Symetra Life Insurance, a subsidiary of Symetra Financial, has expanded its distribution network with the appointment of a new sales leader for its western division and six new regional vice presidents.
Wes Severin has been appointed as new western divisional sales manager of life and retirement sales. Severin will be responsible for sales planning and day-to-day management and training of 12 external wholesalers covering the western US.
Most recently, Severin was national sales director of financial institution markets at Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company in Denver.
The newly appointed six regional vice presidents in its life and retirement sales organization will provide annuity and life insurance sales support to financial planners in their respective territories.
Christopher Grubbs has been named as a regional vice president at New York Life, covering Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia. He will manage relationships with major financial institutions and independent broker-dealers in southern Virginia and West Virginia.
Lydia Hopper will cover Los Angeles, central California. She will join Symetra from Michel Financial Group, where she was an annuity specialist.
North Texas, Oklahoma will be covered by Brad Kiesling, who is an experienced annuity and life insurance sales professional. He held external wholesaling roles at Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance, AXA Equitable and Genworth Financial.
Matthew O’Neil comes to Symetra from Genworth Financial, where he was a regional vice president responsible for annuity sales in upstate New York. He will be responsible for the Maine, New York, Vermont regions.
Matthew Sennet will cover Florida, excluding Panhandle region. He will join Symetra from ING Financial Solutions, where he was a regional vice president in north Florida.
Georgia, East Tennessee and Florida Panhandle will be covered by Tammy Viccari, who will join Symetra with 13 years of experience as a external and internal wholesaler at ING Financial Services and Wachovia.
Symetra Life vice president, retirement national sales Richard Moran said that by placing more sales professionals in a greater number of smaller territories, Symetra is increasing the level of support it provide to the distribution partners, which will be especially important as Symetra roll out new products over the course of this year.