What is Insurance Fiduciary  ?

Ethical Edge provides independent and unbiased expertise and advice surrounding life insurance decisions – whether evaluating existing policies or acquiring new insurance. The process begins with a thorough review of facts and circumstances inspiring the engagement. When new insurance is being considered, we provide the client – independent from the insurance broker – with expert participation in the process from policy portfolio design, to confidential pre-underwriting, to the issuance of policies that are in the client’s best interest. We do not sell insurance and we do not accept commissions. The clients engaging our services have an objective and un-conflicted resource working on their behalf.

The Ethical Edge was formed with a completely transparent, fee-based business model – different than that of the traditional professional life insurance agent.  Especially in situations where $10 million to $100 million of life insurance is “in force” and/or being purchased, we start with an appreciation for the reality that the policy illustrations at the heart of the buying decisions are incapable of providing the broker and the buyer sufficient information to make a truly informed decision. Because conventional policy illustrations cannot reasonably portray the way in which today’s policies will actually “perform” over the many years of an insured’s expected lifetime, Ethical Edge has developed proprietary software to assist clients in making informed and knowledgeable insurance decisions for acquisition and ongoing management. This approach to evaluating life insurance is unique in the industry.

The People Behind Ethical Edge

The Ethical Edge collaborates with experts in a number of fields, and we’re pleased to introduce them to you. Click on a name or the picture next to the name. Principals in Ethical Edge and Ethical Edge Solutions, Dick and Chris are the lead architects of software that cracks open the black box of universal and variable universal life policies.

Featuring advisors who use our services and whom we highly recommend.

Attorneys representing clients – from discovery to mediation and/or trial.

Who are the Principals of The Ethical Edge?

The founder of Ethical Edge is Northern California-based Richard M. Weber – MBA, AEP, CLU – a 49-year veteran of the insurance industry. Dick began his career as an insurance agent after obtaining an MBA in Finance and Insurance from the Haas Business School (U.C. Berkeley). He later became a senior officer of a large insurance company, then co-invented the aforementioned computerized processes. Then, Dick and Chris Hause (see below) originated the paradigm-shifting concept of Life Insurance as an Asset Class – which, as a research paper published in 2008, won the Academy of Financial Services “Best Paper” award for revolutionary insights into the appropriate application and use of life insurance for wealthy individuals and businesses.

Dick enjoys a prominent reputation among his peers, having recently served as national President of the Society of Financial Services – a 12,000-member group of attorneys, accountants, financial planners, and insurance specialists whose focus is expertise, service and integrity in all our client relationships. He has also been honored by election to the Estate Planning Hall of Fame – bestowed by the National Association of Estate Planning Councils.

Dick is a popular national speaker on a wide range of topics involving insurance and estate planning, and is Adjunct Professor of Risk Management and Insurance at Cal Lutheran University in Southern California.

From 1997 – 1999 and again in 2004-05, Dick served as a Qualified Independent Assessor for the Insurance Marketplace Standards Association (IMSA), a voluntary standards setting organization promoting ethical market conduct and compliance for its qualified life insurance companies. With industry attention currently focused on the possibility of fiduciary standards for the financial services industry, Dick recently formed – and is currently Chair – of the
Society of FSP’s Standards of Care Committee.

Christopher Hause – FSA, MAAA, CLU – is both co-founder of Ethical Edge and is the principal of Hause Actuarial Solutions, Inc. in Overland Park, KS. As with many actuaries coming out of college, Chris began his career working in insurance company home offices acquiring top-to-bottom knowledge of all functions of the insurance business. Having served in such positions as Senior VP and Actuary – and Investment Committee membership – Chris brings practical experience and expertise to the projects undertaken by Ethical Edge. Hause Actuarial Services and Ethical Edge have worked in close association since 1997.