Jim founded LifeCare in 1988 and is the driving force behind LifeCare’s innovative approach to long-term care insurance product design. In addition to his role as CEO, Jim is Chairman of the Board for both LifeCare and its parent company 21st Century Life and Health. Jim directly oversees LifeCare’s marketing and actuarial functions.

Jim is a third generation insurance professional with over thirty-five years experience in the life and health insurance industry. Prior to founding LifeCare, Jim had progressively higher level responsibilities with CNA, Alexander Hamilton, Maccabees Mutual, Pacific Standard and PennCorp Financial, where he developed his expertise in actuarial pricing, marketing and reinsurance negotiations. His unique ability to design innovative products with sufficient reinsurance to ensure corporate profitability is the key to LifeCare’s success in structuring sound joint venture arrangements in the long term nursing care market.

Jim led the effort to form the Society of Actuaries' Long Term Care Insurance Section and was its chairperson for its inaugural year in 2000, as well as his final year on the council in 2004. Jim also led the effort to develop the Annual Intercompany LTCI Conference, serving as chairperson for the first four, while remaining heavily involved in the fifth through ninth conferences. He was awarded the first “Lifetime Achievement Award” presented at the Fifth Annual Intercompany LTCI Conference.

Jim is a member of the Society of Actuaries Board of Directors as well as a member of the Board of Directors for Intercompany Long Term Care Insurance Conference Association.

Jim has authored many articles on LTCI including the annual Broker World LTCI surveys for years 2000 through 2004, as well as articles for the National Underwriter, Best’s Review, Contingencies, Life Insurance Selling, and Health Insurance Underwriter. He is frequently a featured speaker at national meetings about long-term care insurance.

Jim is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA), a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and a Fellow of the Life Management Institute (FLMI).

Pete Diffley
Senior Vice President, Insurance Services

Pete has over thirty-five years of insurance company experience, including over twenty years at LifeCare. Prior to joining LifeCare, Pete was Vice President of Underwriting for Pennsylvania Life Insurance Company, where he managed a department of 20 underwriters and had responsibility for all aspects of underwriting procedure and administration. He worked closely with claims management to define an integrated company philosophy of underwriting and claims handling. At LifeCare, Pete has focused on designing a streamlined but thorough underwriting process to minimize claims disputes and allow for the timely payment of benefits.

Gwen Franklin, ACS
Senior Vice President, Client Services

Gwen has over thirty years of insurance company experience, including ten years with LifeCare, managing LifeCare’s marketing support function for its client companies, their home office support staff and field force. In addition, she manages the MassMutual Underwriting Services team. Gwen is a licensed agent and prior to joining LifeCare, managed the field marketing support department for John Alden Life’s Western Service Center, providing sales support and product training. When SunAmerica acquired John Alden’s annuity business, Gwen’s responsibilities included Managing Customer Service.

Alan S. Hughes
Senior Vice President and Corporate Secretary

Alan’s insurance industry career spans over 40 years, beginning at PennCorp Financial, where he held officer positions with its Pennsylvania Life and Massachusetts Indemnity subsidiaries in its Information Systems division.  In 1983, Alan joined First Executive Corporation as the first employee and chief administrative officer of its universal life startup, First Delaware Life. 

In 1988, Alan co-founded LifeCare and was its Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer until his role changed in January 2010 to Senior Vice President and Corporate Secretary.  In addition to his role as Corporate Secretary, Alan oversees the Information Systems Department.  Alan also serves on the Board of Directors of both LifeCare and its parent company, 21st Century Life and Health Company, Inc.

Jay R. Peters, FSA, MAAA
Senior Vice President and Chief Actuary

Jay has over twenty-five years of insurance industry experience, including eleven with LifeCare, and is responsible for all actuarial and accounting functions including product development, financial and reinsurance reporting. Prior to joining LifeCare, Jay was Vice President and Associate Actuary at John Alden Life Insurance Company. He managed the product development, reinsurance administration and compliance areas for the life division. At John Alden, Jay also had responsibility for the development of illustration software for both the life and long term care product lines.

Kirk R. Shearburn, JD
Senior Vice President, Corporate Administration and Chief Compliance Officer

Kirk has over twenty-five years of insurance company experience, including over nineteen years at LifeCare, managing the government relations, compliance and product development and implementation process. He is also responsible for the company’s Administration and Human Resources areas. Kirk began his career as an attorney in private practice, then worked for PennCorp Financial, Beneficial Standard Life Insurance Company and First Delaware Life Insurance Company. Kirk is LifeCare’s representative on the America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Long Term Care Committee.

Eileen J. Mangold
Vice President, Compliance

Eileen has over thirty-five years insurance company experience, including over fifteen with LifeCare, and is responsible for the state filing and product approval process, as well as the ongoing activities related to maintaining compliance of those products with all statutes and regulations. Prior to joining LifeCare, Eileen spent over fifteen years at PennCorp Financial, holding positions in underwriting, government relations and compliance. Additionally, Eileen has an integral role in the coordination of various tasks involved in the product release and implementation process.

Jim Rogers
Vice President and Chief Information Officer 

With over two decades of IT management experience, Jim is well equipped to lead LifeCare’s Information Systems Department. Today Jim's focus is in Application Architecture, Strategic Planning, Governance and aligning Information Systems with the Business community. Prior to the appointment of CIO in 2006, Jim was responsible the company’s security, research and development for new system architecture and integration. Additionally, Jim directed the migration from Token Ring to Ethernet, design of a new IP telephony network and the installation of the IT infrastructure when the company relocated in 2004. Jim has published case studies on IP telephony, IP Recording, topology bandwidth testing and ISeries printing in several periodicals. Prior to joining LifeCare in 1995, Jim worked in LAN administration, AS400/System/38 operations and telecommunications for a leading mortgage banking company.

Jay Sherman is an attorney and Human Resources executive with extensive experience in employee relations, teambuilding and leadership development.

After spending many years as a trial attorney, in 1997 Mr. Sherman transitioned to a career in Human Resources when he began working for Kinko’s, Inc. as Employee Relations Manager. In 2000 he was hired to head LifeCare’s Human Resources Department. In his current role Mr. Sherman and his staff of HR professionals are responsible for hiring, training, employee benefits, compensation design and administration, HR information systems and employee relations. Mr. Sherman works closely with the company’s executive team to facilitate initiatives to improve organizational effectiveness.

Mr. Sherman has given presentations to various professional groups on executive teambuilding, communication skills, emotional intelligence, performance management and leadership development. He holds the following academic degrees: Master of Arts in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix, Juris Doctor from Loyola University, and a B.A. in Sociology from California State University, Long Beach.