More Problems at Ethos (LIFE)
Graphics by Daniel DeLorenzo BY: Jenny Ahn , Michelle Cera , Ruth Reader EDITORS: Jim Impoco , Vikas Kumar The Bear Cave published its initial research into Ethos Technologies ($LIFE) in May, scrutinizing whether the company’s technology pitch obscured a life insurance lead-generation business with a narrow moat. Ethos had spent $100 million advertising in 2025 to bring prospective customers to its website. Consumer complaints The Bear Cave obtained from regulators described what happened after those customers encountered the company and its third-party agents. Over at our sister publication Hunterbrook Media, the team has since spent months diving much deeper into Ethos. It’s an extraordinary investigation. It helps to understand what Ethos actually is versus what it claims to be, and what is generally understood versus what hasn’t previously been reported. Everyone knows Ethos is a middleman: It earns commissions by selling life insurance policies issued by other companies. Customers can buy insurance through its website or through outside agents who use its platform. Outside agents now account for about 40% of Ethos’s revenue. What isn’t well-understood is who is actually doing the selling — and how. Hunterbrook mapped the personalized sales websites Ethos gives its agents. It found a network dominated by multilevel marketers, led by another middleman called Family First Life. Ethos supplies that network with training, bespoke products, and prospective customers. When someone starts an insurance application and walks away, Ethos sells that information as a lead . Agencies like First Family Life then resell those leads to their own agents. Those agents may be victims themselves: the harms multilevel marketers often cause to people who join them are well-documented . The investigation traces the pressure cooker environment through to the people receiving the calls. Interviews, training materials, consumer complaints, and regulatory records describe customers being steered toward more expensive policies, having existing coverage replaced, and even sometimes having applications submitted without their consent. Hunterbrook also identified 28 people with live Ethos agent websites and records of insurance license suspensions or revocations, along with eight federal robocall lawsuits naming Ethos. For investors, this is also a question of dependence. Just three agency relationships accounted for 31% of total revenue in 2025 — nearly a third of the Ethos business tied to a handful of partners. Ethos says agencies are responsible for supervising their agents and requires annual compliance certifications , but acknowledges limits on its ability to monitor their conduct. The company’s growth depends heavily on a sales force it does not fully control. That is already being tested: the president of FFL, its largest agency by agent head count, publicly called Ethos the agency’s “weakest” partner. FFL promoted a competing platform as a potential replacement. Other agencies bring different risks: Canadian regulators cited agents at Experior for insurance-law violations, while Hunterbrook obtained Equis sales scripts that suggest a government affiliation to prospective customers. Read Hunterbrook’s full investigation into the people Ethos relies on to sell insurance. The Bear Cave explores a different risk below the paywall: software that gives shoppers a way around Ethos altogether. One major shareholder recently pointed to Meta’s Muse as a promising new source of customers. In contrast, The Bear Cave’s tests suggest the implications for Ethos may be considerably less reassuring. Disclosure: The Bear Cave is now owned by Hunterbrook Media. Based on Hunterbrook Media’s reporting, at the time of publication Hunterbrook Capital is short $LIFE and short bonds issued by Sammons Financial Group. Positions may change at any time. This article is not investment advice or any recommendation. See full disclosures here .
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