Life Is Rich

Life Rich

Katie Brewer focuses on helping young clients build the foundation they need to live their richest lives.

by Susan Rupe

Is

IF it hadn’t been for that pesky biochemistry course that Katie Brewer had to take as a Texas A&M University undergrad, she might have been a physician today. Brewer discovered her desire to go into the medical field ebbing away as she struggled with biochemistry. But a financial literacy course lit a spark in her. She tried to figure out a way to combine her longtime interest in biology with her new interest in finance. The financial profession won out.

Today, Brewer is president of Your Richest Life, a financial planning firm she founded in 2014. She also is a founding member of the XY Planning Network. Her Rockwall, Texas, firm provides fee-only planning with an emphasis on coaching clients through the financial ups and downs of life.

After graduating from Texas A&M with a biology degree, Brewer got a foot in the door of a large regional broker-dealer in Dallas. That led to her literally “knocking on a lot of doors” trying to drum up business.

“My parents had very safe jobs working for the state of Texas. And I remember my mom saying at one point, ‘I don’t know why we got a college degree for you when you’re just wandering around in neighborhoods,’” Brewer recalled.

But she knew her mother didn’t understand the big picture of what she was trying to accomplish. Although her early years in the business were challenging, Brewer developed an entrepreneurial mindset that led her to where she is today.

After her first two years in the business, Brewer moved to a wealth management firm, where she was an associate planner. It was a welcome change to work in an environment where she did not have to pound the pavement to bring in clients. But although she was growing in her knowledge of the planning profession, something was missing.

“As an associate planner, I didn’t have a say in who I served,” she said. “I served the team I was assigned to. That team mostly worked with the traditional clients, mainly male breadwinners who were between the ages of 55 and 75. Which I thought was interesting and challenging as well, because I was young enough to be their daughter.”

Over time, Brewer realized something about the planning industry. “A lot of financial professionals work with people who are nearing retirement or who are in retirement, and there are a lot of companies who want to work with people who are either millionaires or who are five years away from retirement. There is almost nobody out there who works with people who don’t have a million dollars and are a long way from retirement.”

She switched firms again, working for a startup firm based in New York with planners all over the country.

“What excited me was that they were focused on working with younger clients,” she said. “That was a cool experience. And working for a startup gave me a taste of what it would be like to work for myself. Because when you’re working for a startup firm, you don’t just do financial planning or sales — it’s like you’re doing beta testing. You’re involved in figuring out what people want, and you’re involved in financial planning and actually talking to people. So I thought that was really cool, just being able to wear all of those different hats.”

The startup firm was on the verge of being sold when Brewer got the urge to start her own firm. But she had some misgivings about it at first.

“It seemed like a whole lot of work,” she said. “And I didn’t have a formal plan, so that worried me.”

Taking The Leap

Brewer soon put her fears aside and took the leap to start her own registered independent advisory firm. “I talked through it with my husband, and we discussed things like how much capital would we be willing to put toward this as kind of a loan to the business? And what we were willing to do as far as rearranging our household expenses, cutting cable, doing all the stuff that financial planners tell everybody else to do but never do themselves.”

After 10 years in the business, Brewer opened the door to her own firm and started to serve the clients she wanted to serve in the way she wanted to serve them. She developed a fee-for-service model but wasn’t sure at first whether it would work.

“I didn’t really know what the market was, so I told myself I’m going to put it out there and test it,” she said.

In the beginning, Brewer found support and clients from those she knew in the industry who weren’t serving the clients she wanted to serve.

“A lot of the folks I’ve networked with over the years told me they were relieved to know what I was doing because they feel bad when they have someone reaching out to them for help but they feel it’s someone they aren’t able to serve — someone such as a client’s child or family member, or someone who doesn’t have the firm’s minimum amount to invest. So it was funny because I started off by taking outcasts from other financial advisors.”

Brewer knew she wanted to target those who weren’t being served by larger advisory firms, so when an advisor asked her whether she wanted to talk with a prospect they weren’t able to serve, “I would always say, whether you think they’re qualified for me or not, just send them on over. And I’ll figure it out.”

That attitude remains true today, she said.

“Sometimes people are right where they should be in order to move forward with their planning,” she said. “Sometimes they’re kind of in need of what I call free financial planning. If they have struggled with credit card debt or they have been in some patterns that are disruptive to their financial health, then I might connect them with an accredited financial counselor who specializes in that kind of thing.”

