Milwaukee-based Catholic Financial Life and Minnesota-based Catholic United Financial have launched a new joint venture aimed at developing new technology solutions for the firms.
The joint venture, Conventus Now, LLC, is a wholly-owned company of the Milwaukee- and Arden Hills, Minnesota-based fraternal benefit insurers.
The partnership will initially focus on developing technology solutions that will be used by the two founding organizations, but they could be used more broadly by other fraternal benefit societies in the future.
“Our two fraternal benefit societies have long-shared common philosophies and approaches to serving members. We are convinced that this first step in sharing resources and collaboration will greatly enhance our abilities to serve and grow membership,” said William O’Toole, president of Catholic Financial Life.
Conventus will partner with iPipeline, a provider of cloud-based software solutions for the life insurance and financial services industry, on the initiative.
“Conventus is an idea which has been nearly three years in the planning and will allow us to achieve economies of scale for the benefit of our members which would be otherwise unattainable,” said Harald Borrmann, president of Catholic United Financial.
Catholic Financial Life provides life insurance and retirement planning services to nearly 140,000 members nationally. It has about 100 advisors across Wisconsin and more than 200 member chapters nationwide. In 2017, the company acquired St. Paul, Minnesota-based fraternal benefit society Degree of Honor Protective Association.