Report: GENE SIMMONS - "Rock By Night, Life Insurance By Day"
April 4, 2010, 14 years ago
Leslie Scism and Laura Saunders at The Wall Street Journal have issued the following report:
Rock By Night, Life Insurance By Day
You might buy car insurance from a gecko or a cave man, but would you consider buying life insurance from a blood-spitting hellion in leather pants?
Gene Simmons, the 60-year-old co-founder of the rock band Kiss, hopes so. If you are wealthy enough, that is.
Mr. Simmons's new group, Cool Springs Life Equity Strategy, was launched last month to tap into a lucrative demographic: entertainers, sports stars and other people with a net worth of $20 million or more who need a life-insurance policy of $10 million or greater. The firm's founders, who include David R. Carpenter, formerly of insurance powerhouse Transamerica, believe there is big opportunity to sell jumbo insurance policies to rich people.
The only glitch: Cool Springs is based in Franklin, Tenn., near Nashville but far from the entertainment meccas on the East and West coasts. Last September, the founders realized they needed a rainmaker.
So they reached out to a fire breather.
Mr. Simmons met Mr. Watson about three years ago through a Wall Street firm where each had business ties. They have been friends since. "I felt like the best way to get the word out was through Gene," Mr. Watson says.
"I've been in the business my whole career, and life-insurance executives do not have audiences," adds Mr. Carpenter, the Transamerica veteran. "Gene has audiences. Gene has the reputation [as] a genius merchandiser and marketer. He has great ways of conceptualizing products."Go to this location for the complete story.
