When Eric Stearns started in the institutional life insurance business over three decades ago, he might not have imagined how innovative technology would revolutionise his firm. But that is precisely what happened when Stearns Financial Group joined forces with infineo, a digital platform purpose-built to tokenize life insurance.
This serendipitous merger is now powering one of the most novel ventures in real-world asset tokenization to date. At its core is a simple question: What if life insurance policies could become tradeable, fractionalized, and liquid assets?
“We realized we had each built one half of the same coin,” said Jay Rogers, Chief Revenue Officer at infineo. “We [Stearns] had the assets. They [infineo] had the tech.”
The Cast and the Connections
At the helm of this venture is Stearns, now CEO of infineo, having brought with him a $400 million credit union life insurance business and decades of experience structuring collateral assignment split dollar (CASD) plans. Rogers, formerly with Stearns, took on the role of CRO. On the tech side sits Dr Robert Murphy, infineo’s Chief Economist and one of the architects of its blockchain-ledger system, known simply as The Ledger.
infineo was originally founded to explore how blockchain could support the management of permanent life insurance. Before the merger, the team had already put $344 million in life insurance on-chain, this figure now sits at $560 million. Stearns’ operation brought the institutional pipeline and a market-tested product. infineo brought the rails.
Together, they are targeting a gap in the market that few others have noticed.
What Is a Split Dollar Plan?
To understand the opportunity, you first need to grasp the mechanics of CASD plans. These are specialized retirement benefits commonly used by credit unions, hospitals, and universities to attract and retain top executives.
In a typical plan, the employer funds a life insurance policy on the executive, and the two parties agree to split the benefits. The employer recovers its costs upon the executive’s death, while the executive can access a stream of retirement income and their family gets the remainder of the death benefit. The issue is timing.
“You can’t predict when someone is going to die,” said Stearns. “So credit unions end up tying up capital for 30 or 40 years just to recover it eventually. That is a long time to wait.”
By pooling thousands of policies into a trust and applying statistical mortality models, the team can flatten out the risk and return timeline. That trust is called LifeNotes.
“It’s about turning uncertain, long-dated assets into something with predictable yield and fixed duration,” explained Rogers.
Creating a New Asset Class
The innovation lies in how they treat these policies. Whole Life insurance, traditionally seen as a static, protective asset, is being reimagined as a productive, dynamic one.
“There is a living benefit to these products,” said Dr Murphy. “They are not just about paying out when someone dies. There is a growing cash value that can be used as collateral for loans. And unlike real estate, the collateral does not go down in value.”
Tokenization allows for the deconstruction of policies into discrete components such as cash value, guaranteed returns, death benefits, and for those components to be recombined and sold according to investor appetite.
“This is not just replicating the analog world on-chain,” said Stearns. “We’re improving it.”
From Paper to Protocol
The Ledger is infineo’s public blockchain interface built on Provenance, a layer-one protocol designed for traditional finance compliance, built by Mike Cagney, the founder of Sofi and now Figure. Provenance has already materially disrupted the HELOC industry, with Figure and its partners originating 15–20% of all home equity lines of credit in the U.S. on-chain.
Now, that same blockchain infrastructure is being applied to life insurance. With the tools infineo has built on Provenance, it is already tracking policies uploaded by institutions and individuals alike. Each policy is verified, recorded, and monitored. If the insured passes away, notifications are triggered and claims initiated.
“Every year, tens of millions of dollars in life insurance go unclaimed,” said Stearns. “People forget. Families don’t know what exists. The Ledger solves that.”
At the back end is a private ledger for internal record-keeping, but the vision is to unify these systems. A native utility token is already in internal use, and public rollout is expected by the end of Q3 2025. The roadmap includes a stablecoin and an accretion token to represent yield.
Why Credit Unions?
Credit unions are the backbone of this initiative. With over 100 clients across 30 states, Stearns’ book gives infineo a reliable testbed.
“Credit unions are TradFi DAOs,” said Rogers. “They’re member-owned, community-focused, and already think cooperatively. That mindset aligns perfectly with decentralized infrastructure.”
Moreover, credit unions hold about $9 billion in split dollar loans on their balance sheets. By tokenizing those positions, infineo offers liquidity, risk mitigation, and better compliance in one package.
“Our clients are already using Whole Life to reward and retain talent,” said Rogers. “Now, they can do it smarter.”
Beyond Institutions
The long-term ambition is to make these instruments accessible to retail investors.
“Certain types of Whole Life policies, on a risk-adjusted basis, outperform almost every other asset,” said Dr Murphy. “But because they are complicated, heterogeneous financial instrument that require insurable interest and have an upfront load, most people can’t get near them as an asset class. Tokenization changes that.”
Eventually, individuals will be able to gain exposure to curated bundles of policies, perhaps even selecting specific traits such as guaranteed yield or mortality profiles.
“It’s like moving from investing in a house to buying shares in a REIT,” said Dr Murphy. “But for life insurance.”
Compliance and Caution
Despite the innovation, the team is moving carefully. Life insurance is regulated at the state level in the U.S., and the firm is working within those frameworks rather than trying to circumvent them.
“This is someone’s most sensitive asset,” said Stearns. “If they pass away, this money goes to their family. We are not experimenting with that. We are enhancing it.”
The Road Ahead
infineo is now live with The Ledger and is piloting token issuance internally. By the end of the year, it plans to offer tokenized life insurance pools to institutional clients. Eventually, retail access will follow.
For now, they are inviting banks, credit unions, hospitals, and universities to explore the platform.
“Any organization offering split dollar plans should be looking at this,” said Rogers. “It cuts down duration, boosts transparency, and gives more value back to both the institution and the individual.”
Dr Murphy summarized the vision best.
“We are not just tokenizing life insurance. We are redefining what it means to own it.”
