Advice Straight from
the Experts

Dan Mangus has been in the insurance industry his entire life. Since starting his first insurance agency at age 18, Dan has been passionate about educating others about their insurance choices. At the age of 21, Dan became the President of his local Association of Life Underwriters and by the age of 26 was the Area Chairman of Life Underwriter Training Council.

As an agency owner, Dan’s partnership Senior Marketing Specialists began in the late 1990’s, and in 2010 Dan had the privilege of chairing their newly formed Advisory Council and continues to sit as Chairman of the Board today. After several years of consulting work with Senior Marketing Specialists, Dan joined the brokerage team full time in 2012 as the National Sales Director, serving over 10,000 agents nationwide. Today Dan’s current position of Vice President of Sales, gives him a unique line of sight to the customer, agent, and FMO staff. 

Although Dan has been sharing his insights and knowledge since the early 1980’s, more recently you can find him teaching Medicare courses at Universities and keynoting national insurance conferences and Medicare certification courses for the both the National Guardianship Association (NGA) and the American Association of Daily Money Managers (AADMM). Dan is also an Expert Contributor for the RICP designation program through the American College and is the published author of TalkingMEDICARE, a resource guide for advisors in the Medicare market.

Tom has been working in the LTCI business since 1991, with an emphasis on communicating the value of LTC planning to advisors, employers and consumers. He is the Managing Principal of LTCI Partners, a national brokerage. He has worked closely with carriers and vendors to make LTC Insurance easier to sell and enroll. Tom received his undergraduate degree from Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

As Long-Term Care team lead and linked benefits field consultant, Chad helps educate advisors and their clients on the importance of care planning and also orchestrates a smooth application process from start to finish. He presents educational seminars on care planning, funding options and alternatives to traditional LTC insurance. In addition to his Long-Term Care Professional (LTCP) and Certified in Long-Term Care (CLTC) designations, he has his life and health, and property and casualty insurance licenses.

Shelley is the author of “What’s the Deal with Reverse Mortgages?” (2nd Edition, Rethink Press, 2019), the first book to analyze the role of the housing asset in retirement income planning. In 2012 Shelley co-founded, with Torrey Larsen President of Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, the Funding Longevity Task Force, now known as the Academy of Home Equity in Financial Planning at the University of Illinois. Shelley co-chaired the Housing Wealth in Retirement Symposium in Washington DC, the first event to draw on the combined expertise of HECM industry leaders, NGOs, regulatory agencies, financial services professionals, and academicians. She directs Enterprise Integration at Mutual of Omaha Mortgage.

Dan Pierson is a driven entrepreneur with a track record of building successful businesses. He has experience creating and selling successful businesses and continues to do so focusing on industry disruption. He is a motivated and consumer-centric leader who seeks out viable solutions that lead to thriving businesses as well as happy customers. He has a wealth of experience inspiring teams to reach their highest potential while mentoring them through the process. He has significant experience working with senior leadership, both domestically and abroad. In addition, he has served on several insurance distribution advisory boards and participated in an international summit discussing insurance regulatory changes.

Amber oversees CLTC's operations and provides important oversight for the organization's important functions and programs, including sales and development, graduate benefits and retention, classroom and online training, communications, and more. She joined the organization in 2008 as Director of Graduate Benefits. Her passion for long-term care runs deep as she watched her grandmother's mental health deteriorate due to Alzheimer's and has witnessed the benefits of proper extended care planning and how it can protect a family. Her mission at CLTC is to provide professionals with the necessary tools to educate their clients on the importance of having a long-term care plan. 

Amber earned a BA in public relations and business management from the University of South Carolina. She currently resides in South Carolina with her husband and son.

Joseph Pulitano entered the life insurance industry in 1983 as an agent. After six months working as a captive agent, he opened Advanced Financial Resources to market life insurance to 25-40 year old professionals.

In 1990 he started Advanced Resources Marketing (ARM), a brokerage agency exclusively distributing long-term care insurance products in the Northeast. Most recently Joe was named CEO of LTC Agency Operations (LTCAO), a LTC Global company, which was the result of a merger of his company ARM, with LTC General Agency, and ACSIA/Partners. LTCAO is the largest independent distributor of LTC insurance products in the US.

Chris Orestis is the Executive Vice President of GWG Life, one of the largest secondary market buyers of life insurance policies in the market and a publicly traded company on NASDAQ. Chris is an author, speaker and nationally known industry expert. He has been in the insurance industry for over 20 years, first in Washington DC as a lobbyist for the life and health industry and then as the founder and CEO of Life Care Funding, where he pioneered the use of life settlements as a tool to pay for long-term care before merging his company with GWG.

Henrik’s entire career in financial services has been focused on LTCi.  Prior to joining ARM in 2001, Henrik held positions as sales manager and LTCi specialist with two large national insurance companies.

The corporate market place and all aspect of taxation pertaining to LTCi have been a focus in Henrik’s career and the topic of dozens of articles he has authored for industry publications.  In addition, Henrik has been a speaker at numerous regional and national events.  One of Henrik’s proudest accomplishments is the creation of ARM’s Northeastern University Co-op recruiting program.

