Speakers

CEO
Finseca

MARC CADIN, JD

As CEO of Finseca, Marc Cadin is the chief visionary of Finseca, representing the voice of financial security professionals. Finseca is dedicated to creating an environment that enables people to protect and enhance their financial well-being – for themselves, their families, and their businesses resulting in financial security for all.

Marc was the CEO of the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU) before the creation of Finseca. During his tenure, he implemented an ambitious strategic plan that modernized the organization. In 2019, he guided AALU through a merger with the General Agents and Managers Association (GAMA International), a transformative step for the organization. Since then, they have also brought on board Finseca NY (state advocacy deal), Forum 400 (an elite life insurance producer group), and NAILBA (brokerage). By joining forces, Marc and Finseca aim to represent the entire financial security profession and serve millions of people effectively.

Prior to joining AALU, Marc was a teacher and lacrosse coach at Flint Hill School in Oakton, Virginia. In 2007, Marc ran for Virginia’s House of Delegates, knocking on 11,205 doors in the process. He graduated from Villanova University and earned his Juris Doctor from the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law. Cadin and his wife, Jennifer, live in McLean, Virginia, with their four children.

Vice President, Sales Execution Business Growth & Market Expansion Individual Life Insurance
Prudential

Doug Winkler

Doug Winkler is a leader committed to impacting others through empowerment, competition, accountability, and caring. He is relentless in driving sales with our BGA partners, financial institutions, and industry-leading Producer Groups by providing his team with the resources they need to help financial professionals grow their business.

Doug is a strong advocate for the Prudential advantage and leads by example. He knows that working closely with financial professionals throughout the entire sales process is what differentiates us in the industry. Under his leadership, his team offers:
• Industry-leading sales support • Effective resources, and
• Tailored point-of-sale support

Doug is a sought-after presenter. He has built numerous presentation skills training programs, including Ovation, a leading-edge skillset.

Prior to joining Prudential, Doug was a Divisional Vice President for The Hartford managing organization-leading sales teams. Earlier in his career he held leadership roles in National Accounts, Advanced Marketing, Sales Training, and Recruiting.

Doug’s home is in Simsbury, CT with his wife, Anna, and their two sons, Erik and Kevin. He is the Director of the Simsbury Youth Hockey development program and an active board member. He is a passionate fan of Buffalo sports and an avid barbecue aficionado.

CLU, ChFC, Chief Executive Officer
Choice Mutual

Anthony Martin

After personally selling over 10,000 life insurance policies, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the final expense insurance market. There is virtually no question about this type of insurance that he cannot answer. As a recognized life insurance expert, many high-profile publications mention him as an expert contributor, such as Investopedia, Credit.com, Finder.com, Barrons, Fox Business, Reuters, MassMutual, The Hill, Yahoo Finance, US News & World Report, The Street, Insurance.com, GoBankingRates, CNBC, and many more. Anthony is also an official member of the Forbes Finance Council, Entrepreneur.com Leadership Network Contributor, and Newsweek Expert Forum, invitation-only groups of professionals who have a proven track record of success.

His outstanding success as a life insurance agent is so noteworthy that Forbes featured a piece that highlighted his achievements. Even major insurance companies have taken notice of his performance and expertise. Prestigious companies such as Mutual of Omaha, Aetna, and Royal Neighbors of America, to name a few, have retained his counsel for product development. Anthony has personally helped these insurance carriers create and enhance insurance products and their application processes that are distributed to millions of Americans across the nation. Due to his high-profile accolades, various industry conferences have asked him to be a headline speaker.

VP of Government Affairs
Prudential

Carol Danko

Carol has more than 15 years of experience navigating Washington, DC through a public policy, advocacy, and communications lens. Carol currents serves on Prudential’s external affairs team working on federal issues related to financial services, retirement, lifetime income, and data privacy and innovation. Prior to joining Prudential, she served in multiple senior communications roles in the executive branch as a senior executive service political appointee under President Trump.

In this capacity, she held multiple roles, serving as a communications advisor to two cabinet secretaries, as well as held a chief spokesperson role at the Department of Homeland Security and later at the Department of Health and Human Services - at the request of the White House - to coordinate interagency communications and messaging during the pandemic response.

Prior to her federal service, she served as vice president of public affairs at SIFMA, where she worked on communications and advocacy on capital markets issues, as well as the DOL fiduciary rule. She began her career on Capitol Hill where she worked for several members of the House Financial Services Committee, including as a legislative assistant to New York Congressman Peter King during the drafting of the Dodd-Frank Act, and later as communications director and senior policy advisor to another high-profile member of the delegation.

