2012 Young Leader Award Winner - Jason Marion

While still a student at Illinois State University, Jason Marion was already preparing for his career through an internship at ab Resources. This experience gave him personal knowledge of the importance of life insurance and financial planning in helping clients achieve financial security. Jason discovered that one valuable product, annuities was misunderstood by both consumers and financial advisors leading people to make wrong choices about their investments. Based on this experience he decided to co-found Annuity Decisions.com. an innovative web based educational platform that provides comprehensive, unbiased information to help advisors and consumers clearly understand annuities.

Jason explains, "We realized that the traditional way in which advisors and consumers were being educated on annuities wasn't working. Having them look through a pretty annuity brochure with a picture of couples walking down the beach wasn't helping clients or our industry. After a lot of research we figured out that people would learn more through brief video lessons or short bullet point explanations. Our goal with Annuity Decisions.com is to rewrite how annuities are understood and help consumers make safe, educated decisions about the companies, advisors, and financial products they choose."

The idea was a success. Viewers from not only in the United States but from 45 countries around the world have used this educational website, making it the third highest on Google for consumers and advisors seeking information about annuities.

Jason is a strong believer in giving back to others and helping younger people understand the value of the industry. He structured a 120-day job training and mentorship program for college interns using the lessons learned from his online educational website. Jason is now developing educational programming to teach and equip life insurance advisors on how to properly identify their clients and serve their clients better. Jason also gives back to his community. He works with at Bridge Teen whose goal is to give give purpose, hope and direction to teens in his community.

Today Jason works as Vice President of ab Resources where he has earned a partnership interest in the firm. Jason is an example of innovation and leadership in risk management and insurance, benefiting his community and the industry, from right here in the Midwest.

To find out more about Jason and the firms he works for please go to: www.annuitydecisions.com and www.abresources.net