News Briefs

JPMorgan Chase sells life and annuity business to Protective Life

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to sell its life insurance and annuity underwriting business to Protective Life Corp. for about $1.2 billion in cash.

JPMorgan Chase has its corporate headquarters in New York and its U.S. consumer and commercial banking headquarters in Chicago. Its brands include JPMorgan, Chase and Bank One.

Chase Insurance posted operating earnings of $79 million on revenue of $644 million last year. It has about 1.2 million life insurance and annuity policies in-force and statutory reserves of around $8.7 billion, according to an Associated Press story.

The sale of Elgin-based Chase Insurance to Protective Life is subject to regulatory approval, but the two companies said they expect to close the deal in the third quarter of this year. The sale is not expected to affect JPMorgan Chase’s earnings.

Explaining JPMorgan Chase’s decision to sell, Charles W. Scharf, CEO of Chase’s Retail Financial Services, said the company recently concluded insurance underwriting does not have the same scale as the company’s core banking businesses.

Protective Life, based in Birmingham, Ala., has annual revenues of approximately $2.1 billion and as of Dec. 31 had assets of approximately $29 billion.