Henrik and his wife, Ashley McCown, reside in Newton, MA

Fun Fact:  Henrik found an early appreciation for insurance protection when he and his family were responsible for the flooding of 100s of acres of agricultural land in Burgundy, France during a canal trip in the early 1990s.

Audrey Sunner is our National Sales Director for CLTC.  She is a graduate of the University of Iowa with a BS in Marketing and Management. She came from an insurance family and began her career in the business in 2002, starting out as a commissioned agent. She later became a manager, moved into corporate training and development for a large insurance company.  Audrey went back into the agency and brokerage business with a focus on Long Term Care.  She brings a great passion for the industry as having a personal journey with her mother’s long-lasting struggle with dementia.

Audrey brings professional and personal experience, knowledge and a heart for helping other professionals in the industry.

Steve is a Director at LTCI Partners and leads the firm’s sales and business- development efforts. Steve’s focus is revenue growth--whether it’s coming from existing client relationships or coming from the acquisition of new institutional and group accounts. He has more than 17 years of experience in working with professional advisors and their clients.  Before joining LTCI Partners in 2009, Steve was the National Sales Leader for Long-Term Care at Marsh & McLennan Companies. He is a thought-leader in the LTCI industry and regularly writes articles for industry trade publications. Steve is also a CE instructor for insurance and accounting professionals and frequently addresses industry groups on various LTCI products.

Tracey Edgar, RN, BSN, runs one-half of the brokerage channel for OneAmerica. During her 17-plus-year career in the LTC industry, Tracey has held a variety of sales and management positions.  Tracey is certified in LTC (CLTC) and has a B.S. degree in Nursing from Grand Valley State University.

Chris Bruser is one of the nation’s leading advocates for the appropriate use of home equity in retirement income planning. He is a veteran HECM for Purchase(H4P) specialist who works with builders and realtors who are looking to capture incremental sales by educating their clients on the H4P program. Chris is the #1 producing H4P loan officer in the Southeast, whose main builder partner attributes almost 40% of his total sales to the H4P program.

Chris is devoted to honest dialogue about home equity options. You can depend on Chris to address this sensitive topic with your clients, and their families, with respect, patience and transparency.

As an approved Instructor with the Retirement Resource Center, Chris has taught hundreds of financial advisors, real estate agents and institutions how home equity can contribute to sound retirement income planning.

Chris serves on the Board of Directors of NAIFA-Tampa and is a 2019 graduate of the NAIFA Leadership in Life Institute (LILI). He is a member and Past President of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) of Tampa Bay, a member of the Greater Tampa Realtors and the South Tampa Chamber of Commerce. He has also achieved the designation of Certified Reverse Mortgage Professional (CRMP).

Chris resides on Davis island in Tampa but grew up in Cincinnati, OH and loves to play golf. He is married for 12 years to his wife, Laura a nurse practitioner at Tampa General. They have a 10 year- old son, Brantley who’s an avid sports fan playing baseball, hockey and golf.

Scott works with financial advisors to grow the OneAmerica^® Care Solutions product line. He provides training through group meetings and assists with workshops and other functions to support the growth of Care Solutions within their organization.

Scott has been in the financial services industry since 2005, representing a variety of products, such as mutual funds, separately managed accounts, institutional money management and annuities. Scott has experience working with industry leaders such as Hartford, Goldman Sachs and SEI. Traveling the Midwest, he successfully developed and expanded sales by effectively training and coaching financial professionals about investment solutions and income strategies and how to leverage solutions for their clients. Much of Scott’s effectiveness as a wholesaler is directly tied to his experience sharing ideas and educating his advisors on how to position solutions to benefit a variety of investors.

A resident of Greenwood, Indiana, Scott has been married to his wife, Shannan, for more than 20 years. They have three children. He has coached several sports over the years, such as football, basketball and soccer, and serves on the board of his local football program. He enjoys home improvement projects and attending sporting events with his family.

Robert Eaton is a Consulting Actuary in Tampa, Florida. He is a Fellow in the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries. Robert focuses on long-term care insurance, life insurance, and combination life and health products. Robert works in pricing, valuation, mergers & acquisitions, and in predictive analytics. He was the 2018 Chairperson of the SOA’s LTC Section Council. Robert is the Chairperson of the 2020 ILTCI Conference and serves on the organization’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors.

Michael Hedge serves on the NAIFA Government Relations team as the Director of Federal Government Relations. His primary focus centers on financial services, representing NAIFA before the House Financial Services Committee, the Senate Banking Committee, the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and federal regulators.

Before joining NAIFA, Michael served six years as a lobbyist for the Community Associations Institute, representing common- interest communities before state and federal legislators and regulatory agencies. He has worked for trade associations in the technology and energy fields and also spent four years representing the interests of the American University of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates as well as in the United States.

Michael got his start in DC on the staffs of former Ohio Congressmen John Kasich and David Hobson. He conducted his graduate studies at Georgetown University for social and public policy and completed his bachelor’s degree in history from the Catholic University of America, both located in Washington, D.C.