Sumitomo Life

So then what

happens? So in 1999, I sold 20% of the business to Sumitomo Life Insurance Company in Tokyo.

And it was really exciting because I was dealing with one of the board members, and they had all sorts of plans for us to continue to build upon that.

our platform, and they were going to provide capital for new products and so forth.

But again, we were able to continue the focus and plow ahead.

It turned out in 2004 Nelson Peltz, who owned Arby's through a public company called Triarc, was interested in the asset management business.

And he came in and he ended up buying 65% of the business, taking out Sumitomo Life, as well as some of my shares.

I remained an equity partner, 25%, running the business.

AI tries to discern which claims are fraudulent at major insurers in Japan, for instance.

And for sales, Sumitomo Life and its investment partners, IRIC Corporation and FinText, have developed an AI agent for sales agents to, quote, "Understand customer intentions, provide comparative recommendations, manage evidence, and support agency independence." Discoveries of historic price collusion and some very inappropriate product offers from the likes of Tokyo Marine to Sompo to MS&AD to Prudential of Japan have put sales teams under the regulator's microscope there and spurred revisions to supervisory guidelines.

If AI can avoid further governance hiccups, then well and good.

Sumitomo speaks of, quote, "Variations in the quality of sales proposals due to the experience and skills of insurance agents," and, quote, "Inconsistencies in the quality of understanding customer intentions by its sales staff." Classic inputs to noisy outcomes.