In this presentation on “ Life Insurance as an Asset Class:  A Value-Added Component of an Asset Allocation,” insurance consultant Dick Weber uses concepts found in Modern Portfolio Theory to associate investment styles with the different types of life insurance available to today's consumers.  Generally, duration of need dictates whether the policy should be term or “permanent.”  With that useful clarification, and once a policy can be appropriately linked to an individual’s investment behavior, it is even possible to create a portfolio of policies that is truly “efficient” in its ability to optimize the client’s needs for lifetime life insurance.  After acquiring the appropriate policies, and as they move through the process from being “newly issued” to becoming part of an insurance company’s in-force block of business, this presentation addresses four different approaches to re-mediate policies that are not meeting their original objectives.

Dick Weber is the Society of Financial Service Professional's Kenneth Black, Jr. Leadership Award recipient for 2008 in recognition of his "... exemplary leadership qualities and significant contributions to the fulfillment of the Society's core values of ethic, education, and relationships."

For 25 years a successful life insurance salesman and 20-year life member of the Million Dollar Round Table, Dick joined Merrill Lynch Insurance Group, and from late-1993 to the end of 1995 was Vice President and Manager of Client Education and Field Development.  For his two year "tour" in upper management with a life insurance carrier, his responsibilities included developing communication programs which enhance client understanding of insurance products and reconciling product performance against product expectations.  Since then, Dick founded and is President of The Ethical Edge, Inc., providing training and consulting services that help empower both agents and their clients to explore and view life insurance in the broader context of financial planning.  During this same period, Dick was a co-developer of Dynamic Insurance Solutions and Historic Variability Module -- computer-based tools that have begun to revolutionize the way advisors and their clients view life insurance products.

Among his various teaching activities, Dick served for 11 years as an Instructor of Insurance at the University of California at Berkeley's Program in Personal Financial Planning and from 1993 through 1998 served as Adjunct Professor of Ethics at the American College in Bryn Mawr, PA.