Insurance Expert Promoted At Armed Forces Benefit Group

Insurance Expert Promoted At Armed Forces Benefit Group
By Jack Rodgers

Law360 (April 18, 2025, 12:27 PM EDT) — An attorney who has worked for insurers for more than 20 years has been promoted to a senior role at the Armed Forces Benefit Association and its affiliate, 5Star Life Insurance Co., according to a recent announcement.

Erica L. Jenkins first joined the Alexandria, Virginia-based AFBA in 2023, working as assistant vice president, deputy general counsel and assistant board secretary, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The group was formed in the Pentagon’s basement in 1947 with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s support, with a mission to provide benefits to the families of service members killed in action at a time when commercial insurers would not.

Jenkins’ most recent promotion to corporate secretary, senior vice president, is her second with the company. In January, she was promoted to vice president, general counsel and assistant board secretary, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Jenkins’ responsibilities largely focus on leading the insurance group’s legal and compliance teams, the group said in a Wednesday announcement. It’s work she’s done during her more than 20-year legal career, encompassing a range of roles with varying and similar responsibilities with insurers like State Farm, where Jenkins worked as a litigation attorney.

Jenkins has worked at other nationally recognized insurers, like Nationwide, where she advised on regulatory, procedural, product and claims matters, the announcement said.

Before joining the AFBA, Jenkins was a counsel III at Erie Insurance Group, a company based in Erie, Pennsylvania, according to her LinkedIn profile. In that role, Jenkins advised on legal issues, including organizational, compliance, regulatory impact and other matters.

In an interview with Law360 Pulse on Friday, Jenkins said she wanted to join the AFBA because she was looking for an opportunity to return to the Virginia area. But her decision to move her practice to the AFBA in 2023 also came at a time in Jenkins’ life when she was thinking about how to best capitalize on her range of legal experiences.

“Do I want to try and focus on scaling my experience to a different field or staying within my industry?” she said.

Jenkins said when she was first hired as deputy general counsel, it was the group’s goal to have her eventually transition to the general counsel role.

“I’ve been doing strategic work, but it’ll be more strategic work within the organization, doing projects that are a little broader than what I’ve been doing,” Jenkins said, noting that she was the assistant corporate secretary before becoming the corporate secretary. She described her focus as “guiding the organization into the future with my fellow leadership.”

Jenkins said she initially considered working on administrative issues, like as an administrative law judge on regulatory matters.

Administrative law is the career Jenkins thought she would have, she said, adding she also never thought that while earning her degree from Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad College of Law, she’d wind up practicing insurance law.

“When I was going throughout my career and advancing, someone once told me, and I’ve found it to be true, that sometimes your career picks you,” Jenkins said. “It really does. And that’s what’s happened with me, and it’s been a joy.”

Having her clients’ trust is part of what makes her work rewarding and fulfilling, Jenkins said.

“Making sure that my client has the proper legal guidance to ensure that their business thrives, because when they thrive, I thrive,” Jenkins said of her aims. “And making sure my clients know they can come to me, and trust me and respect me, with the advice that I’m giving them.”

Jenkins started her legal career in insurance law with State Farm, where she litigated contract, premises liability and automobile accident matters, according to her LinkedIn profile.

She spent a little more than four years there, then took a role as a regional assistant general counsel at Nationwide, advising on legal aspects of claims, corporate compliance and other regulatory matters. She spent over seven and a half years there, before joining Erie Insurance in 2013, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Larry O. Spencer, president of the AFBA and 5Star Life, said in a statement Wednesday that the group looked forward to having Jenkins in her new leadership positions.

“In her new role, Erica will lead our legal and compliance teams, and I am confident that under her leadership, the teams will continue to positively impact the enterprise while upholding the highest standards of professionalism and service,” he said in a statement.

–Editing by Daniel King.