Modern Woodmen of America

Brett Van serves as Chief Investment Officer, leading an internal team that manages the general account and pension assets. The investment office operates from Rock Island, Illinois, and includes dedicated portfolio managers for alternative assets and private placements, Adam Schwab and Aaron Birkland respectively. The team reports to President and CEO Jerald Lyphout.

The portfolio spans public fixed income, commercial mortgage loans, real estate equity, and private placements. The public-credit book is skewed toward investment-grade corporates and government securities to match insurance liabilities. On the private side, the organization directly originates commercial mortgages and participates in privately negotiated corporate debt and structured-product investments that sit between public bonds and bank loans.

Modern Woodmen is a fraternal benefit society — a tax-exempt mutual entity owned by its policyholders, not shareholders. This charter means it cannot be acquired, issues no stock, and must demonstrate community benefit through charitable programming. For the investment portfolio, the structure eliminates quarterly earnings pressure and allows the general account to hold illiquid assets through market cycles without facing redemption risk, a profile shared with very few surviving fraternal insurers in the US.

No. The organization manages its own general account and pension assets internally and does not operate as a third-party asset manager. Through subsidiary MWA Financial Services, it distributes retail financial products — mutual funds, variable annuities, retirement plans — but these represent third-party fund distribution rather than proprietary asset management marketed to outside institutions.

Public records confirm the firm holds its headquarters complex in Rock Island, Illinois, including the Home Office at 1701 1st Avenue and a separate investment office at 319 18th Street. It also owns a historic building at 1504 3rd Avenue and holds the naming rights to Modern Woodmen Park, a minor-league baseball stadium in Davenport, Iowa. The commercial mortgage portfolio is originated directly by the investment team.