The two most important things to know about the leadership at Annexus Financial is that they are committed to seeing registered reps and investment advisors become more successful. Second, they all have substantial successful experience in this business. They approach the business from the rep’s perspective.
Ron Shurts
Ron Shurts is a founding partner of Annexus Financial. Using his more than 20 years of sales, marketing, and distribution experience, Ron is the chief architect of the Annexus Group and plays a key role in the development of Annexus Financial proprietary products.
Ron has spent the last two decades building Shurwest Financial Group, located in Scottsdale, Arizona. With life and annuity sales exceeding $2.5 billion dollars between 1998 and 2004, Shurwest Financial Group has become one of the most successful insurance and annuity IMO’s in the country. Shurwest is recognized nationally for its innovative, advanced estate planning concepts.
Shurwest’s success is directly attributable to the direct sales experience and hands-on management style Ron has sharpened over the last 20 years. In the course of building Shurwest, he trained thousand of insurance professionals and created numerous marketing concepts for advanced life insurance and estate planning products. He brings that expertise to Annexus Financial.
That success has made Ron a much sought after speaker and consulting resource in the insurance industry. He has conducted seminars for national law firms and Big 5 accounting firms, the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys, and the National Wholesaler’s Conference. In addition he has served on several Advisory Boards that generated 2 Billion in sales and represents 30,000 insurance professionals.
Still driven for even greater successes, Ron recently completed an intensive three-year post doctoral training program that concentrated on the most sophisticated and complex areas of wealth and estate planning. Ron is now a Fellow of the Esperti Peterson Institute at Michigan State University. In addition, Ron is a member of Who’s Who in Insurance in America as well as the National Association of Entrepreneurs.
Don Dady
Don Dady is a founding partner of Annexus Financial. With over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, his sales, marketing, and significant products development experience is a perfect complement to Ron’s distribution expertise.
Prior to joining Shurwest Product Connection, Don led the marketing and Product Development Departments for one of the nation's premiere marketing organizations. While there, Don played a lead role in taking them from a start-up operation to the $2 billion a year marketing organization. During his tenure, he generated over $14 billion in sales and over $1 billion in commissions paid.
Don’s responsibilities ranged from expanding distribution to managing carrier relationships. Working closely with both distribution and manufacturing groups he gained a unique and valuable perspective into the need to be marketable and the obligation to be profitable. He excelled at striking the right balance between the two.
Using his passion and experience, Don led them in becoming the largest distributor of fixed annuities in the United States. He pioneered the first fixed annuity with a variable payout and developed the Total Return crediting rate structure within a fixed annuity- the reverberations of which can still be felt today. In addition, he secured the patent for the development of the much copied Enhanced Death Benefit Rider in 1998.
Don has a depth of understanding that only comes from years of building and pricing some of the most innovative and successful products in the industry. While these accomplishments would represent a career’s worth of achievements for most, Don has his eye on the next breakthrough—Annexus Financial.
Mark R. Tully
Mark Tully is a Principal of Annexus Financial, LLC. Prior to starting this Independent Wholesaling Organization with partners Ron Shurts and Don Dady, Mark was Senior Vice President of Annuity Distribution and Sales at The Phoenix Companies, Inc. in Hartford. At Phoenix, he was responsible for all aspects of their annuity distribution, across all sales channels.
Before joining Phoenix in August of 1999, Mark was Senior Vice President/Chief Sales Officer at Keyport Life Insurance Company in Boston, where he was responsible for the sales and distribution of Keyport’s annuity products in all channels, including the institutional markets. In mid 1995, he spearheaded the successful introduction of KeyIndex, the first retail Equity Indexed Annuity in the U.S. This product quickly became a $1 billion + annual product line for the company.
From early 1989 through mid 1995, Mark was integrally involved in the development and growth of the Annuity/Insurance division at PaineWebber,Inc. (now UBS). He started his tenure at the firm as Divisional Vice President, where he managed the annuity and insurance business in the firm’s Northeast Division, which encompassed more than 50 branch offices. At the beginning of 1994, Mark was promoted to Corporate Vice President, National Sales Manager – Life Insurance & Estate Planning.
Mark has been an avid student of the financial services business during his 28 year career. He has witnessed many changes in the industry from a variety of perspectives…from wholesaler…to sales manager…to senior corporate executive. He enjoys speaking at industry meetings and has been active in various industry committees, including the ACLI Annuities Committee, The National Association of Variable Annuities Public Relations Committee, and the Editorial Board of Annuity Market News.