How BuddyIns built the platform reshaping long-term care distribution
At a glance
BuddyIns is a tech-enabled BGA specializing in long-term care insurance, one of the most under-penetrated product lines in the U.S. insurance market. Their actuarial team built Excel models that could explain and compare complex LTC products in ways the industry hadn't seen, but the models were stuck on desktops with no path to the web. Using Coherent Spark as the orchestration layer between their actuarial logic and front-end tools, BuddyIns built an interactive technology platform that carriers now license, competitors pay to access, and millions of consumers use, all without hiring a software engineering team.
Key results
~1,000 users per day across interactive quoting and comparison tools
New carrier products added to the platform in hours, not months
Embedded in Suze Orman's app, reaching 5-10 million consumers
The Challenge
A market without the tools to sell its own products
Long-term care (LTC) insurance protects families from the financial and personal cost of caregiving, a need affecting over 50 million Americans. But LTC remains one of the hardest products to sell because the policies are complex—hybrid structures that combine life and long-term care benefits, variable claim ages, portability provisions, underwriting rules that shift based on coverage amounts. Most carriers underinvest in LTC distribution technology, and agents are left with static PDFs, generic illustrations, and phone-based quoting.
BuddyIns had built the analytical models the market lacked: actuarial work that could project a policy's value over 30 years, compare products side by side, and show that for every dollar of premium, a well-designed plan might return 4x that in benefits.
Their math made the value visible. But it lived in password-protected Excel files emailed to agents as locked workbooks. There was no way to put that intelligence on a Zoom screen, make it interactive, embed it on a partner's enrollment page, or show a carrier what a tech-powered distribution partnership could look like.
"We went from a brokerage to an insurtech without an engineering department, just an actuarial team running a platform that carriers license and millions of consumers use. Coherent made that possible."
- Marc Glickman, FSA, CLTC, CEO, BuddyIns
Our Solution
Actuarial logic orchestrated for the market
BuddyIns needed a way to get their actuarial models out of Excel and into production without rebuilding them in code. Coherent Spark gave them that, and something more durable—a controlled technology layer between their domain expertise and the market.
Spark takes the models the team builds in Excel, coordinates calls between those models and external data sources like carrier pricing, and delivers real-time outputs to whatever front end or platform needs them. The actuaries keep working where they've always worked without needing to learn specialized development skills.
"Spark is the part of our stack we never have to worry about. We can focus our time on building the product experience and growing carrier relationships, not managing infrastructure."
— Marc Glickman, FSA, CLTC, CEO, BuddyIns
On top of that layer, BuddyIns built the tools the LTC market was missing:
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Interactive calculators for group and individual long-term care, from simple no-code builds to sophisticated tools pulling live carrier pricing into real-time comparisons
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A product recommendation engine driven by decision-tree logic that prioritizes the right product for each client profile
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Consumer-facing needs analysis tools that surface coverage gaps and projected care costs
And when carrier APIs in the LTC space proved unreliable, a common reality in a niche market where carriers underinvest in technology, BuddyIns didn't stall. They built more pricing logic directly into their own Excel models and routed it through Spark, removing the dependency on any single carrier's technology readiness. New products go live on the group platform in hours.
The entire pipeline stays under the control of people who understand the insurance, not a separate engineering team managing integrations.
Our Impact
From niche brokerage to an insurtech
Coherent didn't just help BuddyIns get their models online. It unlocked a new business model, and a platform the LTC market is organizing around.
Carrier partnerships built on technology, not just volume
Carriers now approach BuddyIns to help position their LTC products against competitors. Instead of distributing static rate sheets, carriers license BuddyIns' interactive tools for their own wholesaler teams, creating a partnership dynamic that didn't exist when BuddyIns was just another BGA. The technology makes the carrier products easier to sell.
"Adding a new carrier product might take a couple of hours. And as the CEO, I rarely have to think about the Spark side. That peace of mind tells you everything about how well it works."
— Marc Glickman, FSA, CLTC, CEO, BuddyIns
Recurring SaaS revenue from software licensing
BuddyIns opened the platform to competing BGAs, enrollment firms, and individual agents who pay monthly fees to access or embed the calculators. That fee revenue builds a recurring stream independent of individual policy sales.
"Long-term care is so under-penetrated that the rising tide lifts all boats, and being the technology platform behind that rising tide is exactly where we want to be."
— Marc Glickman, FSA, CLTC, CEO, BuddyIns
Distribution and performance at consumer scale
The calculators are embedded inside Suze Orman's personal finance app, reaching 5 to 10 million users. When a consumer taps the long-term care button, BuddyIns' Spark-powered tools do the work. Across all integrations, roughly 1,000 people per day use the platform to quote and compare LTC products. Spark handles that volume reliably, with the near-instant response times that consumer-facing tools demand.
"We're not maintaining a tool we built once. Every few months we ship something new, and every release helps us win more business."
— Marc Glickman, FSA, CLTC, CEO, BuddyIns
Your actuarial logic is ready. Coherent gets it to market.
Turn actuarial models into production-ready services your partners, carriers, and agents can access directly. Ship new products, open new channels, and build new revenue. Without rebuilding anything in code.