus our strategy on developing a business around epigenetic testing and life insurance underwriting,” said GWG Life CEO Jon Sabes. “The ability to attract a top industry professional like Tom Nodine to lead our insurance technology group speaks to the opportunity we believe we have with the epigenetic M-Panel technology we are building. The team we have now assembled with Tom and our Chief Science Officer, Dr. Brian Chen, puts us at the forefront of an emerging technology whose applications were not even imagined a year ago.”
Under Nodine’s guidance, the company has identified opportunities it believes have the potential to be game changers for the life insurance industry. Among several business opportunities the company’s proprietary M-Panel epigenetic analyses presents, Nodine’s team of researchers has identified its ability to better estimate longevity and other key factors involved in underwriting life insurance. Replacing the complex process of medical underwriting with M-Panel’s epigenetic analysis could save weeks of time and reduce the cost to underwrite millions of life insurance applicants in the domestic and global life insurance markets.
“Bringing proven epigenetics science to the life insurance industry is the most exciting opportunity I have seen in my twenty-year career,” Nodine said. “I believe the discoveries that have been made so far are staggering and there will be more to come.”
Nodine was Senior Vice President for Technology Strategy and Innovation for Allstate Insurance and led insurance strategy practices for KPMG and Booz & Company. As a consultant, he has helped companies all over the world adapt to the rapid changes technology has had on their industries.
About GWG Holdings, Inc.
GWG Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: GWGH ) the parent company of GWG Life, is a financial services company committed to transforming the life insurance industry through disruptive and innovative products and services. The company has developed a new suite of options for the life insurance secondary market called LifeCare Xchange (LCX). This new capability provides seniors with the exchange value of their life insurance policies they can apply to long-term care and other post-retirement needs. GWG Life seeks to further transform the industry by applying proprietary M-Panel epigenetic technology to disrupt traditional life insurance underwriting practices. Since 2006 GWG Life has provided seniors over $418 million in exchange value for their life insurance and, as of March 31, 2017, owned a portfolio of over $1.4 billion in face value of policy benefits.
For more information about GWG Holdings, Inc. email info@gwglife.com or visit www.gwgh.com .
Media contacts: Dan Callahan GWG Holdings, Inc. (612) 746-1935 dcallahan@gwglife.com Lyndsey Newnam G&S Business Communications (919) 870-5718, x3177 lnewnam@gscommunications.com