Fun And Nonfun

Most of Brewer’s clients range in age from their mid-20s into their 40s, with a number of clients up into their mid-60s.

“A lot of them have a household income of more than $200,000 annually, and a lot of them have things they’re really worried about now,” she said. “I tell them my job is to make sure the fun things in their lives are addressed as well as the nonfun things.”

Many of Brewer’s clients are either new parents or about to be parents, and they are concerned about planning for new financial responsibilities.

“They need some advice on how to get to the next level of financial responsibility,” she said. “They might need advice on how to manage taking time off without having an income, or they may be ready to buy their first home or buy a bigger home.”

Brewer’s young clients also are looking at planning for the short term, she said, events that they anticipate occurring one to three years in the future.

“They have financial goals that they want to accomplish, but they are worried about making a mistake or ruining their financial future, so that’s where I come in to guide them,” she said.

Brewer initially thought it would be difficult to market to young prospects “because there’s a lot of noise out there.”

“It’s funny because I thought I would be competing with a bunch of other advisors. But I find instead that I’m competing with people who think they can do it themselves or take the advice of an online guru or take the advice of their dad or some other family member,” she said. “The biggest obstacle that I found in working with younger professionals is whether they think it’s worth the money to pay someone to advise them on their finances.”

Advisors who want to serve younger clients “should quit guessing what they think younger clients want instead of simply hiring somebody who’s plus or minus 10 years of the target age that they want to attract,” Brewer said.

Generation X and Generation Y clients “want to know what you’re recommending, but they also want to know why you’re recommending it. If you don’t tell them why, they will sit on their heels and not take action on it.”

Younger clients “usually will challenge you with something they heard or read,” Brewer added. “They’ll say something like, ‘But my brother Joe said I should do this instead,’ or ‘I read this thing that said I should do this.’”

Some advisors may get aggravated over this, but Brewer said, “I like it when clients ask me questions, because it means that we have an open enough relationship, that they’re not just nodding and smiling and then leaving the meeting and not doing what we just talked about.”

Pam Horack of Clover, S.C., is founder of Pathfinder Planning and, along with Brewer, is also a founding member of the XY Planning Network. Although Horack and Brewer each has her own financial planning firm, Horack said she has known Brewer for so long she considers her a co-worker.

“She has good insights on things her clients are going through,” Horack said of Brewer. “She really knows her stuff, and she has a lot of expertise in what her clients need.”

“The biggest obstacle that I found in working with younger professionals is whether they think it’s worth the money to pay someone to advise them on their finances.”

Growing Into The Future

Brewer added another planner to her practice recently. He lives about eight hours away from her, and he sees clients virtually, as she does.

“Bringing him on board essentially doubled our capacity,” she said. “And it was a good thing because being the person who has to do the marketing and the sales and client service and financial planning, I was getting to where I didn’t think I could possibly do one more thing.”

Brewer also works closely with several independent insurance advisors and refers clients who need life insurance or homeowners coverage.

“I believe insurance is really important,” she said. “Because I know that death, destruction and the inability to work are not fun things to talk about. And even if we talk to clients about insurance and get them to agree to do something, often they are hesitant about the amount of coverage, or they end up freezing in their tracks on the way to implementing what we talked about. So I use several professionals as complements to our firm. If our clients want to get insurance online, they can. But I find that most of our clients are not super gung-ho about shopping online for insurance. They’d rather have a personal, professional touch.”

Brewer and her 11-year-old daughter are pet lovers, and they both volunteer with an animal rescue organization in their community. They enjoy family singalong sessions at home, led by her husband, who plays guitar.

Looking at her practice, Brewer said she originally wanted to have a 10-person firm. But now she isn’t so sure she wants her practice to grow that large.

“I don’t want to be solo. But I’m not sure if I love managing a lot of people. It’s kind of funny, because I’m a planner who plans everything. But now I’m thinking more like, OK, we’re on a sailboat, and we’re going to see where the wind takes us over the next five years.”

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents’ association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at Susan.Rupe@innfeedback.com. Follow her on Twitter @INNsusan.

Where’s The Punch Bowl?

Back in 1955, William McChesney Martin Jr., chairman of the Federal Reserve, famously said that the job of the nation’s central bank is “to take away the punch bowl just as the party gets going” — that is, raise interest rates just when the economy reaches peak activity after a recession.

