Update: March 27, 2020

Life changes. We’ll be there.® It’s our promise to be there for our policyholders when they need us the most, no matter what the environment. Unquestionably, the global impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has left our communities dealing with a level of uncertainty many have never experienced before. We want to assure you that we are closely monitoring the situation and implementing appropriate measures to continue to serve our policyholders and maintain a positive health environment for our associates and business partners. To that end, we have implemented a work-from-home policy while ensuring that business critical processes continue to be performed – read more in our infectious disease response plan.

2019 Annual Report

A message to our policyholders

Life can change in an instant. In the fall of 2019, I was reminded of this as I listened to Traci Kovacic speak to Ohio National associates in our Cincinnati, Ohio, headquarters. Her 32-year-old husband Michael – a fit, healthy family man – kissed her, their newborn son and toddler daughter goodbye before leaving to run a 10K. He never made it home. As he crossed the finish line, Michael collapsed and died. The unexpected changed everything.

Thankfully, Michael’s father Joe, a licensed financial professional, had insisted the young couple purchase life insurance. Having life insurance in place allowed Traci to pay bills, buy food and take care of her young children while she figured out how to move forward after the sudden loss of her husband.

Traci’s story is an important reminder of why Ohio National exists, and why I’ve chosen to be in this business for more than 40 years. I’ve personally delivered many death benefit checks to beneficiaries. I’ve seen disability income insurance benefits allow individuals, families and businesses to keep the lights on in the face of devastating injury, accident or chronic illness.

As a mutual insurance company, serving you is our guiding principle. Every decision we make and will continue to make considers the long-term best interest of our policyholders. Our commitment is to be there for you when you need your policy benefits, no matter the economic environment.

Life changes. We’ll be there.® In 2019 we delivered on this promise by paying more than $1.2 billion¹ in benefits to policyholders and beneficiaries while also paying dividends to eligible policyholders for the 96^th consecutive year.

Executing our strategy

In 2019 we remained laser-focused on our strategy, which centers around our historic strength in life insurance, combined with disability income (DI) insurance. In a challenging external environment with continued regulatory changes and prolonged low interest rates, we were able to strengthen our company and stay true to our mutual heritage. Building on an already strong financial foundation, we:

• Further enhanced our capital position
• Continued to provide quality products and services
• Invested in areas to drive operational efficiencies and bring value to you and our financial professionals

We continue to invest in ways to better serve you and our financial professionals, and we were excited to launch end-to-end e-policy delivery to customers for our term life insurance products in 2019, with plans to extend to other products in 2020. We also offer eBill notification, a paperless means to receive and pay your premium.

Our protection products help you achieve financial security and independence. We introduced a number of product enhancements in our life, DI and annuity lines of business including an enhanced life insurance portfolio, a new 20-pay whole life insurance product, new Lump Sum at Retirement and Student Loan Reimbursement DI riders as well as reduced annuity fund expenses.

Growing our network of independent financial professionals in numbers and diversity is an ongoing priority, in order to reflect the faces and needs of today’s marketplace. In 2019, the company added nearly 1,500 new financial professionals to our distribution network. We are especially proud that last year, our top individual life sales producer was Rebecca Walser of Walser Capital Group in Tampa, the first woman to achieve Ohio National’s top sales position in our 110-year history.

Our Latin American operations continued to serve the growing need for protection products in these emerging markets and the Ohio National value proposition continues to attract new financial professionals.

Investing in our community

Building a brighter and more secure future for generations to come is core to our Mission. Ohio National’s culture of service and outreach has been a hallmark for many decades, led in large part by the commitment of our associates to volunteering their time, energy and creativity to the organizations and causes about which they are passionate. In 2019, associates used their community service benefit time to volunteer more than 3,200 hours, in addition to their many hours volunteering outside of work.

The Ohio National Foundation donated $1.5 million to organizations including United Way, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati and the Cancer Center of Excellence, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and matching associate and field partner gifts to accredited colleges and universities throughout the country.

Looking ahead

We begin 2020 strong, stable and well positioned to continue to grow our business and, most importantly, protect you, our policyholder. As we were there for Traci Kovacic and her young children during one of life’s most tragic and unexpected events, we are here for you when you need us – today, and for generations to come. Thank you for placing your trust in us.

Sincerely,
Gary T. “Doc” Huffman, CLU, ChFC
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

¹ Benefits paid in 2019 to policyholders and beneficiaries include cash payments for life insurance benefits, systematic withdrawal transactions on deferred annuity contracts, monthly disability income benefits, retirement plan benefits and annuity lump sum death claims and disbursements. Excludes Latin American operations.