Spend a little time with Tony Diodato, and you’ll probably get an enthusiastic update on something. It might be an opportunity he’s excited about at Benekiva or the latest news from one of his kids. Tony gets behind an idea, cheers people on, and helps the team keep working toward a solution. As President of Benekiva, he brings that energy to the relationships and conversations that move the company forward.
His insurance career began in programming at Lincoln Financial before taking him into technology strategy and, eventually, years on the vendor sales side. But ask him what makes the work meaningful, and he comes back to the families waiting for carriers to fulfill their promises.
For this edition of Behind the Claims, we sat down with Tony to talk about the people who connected him with Benekiva, a family experience that shaped his view of claims, and why even a simple status update can matter.
I was an engineer, and Lincoln Financial hired me to lead their web development efforts as they launched their wholesale distribution business. I did that for a couple of years before moving into other roles at Lincoln, including technology strategy and straight-through processing. Eventually, that work led me to the vendor side of the industry. I’ve been in insurance for roughly 25 years, but only the last three have been focused on claims.
I had taken some time away from the industry and was looking for the right next step. I reached out to people I trusted and let them know I was looking. That eventually led to conversations with Brent in the summer of 2023. At the same time, he was looking for someone to lead sales and marketing. The way Brent tells the story, he reached out to three or four people for recommendations. Each person gave him a few names, but my name was on every list. We had a number of conversations, and one thing led to the next.
We exist to help insurance companies fulfill the promises they make to their customers about being there when it matters most. It’s rewarding to see our clients use the platform to support people who are making difficult calls, trying to understand a process, and waiting for money they need. Seeing how our clients respond to being able to help those people is a big part of what makes this work meaningful.
When my father-in-law passed away, my mother-in-law had difficulty getting the money from his life insurance. The claim was eventually paid, but in the meantime, she had to find another way to cover the funeral. I lived that experience with them. She was grieving and also trying to figure out how to pay for something that needed to happen right away.
When we hear about difficult claim experiences, I think about what that process feels like for the family going through it. There are ways to make it easier, and that’s why we do this work.
Nexus is one I’m particularly interested in. Connecting systems inside a large insurance company is hard. You may have seven, eight, or nine systems that need to share information, with data that has to be brought into a consistent format and synchronized in one place. That takes significant work. My background makes me appreciate that part of what we do. Making those connections easier matters, and the work we’re doing with Nexus is something I’m excited about.
The ability for claimants and agents to see the status of a claim. It sounds basic, but it’s important. I think back to my mother-in-law having to pick up the phone and call someone for an update. Being able to log in and see where things stood would have given her another way to get that information. When you’re waiting on something that important, having visibility matters and gives peace of mind.
That they often need that money for something very real. It might be a funeral or a tuition bill. They may not have other money available to cover it while they wait. That brings us back to the promise. Insurance companies have committed to being there for their customers. Helping them deliver on that commitment is at the heart of what we do.