Will the punch bowl get dragged back into the kitchen after the current Fed chair, Jerome Powell, said the Fed may halt its immense support for financial markets sooner than Wall Street expected? Some economists and investors were already calling for just such a move — given the economy’s strong recovery from last year’s brief recession and stubborn high inflation that’s impacting the global economy.

Powell said the Fed’s monthly bond purchases, which recently began shrinking from $120 billion, may end months sooner than the June target it had been on pace for.

Wall Street has reason to fear the party may be ending early. An early halt to the Fed’s bond-buying program, which has helped keep long-term interest rates low and thereby supports the economy, would open the door for the central bank to make the more impactful decision to start raising short-term interest rates.

IGNORE ‘HYSTERICAL’ PEOPLE, ECONOMIST SAYS

The Consumer Price Index showed that inflation came in at an annual rate of 6.2% in October, its steepest climb in more than 30 years. The persistent high inflation and continued pressures such as supply chain bottlenecks have led many economists to question the Federal Reserve’s long-held view that the spike will be “transitory.”

Despite all the news about inflation, one economist’s advice is this: Ignore “hysterical” people — inflation is not here to stay. That was the word from Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. “Let’s listen to what the people who actually are making policy are telling us,” Weinberg told CNBC.

Weinberg said that with industrial output and gross domestic product back to pre-pandemic levels, the U.S. economy has essentially recovered.

He argued that the labor market lagging is “typical for economic recessions,” with unemployment following the 2008 global financial crisis taking around a decade to fully recover.

OHIO RETIREMENT FUND SUES FACEBOOK OVER LOSSES

Facebook is a great place to see photos of your friend’s new puppy or to spout off your opinion on the latest political issue. But it’s not a good place for a public pension fund to invest its money, a federal lawsuit contends.

The Ohio Public Employees Retirement System claimed in its lawsuit that Facebook broke federal securities law by purposely misleading the public about its product’s negative effect on children, allegations detailed earlier by a former Facebook employee turned whistleblower.

Facebook also knew that its platform facilitated dissension, illegal activity and violent extremism, but refused to correct it, said the lawsuit, filed in federal court in California by the office of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

Concealing these actions led to artificially high stock prices for the company and

QUOTABLE

When I think about the challenges that we all might face going into next year, the labor shortages that we’re seeing are suddenly one that’s top of mind.

— Northrop Grumman CEO

Kathy Warden

then cost investors, including OPERS, more than $100 billion in market losses resulting from negative publicity after the allegations were made public, according to Yost.

2/3 OF AMERICANS WORRIED ABOUT THEIR JOBS

A record number of Americans are quitting their jobs, but those who have jobs are concerned about whether they will continue to be employed. A Bankrate survey found that 63% of Americans are concerned about their jobs or income sources over the next six months.

Americans were most concerned about the economy, with 39% saying they view the ongoing pandemic as the biggest threat to the economy over the next six months. That

outpaces concerns about the political environment in Washington (with 21% most worried) and inflation (14%).

The survey found that 23% of Americans indicated they’re very concerned about their job or income source over the next six months while 40% indicated that they are somewhat concerned. That said, 56% of those surveyed expect the economy to be in better shape six months from now.

DID YOU KNOW ?

39% of Black Americans reported living paycheck to paycheck, Source: National Association for Business Economics Source: LIMRA compared to 27% of white Americans. Source: Guardian Life

THE 2022

GIVING ISSUE

In this special section, we searched for the industry’s most socially responsible organizations who are doing great things for the causes they care about and the communities they support. We uncovered great philanthropic initiatives by true mission-driven organizations who are making the world a better place. In the spirit of giving, 10% of proceeds will be paid forward to Big Brothers Big Sisters, the nation’s largest donor- and volunteer-supported mentoring network.

INSIDE

Volunteering: It’s Good — and Healthy — For Agents, Their Clients, and Their Businesses by Foresters Financial PAGE 18

Giving Back To Their Community by Ohio National Financial Services PAGE 19

Volunteering: It’s Good — and Healthy — For Agents, Their Clients, and Their Businesses

New Foresters Go Wellness App Rewards Members for Helping Others

Since its founding, the Foresters fraternal mission has been steadfast and is as relevant today as it was nearly 150 years ago. That mission is: Helping those who help others.

