Academy of Life Underwriting

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
455087087
IRS 990 coverage
2012–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2024953130
Rating confidence
Limited
Sector
Chambers of Commerce & Business Leagues

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$184,008
Expenses
$215,261
Assets
$538,262
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ANN DAY (PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • ANN DAY (PRESIDENT)
  • JODI MCDONALD (CHAIR)
  • MARK LOUNDS (BOARD MEMBER)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Academy of life underwriting (alu) offers information, education and development opportunities and recognition of educational accomplishments to life insurance underwriters and other individuals interested in life insurance underwriting.

What it reported doing in 2025

Education-curriculum and exam preparation and administration: alu creates curriculum and prepares and administers examinations to assess the knowledge and experience of life insurance underwriters and other interested life insurance professionals worldwide. Alu curriculum group volunteers, with contributions from peers, medical consultants, and industry experts, create comprehensive educational material specifically focused on life insurance underwriting to ensure that those working in life insurance risk management have the education and knowledge to provide valuable expertise in their respective roles. Life insurance underwriting is a dynamic profession, and the alu curriculum group is also responsible for maintaining up-to-date textbook content regarding medical (continued on schedule o)and financial factors, along with new or changed regulations/ restrictions for the life insurance industry and annually updating/editing the four alu textbooks accordingly. The textbooks are available on amazon for students to purchase. Using this material, alu examination group volunteers are responsible for creating objective exams designed to cover the curriculum, specifically focusing on relevant and pertinent details an educated and skilled life insurance underwriter must know. Guided by medical and education consultants and using standardized question formatting and difficulty/discrimination scoring, alu volunteers annually prepare test questions for their peers that increase in difficulty with each exam. The four alu exams are offered electronically on a proctored basis every april, and the first exam is also offered again in october. Successful completion of all four exams plus a supplemental curriculum of outside studies, leads to the professional designation, fellow, academy of life underwriting (falu), the gold standard for life insurance underwriters to achieve.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 98% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.

The verdict

- The available evidence is not sufficient to produce an overall rating for this filing. This is not a warning sign.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: NotEnoughData
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 88
  • Sustainability: 42
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: Limited
  • Program expense ratio: Limited
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -17%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.5; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: -2.7% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -5.6% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: Financial trends and filed revenue, expense, asset, and liability detail
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $115K reported
  • Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 1 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2012 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 13/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.