Ethos plans to expand carrier partners, explore more complex products post IPO

➤ The life insurance-focused agency plans to double down on its direct‑to‑consumer and agent channels, expand into more complex products and lean on AI and machine learning-driven underwriting.

➤ Ethos Technologies CFO Chris Capozzi is bullish on life insurance sales for 2026, and said the company will look to expand partnerships to additional carriers.

➤ Capozzi said he does not have concerns about insurance carriers' use of broader, more simplified underwriting that could negatively impact Ethos' business model.

Ethos Technologies Inc. made its public market debut on Jan. 29 at $19 per share. The company went public to lean into investor demand for "durable" insurance spending, according to CFO Chris Capozzi. Ethos shares closed at $10.99 per share on Feb. 20.

S&P Global Market Intelligence interviewed Capozzi about the timing of Ethos' IPO, its growth plans, the outlook on 2026 life insurance sales, AI underwriting and Ethos' competitive advantages.

The following conversation was edited and condensed for clarity.

S&P Global Market Intelligence: Why was now the right time to go public?

Chris Capozzi: We met with probably over 200 investors over the past nine to 12 months, and the reception was overwhelmingly positive. They love the scale of the end market, with over $140 billion in new premiums annually. They love the durability of that demand, as US consumers are purchasing life insurance through economic cycles, unswayed by the latest tariff announcement from Washington, DC. I think they view it as a repeatable and durable source of demand, and recognize that we have built the most efficient product to capture it.

We have grown revenue by more than 50% for the past three consecutive years. We are profitable on a [generally accepted accounting principles] basis and generate free cash flow, which is unique for a company launched in 2018.

What really differentiates Ethos from its peers?

I don't know if you've ever been through the life insurance purchase process, but it is fraught with friction. Once you apply, you're passed between agents, underwriters, and medical professionals, and subjected to medical examinations and blood draws, in a process that can take anywhere from six to eight weeks. If coverage is not approved, the process begins again.

Such a process, especially for a product that is a core part of financial planning, ultimately leaves people underinsured or, in some cases, without life insurance. What we built at Ethos is a technology platform that completely redefines what it's like to purchase life insurance as a consumer, to sell life insurance as an agent, or to underwrite life insurance as a carrier. We've taken the cumbersome six-to-eight-week process I described and condensed it to less than 10 minutes. The process is now as simple as buying a plane ticket on your phone.

Where are you expecting to grow fastest over the next three years?

We go to market through two channels: direct-to-consumer and agent networks, which account for 90% of life insurance sales in the US today. Our growth formula is more of the same.

In our direct-to-consumer channel, Ethos continues to optimize the customer journey and underwriting models, so we're positioned to deliver affordable life insurance in a fast and efficient digital delivery model.

For agents, Ethos provides a technology portal that allows them to leverage that same 10-minute experience from a selling perspective. Instead of managing a six-to-eight-week sales cycle and repeatedly following up with applicants, underwriters, or medical service providers, our technology enables agents to manage a 10-minute sales cycle.

I think both channels will benefit from continued new product introductions. Ethos launched two new products in the fourth quarter. The company sees opportunities in product sets such as annuities, participating whole life, variable index and universal life. It may expand into wealth management and mutual fund products at some point.

What are your plans when it comes to moving into more complex life products? Do you feel that the direct channel can work for products that traditionally need to be 'sold'?

I think we're going to dip our toe into the water there, and we've already started. We've started offering index universal life products in a direct-to-consumer model. In doing so, we're bringing agents into the process at the checkout step to ensure consumers are comfortable with their product selection, coverage levels and annual premiums. Over time, I think we'll continue to learn from the agent-assisted process. If there's an opportunity to offer a fully digital experience, Ethos will be in a position to move in that direction.

What's your outlook on life sales for this year?

We're very bullish. If you look at our historical track record, we've been able to compound growth in excess of 50% with both channels contributing meaningfully to that growth trajectory.

Obviously, this is an industry that historically grows at low single-digit rates, so we're clearly gaining market share. Recent LIMRA data from the third quarter shows that carrier partners on the Ethos platform, across product sets such as term life, whole life and index universal life, demonstrate significantly higher growth rates than other carriers serving the same product lines. Ethos plans to expand partnerships with additional carriers.

Do you have concerns that traditional carriers' broader use of more simplified underwriting erodes Ethos' competitive advantage in any way?

I don't think so. You can always make claims about an instant approval process, either by focusing on the youngest, healthiest population, or, as you noted, building significant underwriting margins into a simplified issuance product.

That's not our playbook. We're really looking to provide affordable, instant insurance options to a broad range of consumers, whether they're young, healthy families or seniors. We've got six carrier partners, and I expect that population will continue to grow over the next decade.

How is AI being used at Ethos?

AI, machine learning, and even traditional underwriting are all critical components of our technology stack and the consumer and agent experience.

When you apply for a policy with Ethos, you provide us with a [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996] consent. We're accessing over 200,000 data points through your historical medical records. That's all coming into our technology platform in an unstructured manner. We have proprietary technology that transforms that data into a structured format, applying tens of thousands of underwriting rules to arrive at a pricing decision that offers consumers the lowest cost per unit of coverage while appropriately pricing risk for carrier partners. So it's a key component of our operating model, but it's not the only component.

Ethos has ad campaigns focusing on the basic life insurance value proposition. Do you find that these campaigns resonate with younger consumers?

Absolutely. We see distribution across consumers in their early 30s up to their early 60s for the core term offering, with separate distribution for products aimed at seniors. In the fourth quarter, our direct-to-consumer channel grew 90% year over year.

And if you compare that to the fourth quarter of 2024, the direct-to-consumer channel grew by 37%. What's even perhaps more impressive than the 90% growth rate in the fourth quarter in the direct-to-consumer channel is the fact that we did it with consistent or stable unit economics on a year-over-year basis. The advertising spend that fuels our go-to-market strategy in direct-to-consumer delivers consistent year-over-year returns. This demonstrates that the differentiated experience, digital marketing capabilities and breadth of the product portfolio are resonating with consumers, and we think it's critical.