“Unlike other organizations that have embraced purpose because it’s popular, Foresters has always been a purpose-driven life insurer,” said Matt Berman, President of Foresters Financial U.S. “We are innovating across our products and member benefits to generate unique ways to encourage and reward those who help others. We’ll be right behind agents who want to volunteer in their communities. Our programs can help them have a greater impact; and our products and benefits can help them connect with like-minded volunteers who are making a difference.”

In the blog post, 5 Ways Volunteering Can Help Grow Your Business1, American Express reports on the positive forces that come with volunteering. They include:

Most recently, Foresters introduced the new Foresters Go mobile app which takes volunteering to a whole new level. Foresters Go is a wellness engagement platform that not only rewards members for adopting a healthy lifestyle — it also provides rewards for volunteer activities and communityminded behavior.

Members receive points for their volunteer activity to use in the Foresters Go Reward Store for merchandise (e.g., tablets, smart

• Enhance your skills • Win publicity • Make New Contacts • Bolster Employee Moral • Give Back to Your Community “We have many successful agents who are Foresters members and use the community grants to give back to their local neighborhoods and meet new people and prospects. Now they can receive additional rewards for their efforts through the Foresters Go app.”

“Our commitment to supporting local volunteers is a powerful differentiator for agents who work with Foresters,” said Mark Rush, Chief Distribution Officer for Foresters. “Want to engage in an activity that’s good and healthy for you, your clients, your employees, your community, and your business? Consider volunteering,” he said.

The Many Ways to Give and Get: Community Grants, Foresters Care, and Foresters Go™

– Mark Rush, Chief Distribution Officer, Foresters Financial U.S. watches), gift cards, and charitable donations. The app is available to all current and new Foresters members in North America.

“If you are an agent who is building a business, I suggest you become a Foresters member, and get out into your community and make a difference,” said Mr. Rush. “We have given you all the tools you need.”

There are many different ways Foresters fosters volunteering and community giving. The most impactful benefit for members2 is the $2,000 Community Volunteer grant. Foresters members can receive grants of $2,000 up to three times a year to use for local causes and disadvantaged parts of their communities. There are also smaller Foresters Care grants that are more quickly approved that provide $200 for small but impactful gestures to local causes.

Please call the Foresters Sales Desk at 866-466-7166

option 1 to learn more about Foresters products and member benefits.

1. https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-insights/articles/5-ways-volunteering-can-help-grow-your-business/ 2. Foresters members are insureds under a life or health insurance certificate issued by The Independent Order of Foresters. Foresters member benefits are non-contractual, subject to benefit specific eligibility requirements, definitions and limitations and may be changed or cancelled without notice or are no longer available. Foresters Go is provided by The Independent Order of Foresters and is operated by dacadoo AG. Foresters Financial, Foresters, Helping Is Who We Are, Foresters Care, Foresters Go and the Foresters Go logo are trade names and/or trademarks of The Independent Order of Foresters (a fraternal benefit society, 789 Don Mills Road, Toronto, ON, Canada M3C 1T9) and its subsidiaries. 420310 US (01/22)

Giving Back To Their Community

For Ohio National Financial Services, giving back is part of their history, culture and future.

The associates of Ohio National are dedicated to giving their best to their clients and community. In addition, the Ohio National Foundation donated a total of $1.6 million to worthy causes in 2021. Since the Foundation started in 1987, it has given over $29 million to various charities, including Habitat for Humanity, the American Heart Association and more.

A cause close to home, and close to their hearts

An example of the strong history of Ohio National’s commitment to community is its long partnership with United Way, going back generations. Giving back and being involved in the Greater Cincinnati area have always been a major focus. This culture of giving goes beyond monetary support and includes leading through volunteerism. In fact, President and CEO Barbara Turner serves as board chair of United Way of Greater Cincinnati (UWGC). With her leadership, Ohio National associates raised more than $840,000 for UWGC programs.

UWGC strategically matches needs to resources to ensure that donations make a sustainable difference in people’s lives. This activity aligns with Ohio National’s stated mission to make a difference in your life by helping you achieve financial security and independence today — and for generations to come. UWGC brings together the fundraising efforts of businesses in the Greater Cincinnati area to make a positive impact throughout the community.

For Ohio National Financial Services, giving goes beyond the Cincinnati area. Associates and retirees who live outside the Cincinnati region can direct their pledged funds to their local communities through United Way.

