LTC Bullet: Vince Bodnar on Lumos (CenterLTC)
By Stephen Moses | Center for Long-term Care Reform
LTC Comment: I’ve followed the long-term care insurance industry’s successes and challenges since the mid-1980s. Through most of that history one name stood out for his expertise, creativity, professionalism and congeniality. Vince Bodnar has concentrated on LTCI since 1990. With over three decades of experience, he has held many key roles, including Chief Actuary at illumifin, co-founder of DaVinci Consulting Group, LLC, and leadership positions at Genworth Financial, Willis Towers Watson and Milliman. He has spent his career shaping how America understands and delivers long-term care protection. He has thrice chaired the ILTCI Conference, founding its Wellness & Aging in Place Solutions Track during his last chairmanship, twice chaired the Society of Actuaries LTC Section and founded what is now the LTCi Consortium. He has also been recognized for his contributions to LTC insurance program design on multiple continents.
From his early actuarial work designing innovative coverage models to his leadership in advancing new distribution strategies across the LTC industry, Bodnar has been a consistent voice for disciplined, sustainable product development. Now, as President of The Plateau Group – recently rebranded as Lumos Insurance—he’s applying that same clarity of purpose to a broader challenge: integrating long-term care into the full retirement journey.
Bodnar's arrival at Lumos comes at a pivotal moment. The 45-year-old carrier is building a suite of senior-focused life, health, and long-term care solutions—each grounded in the company's hallmark underwriting rigor and long-term risk discipline. For Bodnar, the mission is not just to launch products, but to redefine how retirees and their advisors approach aging, income, and care as connected parts of a single financial story.
Here in his own words is what Vince Bodnar and Lumos seek to achieve.
Building LTC into a Lifecycle: How a 45-Year Credit Insurance Carrier Is Entering the Senior Market
You don’t expect conversations about long-term care planning to begin with credit insurance, but that foundation is central to understanding what Lumos is now building in the senior market. The Plateau Group was founded in 1981 by a consortium of Tennessee banks as a credit insurance carrier. Under that name, it spent more than four decades helping lenders manage portfolio risk responsibly.
In March 2026, the company rebranded as Lumos Insurance. The new name follows a multi-year modernization of the company’s operating infrastructure and governance framework. The overhaul was significant enough that its leaders decided a new brand was necessary to reflect the changes.
That modernized platform is broader than the old name suggested. Lumos now spans senior-focused life and health solutions, supplemental health products, and specialty property and casualty programs—in addition to the credit insurance work that started it all. The company holds an AM Best A- (Excellent) financial strength rating and has maintained it through more than four decades of market cycles.
The part of that platform getting the most attention right now is the senior market. Specifically, what Lumos is building around long-term care.
"Insurance is a long-duration business. Clarity early — around objectives, product design, distribution structure, and accountability — allows execution to scale responsibly." — Vince Bodnar, President & CFO, Lumos Insurance
Meeting People Where They Are in Retirement
Getting older is expensive. Medicare covers a lot, but not long-term care—and that gap can swallow a retirement plan fast. Lumos is building a suite of products, all backed by large global reinsurers, aimed at helping people manage that exposure, starting in the second half of 2026.
The company’s philosophy starts with a simple observation: the industry has long treated Medicare supplement coverage, retirement income, and long-term care as three separate conversations, usually with three different advisors. Lumos is trying to change that. The goal is to give agents a way to start a relationship with a client at retirement and stay useful to them as their needs change over the years—being there for the wellness questions, the family stress, and eventually the care itself.
The entry point is a Medicare supplement product for clients who are newly eligible for Medicare. From there, Lumos plans to introduce a long-term care product suite that covers multiple types of buyers and distribution models—traditional standalone LTC coverage, products designed for worksite or direct-to-consumer channels, and hybrid structures that pair longevity protection with care funding.
One product is already on the market and is gaining traction. Lumos has introduced an underwritten single-premium immediate annuity—a SPIA—designed specifically for people who are already receiving care and need more income to cover it. The problem it solves is real: someone in a care facility, burning through savings, who needs a predictable income stream to avoid outliving their money. The product is available in several states now and is expected to reach most states within 30 days.
Lumos is also looking beyond traditional insurance products. The company is evaluating ways to help retirees tap home equity to support aging in place—modest home modifications, safety technology, the kind of investments that let someone stay in their own house longer. It’s not insurance, but it addresses the same underlying goal.
The proposed suite also includes wellness support, caregiver resources, and care coordination services. That last piece matters more than it might sound. Most long-term care is delivered by family members—a daughter driving her mother to appointments, a spouse managing medications, a son trying to figure out what Medicaid does and doesn’t cover. Lumos wants to give those families practical tools, not just policyholders a policy.
For agents and advisors, the model is designed around continuity. An agent who writes a Medicare supplement policy at 65 has a natural reason to come back at 70, and 75, and beyond—if the carrier has products worth coming back for. That’s the relationship Lumos is trying to make possible.
Credit Insurance Is Still the Core
"Credit life, health, property and related remain core to our identity, but our platform is broader. The underwriting rigor that built our credit business now applies equally to senior health, supplemental health, and specialty P&C programs." — Vince Bodnar
None of this means Lumos is walking away from credit insurance. The company is emphatic on that point. Credit protection isn’t a legacy business being maintained out of nostalgia—it’s the foundation everything else is built on. And the credit-driven insurance market, it turns out, needs disciplined carriers right now. Many larger companies have pulled back from credit life, credit health, and related products in recent years. Lumos has moved toward that gap rather than away from it.
The three pillars of the Lumos platform—Credit Protection, Specialty Property & Casualty, and Life & Health—run on the same operating discipline. The governance standards, the underwriting rigor, the commitment to long-term partner alignment: those aren’t new. They’re just being applied to new markets.
What Comes Next
The full product suite is expected to roll out through 2026, with specific timing dependent on regulatory approvals state by state. Lumos says more details will emerge as the year progresses. The bigger idea behind all of it is straightforward, even if the execution is complicated. People need help at the beginning of retirement, in the middle of it, and at the end of it—and those needs are connected. A carrier that can stay relevant across all three stages is more valuable than one that shows up once and disappears. For a company that spent 45 years staying close to borrowers through the life of a loan, that philosophy should feel familiar. The product just looks different now.
Originally posted on: https://centerltc.com/
