Paying the Right Price in Transamerica Employee Benefits

Q&A with Margaret Pappas, Senior Director, Employee Benefits Product

Creating competitively priced employee benefits is a high priority for Margaret Pappas and her team of Transamerica Life Insurance Company underwriters. With the goal of protecting average middle-class Americans, Margaret’s team strives to make premiums as competitive as possible ensuring all customers can have access to diverse solutions to meet their needs.

We chatted with Margaret a bit to learn more about her underwriting team:

Q: How do you and your team help ensure Transamerica offers benefits that meet groups’ needs?

A: Our products are flexible, meaning we can work with the broker and employer to determine which benefits and coverage amounts are important to the group and help create a robust solution that really meets their needs. Our team is structured around product segments allowing for highly concentrated knowledge in each area of focus. Not only do our underwriters work on production requests, but we’re also involved in renewals, training our partners, pricing tool maintenance, and product enhancement delivery.

Q: How do you help make benefits accessible to employees?

A: We look at each group on an individual basis with the goal of making our premiums as competitive as possible for the average middle-class American. We take into consideration who we're insuring and if the premium initially proposed is too high, we see what can be done to reduce it. This is part of a cost benefits analysis – finding a way to offer the best benefits possible for the most reasonable price.

Q: Does the underwriting team assist in creating new products?

A: Yes, we learn from the brokers and employers we work with every day from their requests and needs. The underwriting team works closely with other members of the product team – all with the goal in mind of creating the most beneficial employee benefits that can help protect middle-class America.

Q: What does a day in the life of an underwriter look like?

A: Our underwriters spend a great deal of time on case level underwriting and pricing, but also focus on application underwriting. Collaboration is also key for underwriting and we’re always working to improve processes. For instance, our underwriters work closely with sales to help craft solutions for clients, and with product development and actuarial teams to ensure our guidelines and practices are competitive and consistent with the market’s expectations.

Q: What do you like about your leadership role?

A: I have a resilient team that is a group of individuals with diverse backgrounds, roles, and past experiences. They’re always willing to step up and serve with a smile and positive attitude. Since I have joined Transamerica in January 2021, we have introduced both new and numerous employee benefits product enhancements. We’ve also enhanced capabilities and tools to help us better serve our customers. I learn something new every day and I enjoy the opportunity to continually help drive improvements in how we work, as well as within the product offerings and capabilities we can offer to our customers.

Q: What made you interested in employee benefits?

A: That’s a funny story. I started in insurance because of my uncle who worked for an insurance company. I applied for a role as an “underwriter”, assuming this would align well with my English minor due to the “writing” element. I ended up being hired as a compliance analyst and worked in the legal and compliance department for my first few years. This gave me a true appreciation for the breadth and value of employee benefits products – 37 years later in employee benefits and I never looked back.

Transamerica’s Underwriting and Case Pricing team continually work to improve and enhance the employee benefits experience. Through daily research and collaboration with internal and external relationships, they’re able to help us offer competitive and flexible employee benefit products. You can trust Margaret and her team will do their best to help ensure middle-class Americans are financially protected.

Visit transamerica.com/employee-benefits or contact a Transamerica Representative today at 800-851-7555, option 4.

Insurance products underwritten by Transamerica Life Insurance Company (TLIC), Cedar Rapids, IA or Transamerica Financial Life Insurance Company (TFLIC), Harrison, NY. TFLIC is licensed to conduct business in New York. TLIC is authorized to conduct business in all other states.

EB3 3044257 S 12/23