Giving back continues to be a priority at Ohio National

Associates put in more than just pledges — their creativity and engagement shine through with their numerous events.

To start, they hosted a UWGC carnival fundraiser on the Ohio National campus. It was a great, creative way to bring everyone together and raise funds. The team also had fun giving back with a rubber duck regatta, a car show, a dunk tank, yard games, live music and even a food truck rally. A virtual pet-a-palooza contest offered prizes for best owner look-alike and best trick. In addition to these activities, the fundraising committee raised money with the dine-to-donate program, where sales from meals at local eateries went to UWGC. They even had traditional raffles for great prizes to get them that much closer to reaching their fundraising goals for this year.

Time is another way the team at

Ohio National gives back. Associates receive paid time off to volunteer at local nonprofits each year. In 2021, associates

volunteered 1,537 hours during the work day, bringing the current total to over 16,000 since the community service hours program began in 2016.

Contributing to the communities where associates live remains a top priority for the company.

The people of Ohio National are proud to participate in their company’s legacy of giving.

Learn more about Ohio National’s tradition of philanthropy and become a part of this legacy at OhioNational.com.

When Tyrone V. Ross Jr. goes out of town, he never travels light.

The CEO and co-founder of Onramp Invest in San Diego, Calif., doesn’t leave home without extra socks — hundreds of pairs of socks, to be exact.

When most people travel, they want to make sure to hit all the tourist spots. But when Ross travels, he makes sure he visits the homeless shelters in his destination city.

Ross has spent the past several years combining his business travel with his desire to give to those in need. The more miles he logs, the more people he helps.

Each year, he promotes the month of October as “Socktober,” taking to Twitter to encourage and challenge his social media followers to donate socks to the homeless.

He has conducted the Socktober campaign for several years now and said he lost count of how many pairs of socks he has given away.

Socktober is one example of how members of the financial services community are giving back to their communities in big ways — and bringing others along for the philanthropic ride.

Ross’ mother inspired him in his giving journey when he was growing up in Trenton, N.J.

“My mother always told me, ‘You have one responsibility. And that is, when you see people in need, you must help them,’” he said. “That’s really what I focus on — just making sure that I help people and get them the help that they need if they are in my view. It’s a passion of mine to use my voice and the platform that I have to be the voice for the voiceless and for people who can’t advocate for themselves.”

Ross said he always was interested in donating to shelters, as he recognized widespread homelessness in his home city as well as in every city he visits.

“Every time I would go to a shelter, I would ask, ‘What is the No. 1 thing you need?’ And they would say,

‘Undergarments and socks, especially socks,’” he recounted. “So a couple of years ago, I started Socktober on Twitter.”

The social media campaign did more than provide socks to homeless shelters, Ross said. It raised awareness of needs that often go unnoticed.

“One of the things I noticed is that people really didn’t understand how much homeless shelters need socks,” he said. “And they also didn’t understand that a lot of homeless folks use socks as gloves to cover their hands if they are outside.”

Having access to socks also helps the homeless maintain personal cleanliness,

Ross said. “Being able to change their socks is important to them, just as it’s important to everyone else.”

Visiting homeless shelters and learning about their residents’ needs inspired Ross to tell others about the need for socks and other essentials.

“When you look at the demographics of those who are on Twitter, especially those who are in finance, they do well, they make good money,” he said. “So I thought, what better way to bring awareness to this issue than by bringing it to Twitter?”

Ross’ Twitter feed is filled with posts of him delivering socks to homeless shelters and veterans’ homes. He encourages his followers to tweet about their own sock donations, and he has partnered with advisors to donate socks to shelters in cities where he travels for business.

“It’s an awesome thing to see,” he said, “and now it’s a tradition we do every year.”

Ross buys the socks at Target and Walmart, and he packs socks with him on all his business travels. He has “probably thousands of pairs of socks in my house that I haven’t yet given out.” Ross estimated that he has delivered socks to at least 25 shelters, and he always keeps some socks with him when he goes out in public “because you never know when you might come across someone who needs help.

