If you want to operate in the private client and high-net-worth space, you cannot afford to just be “the insurance guy.”

Sophisticated buyers, ranging from $100 million to $29 billion in net worth, can smell a product pitch from a mile away. To win these relationships, you must master the art of leading with planning, embracing complexity, and speaking the language of their CPAs, attorneys, and family offices.

My guest, Dan Bergen, Managing Director of Private Client at Higginbotham and former Head of Insurance at Goldman Sachs, joins me to discuss what it takes to operate at the absolute highest level of the industry. Dan breaks down his journey from the Northwestern Mutual internship and semi-pro hockey to quarterbacking complex strategies like Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI).

We discuss the difference between needs and wants for the ultra-wealthy, the exact formula for a “zeroed-out estate tax plan,” and why the most powerful thing an advisor can say is, “You are actually not a good fit for what we do.”

 

Resources: