The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education has named five new officers and four new board members to its board of directors.

Founded in 1994, LIFE provides information and education to the public on life, health, disability and long-term care insurance, also seeking to remind people of the important role insurance professionals perform in helping find the best insurance products for their needs.

Jack Dewald

Jack Dewald, president and owner of Memphis, Tenn.-based Agency Services Inc., a full-service life and health brokerage agency, will serve a one-year term as the group’s chairman of the board of directors starting on Jan. 1, 2010.

Dewald succeeds Phillip C. Richards, of Sunny Isle Beach, Fla., who will remain on LIFE’s executive committee as immediate past chair.

Joining Dewald as new officers are Michael L. Weintraub, president of Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Contemporary Pensions Inc., as chair-elect and Debra C. Newman, founder of Newman Long Term Care in Minneapolis, Minn., as secretary. Brian H. Ashe, president of Lisle, Ill.-based Brian Ashe and Associates Ltd., was named treasurer and will serve an indefinite term.

The four new board members are: Peter C. Browne, co-founder of New York City-based Price Raffel and Browne; Philip E. Harriman, co-founder of Falmouth, Maine-based Lebel & Harriman; Michael P. Corry, an executive benefits consultant with The Todd Organization based in St. Louis, Mo.; and Richard K. Paul of Bloomington Ill., State Farm Insurance Companies’ vice president of operations, life/health.

The chair, chair-elect, treasurer and secretary are volunteer positions held by members of the LIFE Foundation’s board, which is comprised of representatives of its six producer organizations whose counsel and financial support help LIFE carry out its public education mission. These organizations include the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU), GAMA International (GAMA), The International Forum, Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA), and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA).

“We are extraordinarily pleased of the caliber of our new officers and board members who come to us from the top leadership of the insurance industry’s leading associations,” said Marvin H. Feldman, president and CEO of the LIFE Foundation, in a statement. “LIFE is critical to the mission of these associations as the industry’s public education arm striving to help consumers make smart insurance decisions to safeguard their families’ financial futures.”