“I don’t go to any city without touching the people,” he said. “It’s important to me to reach out to and serve the people who are underserved and disenfranchised, and who don’t get the opportunity to be on stage or eat an expensive lunch or any of that.” Ross doesn’t only give out socks. He promotes what he calls “Nolayawayvember” in the month of November, when he anonymously pays off store layaway accounts for people he doesn’t even know. For those who want to help others in need in their communities, Ross advises “find something close to you that you are passionate about. “It doesn’t have to be socks. It doesn’t have to be homelessness,” he said. “It could be helping veterans, those who are disabled, victims of domestic abuse, a school where folks are in need. Just look locally and offer your help and your time. What I’ve noticed is they never say no when you offer to help. And it’s important to realize that you don’t need to do much, you just need to start right where your feet are. There are so many people right in your backyard who need help.”

Tyrone V. Ross Jr.’s mother inspired him in his giving journey by telling him his one responsibility is to help people in need.

More Than Writing A Check

Sometimes the road to philanthropy begins with a simple phone call. For Angie Rehkop, founder of Financial Care Providers in Atlanta, the giving journey began when a friend asked her to go horseback riding.

The request was for adult volunteers to accompany children who were patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Atlanta. The children were having a “horse day” at a local stable. Rehkop joined in the fun and became hooked on helping kids who are dealing with life-threatening illness.

What she learned on horse day was that,

A day of horseback riding with hospital patients set Angie Rehkop on a path to raising funds to help sick children.

at the time, St. Jude did not have money allocated for recreational activities such as horseback riding, nor did they have funds to provide recreational activities to their patients’ siblings.

“Some of the volunteers started writing big checks to pay for these things, and then an attorney who was involved set up a foundation and we started raising money,” she said.

A beginner golfer, Rehkop was asked to organize a golf tournament to raise funds for the foundation.

“But I said, ‘I can barely play golf. I don’t know anything about tournaments. I’ll look for other things I can do to raise money,’” she said. “But you know there are times when you say no and you feel bad about it for a little bit and then the bad feeling goes away. This was not one of those times; the bad feeling didn’t go away. I wanted to do something.”

She soon became more active in golf and met some like-minded people who promised to help her if she would organize a charity tournament.

In 2007, Rehkop held her first golf tournament. Six foursomes participated and the event raised $8,000. More people stepped forward and volunteered to help the following year. The event took a big step forward when Rehkop made a presentation on the golf tournament at her business networking group. One of the group members told her she was crazy for putting on the tournament alone and volunteered to be her co-chairman. The two of them recruited an advisory board and set up a single-person limited liability corporation called Golf for the Kids.

Golf for the Kids raises money for the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, which is located within Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Rehkop estimates that the golf event has raised about $500,000 over the years. Some of the funds are given to the cancer center to be used wherever there is a need, while other funds are earmarked for the therapy dog program at the hospital.

“Who can say no to a therapy dog? When the dogs show up, everything in the room changes,” she said. “Service animals make a huge difference in general. Specifically, when you’re working with kids, service animals are a complete game changer.”

Rehkop called her work with Golf for the Kids “an investment in the community.”

“When you’re dealing with insurance, this is not an easy industry for anyone, and we see a lot of the hardships of life,” she said. “When you take on something like this, you get to see a lot of good people, and it helps bring out the very best in everyone involved.”

Golf for the Kids has raised $500,000 for Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, which is located within Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

The Four P’s Of Giving

Giving doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and it’s not an afterthought for those who make philanthropy part of their business. The Kelly family in the Baltimore area is an example.

Reedbird Park is a community recreational hub in South Baltimore. One of the newer features in the park is BGE Field, presented by Kelly Benefits. The park is the 100th Youth Development Park built by the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, which builds youth sports facilities in underserved areas. Reedbird opened to the public in November 2021.

The fact that Kelly Benefits partnered with the foundation on this project is no surprise to those in the Baltimore area. Kelly Benefits and the family that operates Maryland’s largest employee benefits administrator have been pillars of the local philanthropic community for decades.

Francis X. Kelly III, company CEO, said he and three brothers who operate the company with him are inspired by their faith and by the generosity of their parents, Frank X. Kelly Jr. and Janet Kelly, who started the company in the basement of their home in 1976.

“We come from a faith tradition that believes in tithing — giving 10% of your income to those in need,” he said. “We have a four-pillar giving program. We recognize that giving involves more than treasure. Giving involves time, talent, treasure and what we call a testimony or story. So we look to give time, talent, treasure and testimony in different ways — locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. It’s the principle of sowing and reaping. We try to leverage the business we feel we’ve been blessed with to help others in need as well.”

Helping those who are homeless or have addiction problems and helping lift those in poverty are among the focus areas of the Kelly family’s philanthropy.

