The Longer Life Foundation began in 1998 with a simple – but powerful – idea and an extraordinary collaboration. RGA – as a leading global life and health reinsurer – and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis – a world-renowned research institution – joined forces to form a not-for-profit foundation to fund early-stage research by the university’s physicians and scientists.
The Longer Life Foundation’s mission is to fund and support the study of factors that either predict the mortality and morbidity of select populations or influence improvements in longevity, health, and wellness.
The Longer Life Foundation is unique as an academic-corporate initiative to support fully independent research. All findings are published for the benefit of the entire medical and public health community. Longer-Life-funded discoveries have expanded clinical knowledge in fields as diverse as longevity, genomics, obesity, older-age cognition, heart disease, and cancer.
In 1998, the concept of an academic institution collaborating with the life and health insurance industry was completely novel. In the quarter century since the Longer Life Foundation’s launch, this remarkable foundation has grown and flourished by funding and supporting early-stage research capabilities and giving the life insurance industry a dedicated window into some of the most innovative discoveries on medical conditions and public health issues affecting mortality and morbidity.
RGA looks forward to continuing to support the important work of the foundation for many years to come.
More than $9.4 million granted
More than 160 research projects
have been funded
More than 175 published research articles in peer-reviewed journals
We are a global leader in an industry that supports families in their times of greatest need. In everything we do, we strive to live up to our purpose: To make financial protection accessible to all.