Robert S. Bland, CLU
Founder and CEO
Robert Bland is dedicated to the LifeQuotes mission of revolutionizing and improving the way people buy insurance. After watching his fellow agency associates painstakingly calculate insurance premium quotations by hand, Mr. Bland wrote a business plan in 1984 which called for the automation of the comparative insurance rating process. Bland founded Quotesmith Corporation in 1984 and spent the next nine years building the databases, convincing over 100 leading insurance companies to contribute their information and providing the first online insurance quote services to agents and brokers. In 1993 the Company shifted its customer focus and began providing quotes and information directly to consumers. Before founding Quotesmith in 1984, Mr. Bland was president of Security Funding Corporation, a privately held general lines insurance agency. In 1996, Quotesmith was among the very first firms to provide instant insurance quotes on the Internet.
A $3 million venture capital investment by Intuit in 1998 was followed by a $64 million IPO in August 1999. By allowing people to obtain their own quotes and purchases from the company of their choice, Bland and his team have dramatically improved and streamlined the way people buy insurance. In 2001 the company acquired the Insure.com website and articles farm, for $1.75 million. In 2004 the company acquired the Life Quotes agency of Evergreen, Colorado for $18.25 million in cash, including its customer list of approximately 65,000. In 2009 the Insure.com website was sold for $16 million in cash. In 2010 Bland launched a tender offer to acquire all public shares after which the company completed a going-private transaction. Over the years, the company’s websites have won numerous awards and accolades:”2017 Life Insurance Innovation” award winner — Life Insurance Direct Marketing Association“The premier Web site in terms of details and ease of use…” — Yahoo! FINANCERanked #1 life insurance website by Kiplinger’s: 2007, 2008Named a “100 Most useful website” by MSN Money, April 2009Past Winner: Forbes’ “Best of the Web”The best web site I’ve found…” — Dallas Morning News“…we’d recommend you do your insurance shopping here…” — Barron’s“…outstanding – as good as a Web site on insurance can possibly be. Hats off and a gold star to the top insurance site on the Web.” — Insurance for Dummies
Bland currently serves as CEO of LifeQuotes.com and is active in the company on a full time basis. The Company specializes in the sale of term life insurance and has amassed a customer list exceeding 360,000.
Bland holds an MBA from the University of Notre Dame (2013), a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation (2006) and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from the University of Colorado (1975).