Francis X. Kelly III said his family’s philanthropy is inspired by his parents, who started Kelly Benefits in the basement of their home in 1976.

Members of the Kelly family celebrate the opening of a youth sports facility in Baltimore, BGE Field, presented by Kelly Benefits.

Kelly and his wife, Gayle, have been longtime supporters of Helping Up Mission’s men’s recovery center in Baltimore. While volunteering to serve food there, Gayle discovered a woman who dressed like a man in order to receive a meal. It was then that Gayle learned the mission was unable to serve women — and an idea took root.

Frank and Gayle spent the past three years co-chairing a $61 million Inspiring Hope campaign to build the new 145,000-square-foot Center for Women & Children to help women in Baltimore dealing with addiction and homelessness. The project helps the women’s children as well.

“Many women don’t get treatment because they’re not going to leave their young children,” he said. “They’ll do what they have to do to maintain their addiction and keep their children with them. This facility will house up to 200 women and up to 50 of their children. We raised more than $62 million, so we beat our original fundraising goal.”

The facility will open its doors to women in early 2022. In addition to spearheading the fundraising campaign, the Kellys and various family members donated money to the project and served in various volunteer roles.

Members of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Kellys are involved in the organization’s Park Heights Saints football and cheerleading program, which serves young people in an impoverished area of Baltimore. A friend started the program 20 years ago, and it has grown to include nine football teams and a cheerleading squad. About 250 kids participate in the program each year.

As part of their involvement in the FCA, the Kellys helped raise $250,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to renovate an abandoned home into the Park Heights Saints Community Center. The 2,000-square-foot center is a gathering place for teams in between games and throughout the year. The kids in the program have a safe environment to watch a game on TV, do schoolwork in the computer lab or share a meal together.

Over the past 30 years, Kelly Benefits has opened its doors to employees who have Down syndrome. The Kellys have been involved in Pen-Mar Human Services, which provides services to adults with intellectual disabilities. The family was presented with Pen-Mar’s Distinguished Humanitarian Award in 2020.

The Kelly family philanthropy extends overseas as well. They have sponsored 250 children around the world through World Vision.

Kelly advised anyone who wants to start their own giving program to “start with areas that are connected to you or the people close to you.”

“Let’s say you know a kid who is battling cancer, and the next thing you know, you might go out and raise money for childhood cancer,” he said. “Or maybe someone you know is dealing with addiction, so you might help raise funds for an organization that helps people with addictions.”

Giving, he said, should include what he calls “the four P’s.”

“Make it a priority, have a plan and give a percentage. And then make it progressive over time.”

A Son’s Memory Spreads Hope

Pratik Shah used to drive past the Methodist Children’s Home in Redford, Mich., on his way to and from his office in nearby Farmington.

“It’s a very beautiful facility. From the front, it looks like a castle,” he said.

But Shah didn’t understand exactly who the home served or what its residents needed until a family tragedy inspired and led him and his wife to philanthropy. The Methodist Children’s Home and the young people it shelters have benefited from the Shahs’ financial contributions as well as their contributions of time and attention.

Shah has been a Prudential advisor for 30 years. He received the 2021 Prudential Advisors Award of Merit for his work done through the Abhi Shah Foundation, which is named after his son.

Abhi Shah was a 20-year-old University

of Michigan student when he died unexpectedly on the day before Thanksgiving 2016. He had been his parents’ only child.

“It was tragic when he left us, [but] he paved the path for us to make sure that we walk on a journey to give love, hope and happiness to many kids,” Shah said. He and his wife established the Abhi Shah Foundation as a way of continuing their son’s legacy.

“Abhi was a loving and caring individual,” Shah said. “My wife and I decided the best way to keep Abhi alive is to make sure we spread that love to other kids. So we started the foundation.”

Shah turned his attention to the Methodist Children’s Home Society, which provides foster care to children whose parents or other family members are unable to take care of them. He learned that the increasing numbers of children in the community who needed care meant that the home needed more space. “So we provided funds to make improvements and make more room for the kids,” he said.

As he became more involved with the home, he realized that although the home provided the children with life’s necessities, the children needed more.

“The children there, they get a place to stay and food to eat, but they don’t get love. They don’t get the hope they need to live,” Shah said. “So we decided to have activities for the kids and show them someone cares.”

