The Ridgeback Group

It's my birthday today. If you can, would you please consider giving $37 to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation? 🔗⬇️ Many of you know my mom's story. She and my dad built this little family-owned insurance agency that specializes in disability income. Well back in 2017, the unexpected started to take shape. She had a huge mass growing between her lungs and her spine (fortunately benign). It was eating away at her vertebrae and just a matter of time before it would eat through her spinal cord. It was also causing her to cough a lot. So they took it out and she had reconstructive surgery on her spine. We thought she would be out for a few weeks. But the coughing got worse. And fresh out of reconstructive surgery on her spine, that was extremely painful. They ran more tests to figure out what was wrong. Long story long, her lungs were dying due to something called "interstitial lung disease" which is a form of pulmonary fibrosis. There were many attempts to shrink, fight, and strangle this knotty fibroidal mass. Unfortunately, it was pretty clear the best doctors in the world (at UCSF) were out of answers and we were cruising toward a "managed care" scenario. By spring of 2020 she was down to about 30% lung capacity and just in time for a global respiratory pandemic. Yayyyyy... She was number 12 on the transplant list when that all started going down. Then she got the call. Just one lung, but a match. The people in front of her were either not a fit or elected not to undergo transplant surgery and rehabilitation while the world was working through a pandemic. But she had no choice. And as scary as that decision was, she was contacted to come in for surgery and then left me a voicemail--which I still have saved--saying "I got the call...[click]." It was tense and terse and chalk full of courage and fear and the entire spectrum in between. The surgery was successful. With a toddler and a baby (aka crawling, babbling germ factories) at the time I wasn't much help but my dad and my sister and a few neighbors were incredible caregivers for 2 months post-op. My main role was to keep the business afloat. And thankfully, with her disability insurance paying, we didn't have to find a creative and clandestine way to make her whole. We were able to keep that cash in the business. There's more from there, but you get the idea. We were a family business, probably like many of your clients, who needed a life-line and we fortunately had the proper planning in place. So for my birthday this year, I want to help move the needle, however slightly, toward supporting PFF in their mission to uncover more about interstitial lung disease and provide more resources to those who are met with the same questions and difficulties my mom faced. Thank you for reading if you made it this far. You're a real one and I appreciate you. 🙏🏻

It's my birthday today. If you can, would you please consider giving $37 to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation? 🔗⬇️ Many of you know my mom's story. She and my dad built this little family-owned insurance agency that specializes in disability income. Well back in 2017, the unexpected started to take shape. She had a huge mass growing between her lungs and her spine (fortunately benign). It was eating away at her vertebrae and just a matter of time before it would eat through her spinal cord. It was also causing her to cough a lot. So they took it out and she had reconstructive surgery on her spine. We thought she would be out for a few weeks. But the coughing got worse. And fresh out of reconstructive surgery on her spine, that was extremely painful. They ran more tests to figure out what was wrong. Long story long, her lungs were dying due to something called "interstitial lung disease" which is a form of pulmonary fibrosis. There were many attempts to shrink, fight, and strangle this knotty fibroidal mass. Unfortunately, it was pretty clear the best doctors in the world (at UCSF) were out of answers and we were cruising toward a "managed care" scenario. By spring of 2020 she was down to about 30% lung capacity and just in time for a global respiratory pandemic. Yayyyyy... She was number 12 on the transplant list when that all started going down. Then she got the call. Just one lung, but a match. The people in front of her were either not a fit or elected not to undergo transplant surgery and rehabilitation while the world was working through a pandemic. But she had no choice. And as scary as that decision was, she was contacted to come in for surgery and then left me a voicemail--which I still have saved--saying "I got the call...[click]." It was tense and terse and chalk full of courage and fear and the entire spectrum in between. The surgery was successful. With a toddler and a baby (aka crawling, babbling germ factories) at the time I wasn't much help but my dad and my sister and a few neighbors were incredible caregivers for 2 months post-op. My main role was to keep the business afloat. And thankfully, with her disability insurance paying, we didn't have to find a creative and clandestine way to make her whole. We were able to keep that cash in the business. There's more from there, but you get the idea. We were a family business, probably like many of your clients, who needed a life-line and we fortunately had the proper planning in place. So for my birthday this year, I want to help move the needle, however slightly, toward supporting PFF in their mission to uncover more about interstitial lung disease and provide more resources to those who are met with the same questions and difficulties my mom faced. Thank you for reading if you made it this far. You're a real one and I appreciate you. 🙏🏻

In the September Life Insurance Strategies Group #TierOne Newsletter, I catch up with Eric Eklund, Esq., CEPA, Chief Operating Officer & Founding Partner for The Ridgeback Group. We geek-out on life insurance technology and potential grantor trust changes but still find time to hear about Eric's legendary cello skills. Join the party here: https://lnkd.in/eGf97nmC #Cello #lifeinsurance

FBO Strategies LLC was thrilled to spend several hours with our friends and partners from The Ridgeback Group. Having a team of people supporting us every day is amazing. Yes, they help us with all of the day-to-day things that go on with our life insurance business, but what they are helping us do is build a scaleable firm. Thank you for being our partners. A few names not pictured who support us are Dan Murphy, MBA, CLU, Eric Eklund, Esq., CEPA, Adam Weinberg, Hannah Farnham, Nathan Hedrick, Erica Mains, but not Matt Murphy, MBA. We were just kidding Matt. If you are interested ask our CEO Keith Friedman about what we are building, and how we are partnering with The Ridgeback Group to get us there.

FBO Strategies LLC was proud to support Stamford JCC Fore the Kids 29th Golf & Tennis Outing this past Monday. We made a bigger impact by partnering with our partner The Ridgeback Group. Thank you to Craig L. Price, Marshall Kurland, and all of the JCC staff and volunteers who made it happen. Thank you to Tamarack Country Club for providing excellent weather, food, and of course a beautiful course. After many years of sponsorship, the FBO foursome won the event. We are thankful that our CEO Keith Friedman decided to not play and give up his spot to someone who can hit a golf ball. It was great watching Ryan Sheflott, Todd Wood, Matthew Merdinger, and Timothy Oberweger bring home the win. Ridgeback relationships were grown when Brian Murphy II joined the 4 1/2some. It was great to spend the day with Dan Murphy, MBA, CLU, Dan Hernandez, and Jordan Carreira building partnerships while supporting a great cause.