Executive Vice President & Chief Investment Officer
Protective

PHIL PASSAFIUME

Phil Passafiume assumed the role of executive vice president, chief investment officer for Protective Life Corporation on March 1, 2022, having most recently served as the company’s senior vice president, chief investment officer since June 2020. He has also previously held the title of senior vice president, director of fixed income, where he was responsible for general account investments pertaining to corporate bonds, MBS, ABS, CMBS, CLOs, private placements and bank loans.

Passafiume, who has more than 23 years of investment management experience, serves on Protective’s P&A, ALM, investment policy, retirement, enterprise risk management and internal controls committees. Prior to joining Protective Life in 2003, he was a senior analyst/portfolio manager for ING Investment Management in Atlanta, Georgia.

In addition to being a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Passafiume has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a master’s degree in finance from Georgia State University. He is on the investment committee for United Way of Central Alabama, serves as a member of the board of directors of the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama Board of Trustees and is a diocesan finance trustee of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama.

Senior VP, Brokerage Sales
Mutual of Omaha

Jim Duff

Jim Duff is Senior Vice President of Mutual of Omaha, responsible for Life, Annuities, Long Term Care, Critical Illness and Final Expense products. Additionally, Jim is responsible for the Mutual of Omaha Advanced Sales team and the Competitive Analysis team. Jim’s day to day focus is building strong internal sales teams to service Brokerage General Agencies, Marketing Organizations and Financial Institutions.

Prior to joining Mutual of Omaha, Jim was President of Tellus Brokerage Connections (a Crump company) and Senior Vice President and General Manager of Crump Life Insurance Services’ Solution Centers for Annuities, Disability Income and Long Term Care insurance. Jim is also a member of the Crump Executive Team and one of the Sales Executives for the enterprise. His background includes over 35 years of executive experience in sales leadership and execution, marketing, product, and competitive analysis. He also led an international High Net Worth sales team as well as an industry resource for APS summarization and underwriting decision tree simplification.

Upon joining Crump and Tellus in 2010, Jim began to recast the vision of Tellus. He focused on the needs of brokerage general agencies, providing them with access to carriers and a vast array of other resources to help them grow. In just over a decade, Tellus has become a national network of more than 70 independent brokerage agencies and is the fastest growing Independent Marketing Organization (IMO) in the insurance industry.

On the Crump side, Jim provides executive leadership for an internal sales and servicing organization that provides annuity, disability, and long term care insurance solutions to more than 25,000 Crump insurance producers annually. He has provided leadership and vision for the company’s life and competitive analysis departments as well as the marketing department, and he has served as the executive leader of RiskRighter, an innovative underwriting and service solution platform that drives efficiencies in the new business process. Additionally, he has led Crump’s Independent Life Distribution sales teams that support independent insurance agents and advisors to help them drive overall sales.

Prior to joining Crump, Jim was a member of the executive team at Transamerica Life Insurance Company. As an executive, he was responsible for distribution and sales through a network of brokerage agencies and affiliated producers. He was also responsible for pre-sales support, recruiting, training and development, quota, compensation, and sales distribution planning. He also led a foreign national High Net Worth taskforce in Latin America and built the insurance industry’s first ever life insurance online bidding process through a partnership with a leading Wall Street firm.

In the early years of his career, after gaining his start with Mutual of New York as a Life Insurance agent, Jim joined his family-owned brokerage general agency, which he ultimately acquired and merged with a regional broker dealer.

Jim is a graduate of the University of Richmond in Richmond, VA, and currently resides in Charlotte, NC, with Kortni, his wife of 35 years. They have two adult children and four grandchildren. Their son Adam (wife Rachel, Jay and Caroline) works in the Insurtech industry in Nashville, TN. Their daughter Kristin (husband Cameron, Jane and Charlie) is an interior designer in Madison, MS.

Chief Distribution Officer
SBLI

WADE SEWARD

In his role as Chief Distribution Officer, Wade oversees SBLI’s Independent Distribution and Partnership Sales efforts and is responsible for expanding into new broker, partner, and producer opportunities.

An industry veteran with over three decades of experience, Wade has led forward-looking initiatives and high-performing teams in his executive roles within Distribution, Marketing, and Law and Compliance. Previously, Wade served as head of distribution strategy atHaven Life, the digital life insurance agency backed and wholly owned by MassMutual. Additionally, Seward has held executive positions at MassMutual, Prudential, and TheHartford where he has been instrumental in shaping distribution strategies, fostering new and innovative partnerships, and driving digital adoption in insurance sales.

With a deep understanding of the insurance industry’s broader technology landscape and extensive experience and relationships, Wade is a champion for helping more people gain access to protecting their financial futures with life insurance through the advisor/agent community.

Wade received his Bachelor of Science degree from Bryant College and earned his Juris Doctor at the University of Connecticut School of Law.

CEOFinseca