Shah holds an annual Thanksgiving lunch for the children, has taken them on field trips to places like the Ford Motor Co. plant and holds a picnic for them each summer. He also treats the children to new sneakers each year and provides them with other gifts.

The next project for the Abhi Shah Foundation is funding an additional facility for the Methodist Children’s Home Society.

“What often happens is that a court gives an order at night that a child needs to be rescued and the regular foster home may not be able to take the child,” he said. “The Methodist Children’s Home Society was able to buy some abandoned buildings at a very low cost, but they needed funds to make them livable. So we are paying for a new heating system, new air conditioning system, new hot water heater, new beds — everything.”

The new facility will be called My Friend’s Place. The name came about because of an anecdote Shah was told.

“This particular child had no family. When the holidays were coming up and the other kids in his school asked him where he was going for Christmas, he said, ‘I’ll go to my friend’s place’ because he didn’t want the other kids to know he was going to stay in his foster home. The CEO of the society told me he wants to call this new facility My Friend’s Place so that kids don’t have to say they’re staying in a foster home; they can say, ‘I’m staying at my friend’s place.’”

Despite the Shahs’ efforts to find meaning in philanthropy, Abhi’s death still left a big hole in their home. But they eventually went on to have two more children through surrogacy.

“So we have our children,” he said. “We have our foundation. We are incredibly blessed.”

Funds raised through walk-a-thons benefit the Abhi Shah Foundation, which supports the Methodist Children’s Home Society in the Detroit area. Pratik Shah with his wife and a picture of their son, Abhi.

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents’ association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at Susan.Rupe@ innfeedback.com. Follow her on Twitter @INNsusan.

Life Insurance Premium Up 18% In 3Q

Total life insurance new annualized premium saw its third consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, with an increase of 18% in the third quarter 2021, according to LIMRA.

This increase represented the largest growth recorded for a ninemonth period in 25 years. LIMRA said all product lines recorded gains in premium in the third quarter and year to date.

While overall policy sales were level with the third quarter of 2020, the number of policies sold year to date was 5% higher than in the first three quarters of 2020.

Variable universal life new annualized premium recorded the greatest growth in terms of absolute dollars, up 104% from the previous quarter. VUL market share was nearly double pre-pandemic levels.

Indexed universal life new premium jumped 21% in the third quarter, with two-thirds of IUL carriers increasing their sales and all but one carrier reporting double-digit growth.

QUOTABLE

VUL sales have been remarkable in 2021.

— John Carroll, senior vice president and head of LIMRA’s Insurance Division

life insurance policy to cover future living expenses.

Almost 90% of those surveyed say their beneficiaries are aware of policies in place and 76% knew where the

actual policies are kept. About twothirds of policyholders have reviewed their policies with their beneficiaries within the past year.

AIG TO SELL LIFE/RETIREMENT BUSINESS IN 1Q

AIG expects to sell its life and retirement business during the first quarter of 2022, CEO Peter Zaffino said.

Completion of a sale could potentially linger into the second quarter, he added. AIG announced its plan to sell 19.9% of Life & Retirement — either through a private sale or a public offering — near the end of 2020.

In early November, AIG closed a deal to sell a 9.9% equity stake in Life & Retirement to Blackstone for $2.2 billion in an all-cash transaction.

MOST CONSUMERS UNSURE ABOUT ADEQUATE COVERAGE

Many consumers are unsure whether their life insurance coverage will be enough for their loved ones, according to a National Association of Insurance Commissioners survey.

The survey reveals that 54% of respondents are uncertain or only somewhat confident that their life insurance benefit would meet the needs of their

beneficiaries. However, most agree that if they died within the next decade, their beneficiaries would need their payout from the

MOODY’S SAYS LIFE INSURANCE OUTLOOK IS STABLE FOR 2022

The 2022 outlook for the U.S. life insurance sector is stable, reflecting the ongoing, although slower pace of recovery for the economy, Moody’s Investors Service said in a new report. However, while persistent inflation, supply chain issues and new COVID-19 variants are risks, the still-solid level of growth supports a continuing stable outlook.

In its report, Moody’s cited the following factors: » Modest inflation is credit positive for life insurers. » The private equity-assisted mergers and acquisitions boom accelerates life insurers' transformation. » Life insurers face a host of new rules in 2022.

DID YOU KNOW ?

Craig DeSanto has been named CEO-elect of New York Life. Source: New York Life