Tyler Hirth

Coaching Them Up

By Nick Fortuna

some people feeling “unsettled” — her views on tomorrow run toward the positive. “I believe we’re strong and this industry as a whole is strong. Knowledgeable help continues to be needed by everyone and I don’t think anyone should be afraid of what we do.”

The growth toward new directions in her personal life also puts a smile on Clark’s face. Her children are now 10 and 7 years old and, just like their mother, they’re learning to move forward without their father. “I look at my children now as these amazing people and we have been through hell and back together,” she says.

Clark values each day with her family, making sure she doesn’t miss a soccer game or school meeting. Dancing, something Clark enjoyed as a little girl, has made a welcome return to her life as her own kids discover the beauty and challenge of the art. There’s also a new relationship blooming. “I have a fiancé now and we’re getting married in September. He has a daughter as well.” Bonding with her growing family is what keeps Clark grounded these days. “Even if it’s just having a quiet night at home, I’m so blessed.”

This successful partner pays it forward through mentorship.

With a father and a grandfather in the insurance business, Tyler Hirth didn’t have to search for an answer when his second-grade teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. No doubt about it, he would become an insurance agent.

But fast forward almost 20 years, and Hirth wasn’t so sure about his career choice. The challenges that faced new insurance agents and financial advisors were weighing on him, and a job selling fertilizer, with an attractive salary and a company car, started to sound quite promising.

While in his third year in the industry, Hirth was just days away from accepting that sales job when Corey Anderson, the Young Advisors Team leader of NAIFA’s Minnesota state chapter, asked him to meet for coffee early one morning. And after a heartfelt talk, Anderson offered some blunt advice. “He looked me in the eye and said, ‘If you take that job, you’ll have sold your soul to the devil,’” Hirth recalled with a laugh.

Hirth and Anderson decided to hold each other accountable over the next six months, with Hirth pledging to make 250 cold calls a week and Anderson scheduling 16 appointments a week. They would meet every other week for coffee early in the morning, and they would speak on the phone every few days. By the end of the year, it was apparent that they truly had motivated each other, as both made the Million Dollar Round Table. Hirth’s commitment to the industry was reborn.

Hirth is now a partner with Minnetonka, Minnesota-based Running Wealth Management Group, where he advises clients on all aspects of financial planning, including wills, trusts, powers of attorney, college and retirement saving, estate planning and tax planning. The company also specializes in succession planning for financial advisors who are near retirement.

The value of relationships

With his place in the industry now secure, Hirth credits NAIFA with helping him stick it out through the lean years.

“Really, that accountability from one of my peers was the main ticket to where I’m at today,” Hirth said.

“If it wasn’t for NAIFA and the relationships you develop, there is no way I’d still be in this industry. I would have taken that job, and I probably would still be selling fertilizer today.”

Hirth, 32, began his career with a one-year stint as an underwriter at the independent insurance company Auto-Owners Insurance. His uncles, Chad and Rory Lea, then helped him launch his financial-planning career at MetLife Premier Client Group of the Upper Midwest in Minnesota. Hirth spent nine years there before joining Running Wealth Management Group, founded by Nathan Running, in May 2015.

Hirth’s uncles brought him to a NAIFA meeting on his first day at their company, and he’s been an active member ever since. He became the YAT chair for NAIFA’s Minneapolis chapter and later served as its secretary, treasurer and vice president before accepting his current position as president of the Minnesota chapter. Hirth also serves as the Minnesota chapter’s YAT chair, helping to grow YAT chapters throughout the state’s 17 local chapters, and he is a member of NAIFA’s national YAT committee. He takes young advisors under his wing, giving them the same earlymorning coffee invite that helped set the stage for his success.

“They are in the same shoes that I was, and I want to see them succeed because someone else did that for me,” Hirth said.

Over the years, Hirth has attended six national NAIFA conferences and participated in five NAIFA fly-ins, where members meet with legislators to advocate for the industry and their clients. He also participates in NAIFA’s lobbying days at the Minnesota state capitol.

“NAIFA is the voice for the financial advisor and for the clients that we represent,” Hirth said. “My career and NAIFA have basically been my life over the past 10 years. I have friends all over the state because of NAIFA. One of the biggest things I’ve gained from NAIFA is the camaraderie and the mentorship that comes with being a member.

“When I would go to the national conference, I would always make it a point to meet the Four Under 40 winners, and I wondered what it would take to become one of them. I always looked up to them and was looking to emulate their best practices and learn from them.”

Hirth, a native of New Ulm, Minnesota, graduated from Bemidji

“I love building those relationships with people. My career is based on all the clients I’m helping and the relationships that I have with them.”

State University, a small school in northern Minnesota, in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in small business entrepreneurship and a minor in political science. He played golf in college and remains active in the sport, regularly shooting in the 70s. He also organized and played for the school’s club ice hockey team and continues to put his 6-foot-2, 230-pound frame to good use as a defenseman in a competitive adult hockey league.

Lake Minnetonka is his playground. He enjoys barefoot water skiing, wakeboarding, surfing and taking clients out on his boat. He also likes to take clients pheasant hunting.

“I love building those relationships with people,” Hirth said. “My career is based on all the clients I’m helping and the relationships that I have with them. I get to know their families and get to watch them grow with me, which has been a lot of fun. That is the best part of this career, and I love it.”