Meet Jason Culp, Certified Financial Planner™ Program Instructor

Jason Culp will be teaching our Insurance Planning course for our Certified Financial Planner™ Program. He has over 15 years of experience as a Certified Financial Planner. Jason currently serves as a private wealth manager at Pragmatic Financial Strategies, an independent financial planning and Registered Investment Advisory firm he founded in Marietta.

His previous experience includes account management, tax preparation, financial counseling and related business services. He has served a variety of populations, from the military to seniors, providing sound financial planning strategies for the future. Jason is looking forward to the intellectual interaction with students from different career fields.

1. What are the top 3 items people should expect to learn?

• The risk management process: A step-by-step method to ensure that you have evaluated and reviewed a client’s risk exposure.
• Methods for handling risk: Once all the risks are identified, applying the proper techniques for each of your client’s situations.
• Case application: Reviewing real life financial planning cases and making appropriate risk management recommendations given clients resources.

2. What inspires you to teach this course?
I am passionate about teaching this course mainly due to the life experiences I have had early on in my financial planning career. My first job coming out of college was in life insurance sales. It really didn’t click for me until one day when I had to deliver an insurance proceeds check to a widow whom I had helped to plan insurance for with the husband one month earlier. Her husband had recently retired and lacked enough life insurance coverage to pay off their debts should something happen to him. He was the primary bread winner.

During this insurance planning meeting, I encouraged him to manage that risk and that choice would affect their family profoundly. One month later, he had a life-ending heart attack. That moment for me during that time in my career was an anchoring event that would always become a part of how I would advise clients in the future. I want students to understand that insurance not only impacts the lives that it covers but affects the future of the families involved.

3. What type of opportunities will be available to students who take this course?
As of the end of 2014, the insurance industry as a whole employed over 2.5 million people and that will steadily continue to grow in the future. The opportunities in the insurance industry for financial planners is vast and is also dependent upon how creative students are with the skills they will acquire in the Certified Financial Planner™ Program. Opportunities in fields such as consulting, sales, underwriting, and management are just to name a few.

4. What can students expect in this career?
Insurance is what I call an ever-evolving contract that is created to manage the unexpected circumstances of life. Students who embrace the concepts and tools of insurance planning will have a different outlook on how situations should be managed daily. Working in this field not only changes lives but can temporarily and/or permanently restore them for families and individuals who have faced unexpected loss or losses.

5. Any advice to students interested in taking this course?
If you get excited about the idea that your advice as a financial planner could positively change someone’s future, then this Certified Financial Planner™ Program should be your top choice. I wouldn’t trade my career or independence gained by becoming a Certified Financial Planner for any other.

6. What have been some changes in the industry?
The insurance industry as it relates to financial planning is consistently evolving as clients’ needs and resources grow. Many clients in today’s environment are very creative with how they build and secure wealth. Strategies to protect what they have built for generations is one of the top priorities in the insurance industry.

Insurance legislation has changed our lives recently with the Affordable Health Care Act. This current program has strengthened the need for quality financial professionals to take on the challenge of helping people to weed through the unknown.

7. What have you learned through your years in the industry?
I have learned that hard work and persistence pays off to those who plan properly. In my career I have had the pleasure of working in all types of financial work environments before establishing my own registered investment advisory firm. My experiences in these environments whether good, bad or indifferent have taught me to stay focused on future career goals. I have the privilege of helping clients to use their current resources for financial success. As they accomplish this, it makes me grateful for the opportunity to work with them because as they grow, so do I.