Dayton insurtech firm powers product for Western & Southern, Afficiency

Dayton technology helps modernize life insurance industry
James O'Hara, center, founder and chief executive of Consumer Optix, with Jamie Denning, center, with Jim Brennanman, vice president of One Resource Group. CONTRIBUTED

James O'Hara, center, founder and chief executive of Consumer Optix, with Jamie Denning, center, with Jim Brennanman, vice president of One Resource Group. CONTRIBUTED
Local News
By
Jan 20, 2023
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A Dayton tech firm, ConsumerOptix, is teaming up with giants in the life insurance industry to provide the digital platform for a new product.

And as the local company receives growing national recognition, it has raised $2.7 million since 2020, mostly from Dayton-area investors.

ExploreInsurance giant cites Dayton company’s work

Life insurance technology company (or “insurtech”) Afficiency and Cincinnati-based Western & Southern Financial Group, a Fortune 400 financial services firm, this week announced a product integration with ConsumerOptix.

The partnership enables ConsumerOptix to embed “IncomeSense,” an income protection life insurance product developed by Afficiency and Western & Southern, into distribution platforms ConsumerOptix develops for clients, Afficieny said.

“ConsumerOptix is passionate about communicating the value of life insurance and delivering tailored solutions that enable agents to drive engagement, education and enrollment among their clients,” Mark Scafaro, chief executive of Afficiency, said in a release.

The Harford and Western and Southern are among ConsumerOptix’ tier-one clients. Its headquarters is in The Hub at the Dayton Arcade, and the company is still raising capital, James O’Hara, ConsumerOptix co-founder and CEO, said in an interview Friday.

“These guys are changing the way life insurance is bought and sold in America,” is the way O’Hara describes the value proposition his company offers investors and customers. ConsumerOptix’ platform helps consumers understand how much life insurance they need and matches them with a product suited to their situation.

IncomeSense is term life insurance that provides monthly income to beneficiaries to help replace lost income in the event of a wage earner’s death.

ConsumerOptix is digitizing IncomeSense, providing the software and web presence for the product.

“It’s our IT, it’s our technology,” O’Hara said.

ConsumerOptix is among a number of insurtech firms helping to modernize one of the oldest industries in the world.

Founded in 2018, ConsumerOptix, a graduate of The Entrepreneurs Center in Dayton, offers online solutions to provide insurance carriers, brokers and agents tools to educate and enroll consumers and employees in insurance products.

The Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce and Soin LLC have announced that ConsumerOptix, a startup insurtech firm based in Dayton, has won the 2021 Soin Award for Innovation.

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Associated with his company as advisors are familiar Dayton-area names, including Michael Bridges, founder and former CEO of Fairborn defense contractor Peerless Technologies, and Scott McGohan, CEO of Moraine health insurance brokerage McGohan Brabender

O’Hara is the son of another familiar name, LexisNexis pioneer Robert O’Hara, who died in 2009.

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Thomas Gnau is a business reporter who joined the Dayton Daily News in 2007. He has reported for daily newspapers in Ohio since 1991.