Spotlight On: Dan Fishbein, President, Sun Life U.S.
June 2024 — In an interview with Invest:, Dan Fishbein, president of Sun Life U.S., discussed his 10-year tenure with the company and the transformations during that time, while also touching on the evolution of the company’s culture given an evolving landscape, and Sun Life’s market position in the Greater Boston region.
What stands out during your 10-year tenure as president of Sun Life U.S.?
The most notable transformation has been our shift from being primarily an individual life insurance and annuities company to predominantly a health-focused employee benefits company. We’ve moved from having a minor involvement in healthcare to where it now constitutes 85% of our business. Our strategy now is to help people access the healthcare and coverage they need. This shift in focus toward health, which is vital for people’s lives and the economy, has been both exciting and profound. The transition has been dramatic. We sold the annuities business and closed the individual life business to new sales. We still support more than 80,000 in-force individual life policies, and continue to sell a leading group life insurance product.
The most challenging yet interesting part has been leading our team through this transformation. We’ve maintained many of the same staff from 10 years ago and have added new members through acquisitions and recruitment, shifting their focus from financial services to healthcare. It’s been both a challenging and fulfilling journey.
How do you enhance your company culture during acquisitions?
Culture is our superpower. Over the past decade, we’ve not only maintained but enhanced our company culture. We value our employees greatly and demonstrate this through generous and creative benefits programs, including groundbreaking leave programs. For instance, we offer a sabbatical every five years for employees to refresh and engage with what matters to them or their communities. We were among the first large U.S. employers to voluntarily introduce a comprehensive paid family and medical leave program, which includes extensive maternity and paternity benefits for many types of families, as well as caregiver leave that extends to chosen families.
Our respect for our employees translates into mutual respect, and this has propelled us forward. Interestingly, the COVID-19 pandemic saw us pivot to a virtual work environment virtually overnight on March 16, 2020. With little notice, our entire workforce switched to remote work, and productivity remained high. Although we had been approaching a flexible work environment, the pandemic accelerated our move by perhaps 20 years. We now operate in a hybrid setting, giving employees significant flexibility regarding how and where they work.
This flexibility has allowed us to recruit excellent talent regardless of their location. As a result, our employee turnover rate has reduced drastically. Last year our turnover rate was less than 7%, and we’ve seen significant reductions each of the last few years. From 2022 to 2023 our turnover rate dropped by nearly 20%, after a reduction of more than 16% from the year before. This is a testament to the strength and appeal of our company culture in a flexible work environment.
How has Sun Life positioned itself in the Greater Boston area, both as an employer and a service provider?
Sun Life U.S. has a significant presence in Massachusetts, particularly through our Wellesley office, our largest in the United States, and our Boston-based asset management businesses, MFS and SLC. In Massachusetts, Sun Life employs approximately 1,300 people based out of the Wellesley office and nearly 3,000 including MFS and SLC. Our approach to business heavily involves partnerships, extending beyond philanthropy to actual operational collaborations. We work with over 100 other insurance companies and health plans nationwide, reflecting our business philosophy. Locally, we engage in numerous initiatives, such as our partnership with the Boston Celtics and the Dunk for Diabetes program (#SunLifeDunk4Diabetes), which recently surpassed the $1 million fundraising mark, and which supports the YMCA of Greater Boston Healthy Habits educational program.
What is driving the growth in sales of employee benefits products at Sun Life?
Focusing on the U.S. business, which I’m fortunate to lead, we generated almost $1.7 billion in new business sales last year. This success stems from the attractiveness of our products and our leadership in key areas. We are the largest independent provider of medical stop-loss insurance, which offers protection for employers who self-fund their health plans. We’re also one of the top providers of dental benefits in the U.S. through employers and government programs, including being the largest by membership in Medicaid. We’re also active in the Medicare Advantage space. Additionally, we are a market leader in group benefits, such as disability, life insurance, absence and leave management, and supplemental health benefits, which include accident, critical illness, and hospital indemnity insurance. These areas are all fundamental to our growth.
How are the products and services that expanded significantly in 2023 performing this year?
We have been expanding these businesses through developing new capabilities and through our recent acquisitions. Our businesses continue to show great growth momentum, attracting new clients and retaining existing ones. We work with our clients to get their direct input so that our products and solutions are designed to address specific needs and make it easier to do business with us. Our past expansions have laid a strong foundation and we believe our unique offerings will continue to drive growth..
How is Sun Life integrating wellness initiatives into its insurance products?
Recently, we launched Sun Life Health 360, an app providing members with health and wellness support. This includes direct access to a personal care navigation adviser who assists members, especially those facing difficult medical challenges. They guide members to the right providers and treatment centers, simplifying the complex health system. We offer this service directly as well. Our care navigators also compile a comprehensive medical record for each member, which is invaluable for healthcare providers preparing for consultations. This streamlined approach enhances the quality of care our members receive, and helps them get the right diagnoses and treatments.
Our group life insurance members and their families have access to an app that provides virtual wellness coaching and coping tools that can be accessed at any time. We feel it’s important to offer support to all our members, regardless of whether a claim has been filed.
We have also added a wellness benefit into our supplemental health products, to encourage our members to maintain preventive care such as cancer screenings.
How are you incorporating AI into your operations at Sun Life?
It’s important for people to understand what AI can and cannot do. For instance, large language models like Chat GPT function essentially as advanced search engines. They predict the most likely next word in a sentence or the most common answer to a question, based on historical data. This makes them more retrospective than innovative — they don’t create new ideas or solve unprecedented problems. However, they are excellent for guiding us to well-established facts quickly, which saves time and allows us to support clients and members more efficiently.
Emerging tools powered by artificial intelligence promise to transform medical interactions. These tools can handle or assist in record-keeping, potentially freeing up physicians to focus more on patient care. I recently spoke with a physician who is optimistic about AI’s role in revolutionizing medical practice, allowing doctors to shift away from mundane tasks and engage more with their patients. It’s important to embrace solutions that will ultimately improve the healthcare system and expand access to care for more people.
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