MADISON — CUNA Mutual Insurance Society said that the decision to transfer 27 jobs away from its Madison facility and to new facilities in Texas has nothing to do with its recent move to merge CUMIS with the CUNA Mutual Life Insurance company.

Instead CUMIS said that the job shift has to do with its ongoing effort to restructure its operations. Jim Buchheim, spokesman for the insurer, said that the possibility of merging the two insurance companies had been a long-term possibility that only recently made financial sense due to changes in tax law. The 27 jobs most recently cut, he said, were part of the transformation effort the insurer has been working on for more then two years. "The two really aren't connected," Buchheim explained, noting that the transformation with its job changes would have continued whether or not the merger went forward.