Editorial
Front Page - Friday, October 1, 2010
Managing director committed to clients, teaching reps
David Laprad
Paul Fitzgerald is the managing director of Northwestern Mutual in Chattanooga. He works with individual clients and recruits and mentors the company’s next generation of financial representatives.
- Photo provided
When Paul Fitzgerald, managing director of Northwestern Mutual in Chattanooga, arrives at work each morning, there are two things on his “to do” list. One is to work with individual clients, which consumes 20 to 30 percent of his day. He spends the balance of his time recruiting and mentoring the company’s next generation of financial representatives. While Fitzgerald enjoys both aspects of his job, one clearly touches his heart more than the other.
There’s no doubting Fitz-gerald can sell Northwestern Mutual’s services to a client, and that his ability to attract business partly stems from his pride in the company.
“We look like a small operation, but we’re actually a pretty large company. If we were publicly held, we’d be at about 120 on the Fortune 500 list,” he says.
Not only that, but of the approximately 250 Northwestern Mutual offices across the country, the Chattanooga branch ranks in the top 40. Fitzgerald says this surprises a lot of people, as the office is home to only 19 representatives.
“For our size, we’re a strong competitor,” he says.
Fitzgerald realizes size is one thing and quality is another, so he cites the annual list in Fortune Magazine of the most admired companies in the world as evidence of the caliber of the services Northwestern Mutual provides. The company repeatedly lands on or near the No. 1 spot in the Life and Health insurance category.
While Fitzgerald thinks highly of Northwestern Mutual and is pleased to be a part of the company, it’s not an expression of his personality. However, his day-to-day interactions with his recruits and the long-term interest he takes in their careers are.
“There was a time when I got a big kick out of helping my clients achieve their financial goals, and that’s still true, but at this point in my career, I get the most satisfaction out of working with our young people and seeing them develop personally and professionally,” he says.
Everyone who operates under the Northwestern Mutual banner is an independent contractor who must develop and maintain his or her own practice. This makes Fitzgerald more of a mentor than an overseer, as he takes people under his wing and guides them down the path of their choice, whether it’s estate planning, wealth accumulation, group benefits or something else.
“They chart their own course based on their talents and desires. I lead and direct them, but they make their own decisions, hire their own staff, do their own budgets and tell us how much business they expect to do. I love seeing them grow,” he says.
Fitzgerald’s career has been marked by steady growth. He initially worked for Kroger, spending almost two decades implementing barcode technology in its stores. While he has only good things to say about the company, he knew he wouldn’t be able to provide for his family in the manner in which he wanted, and that he would miss a lot of his kids’ ballgames as a result of the travel his position required, so he resolved to find something new.
“I made a list of four people I thought could consult with me about a career change. My wife looked at it and said three of them were in the insurance business. I had based the list on my admiration of their lifestyle, my perception of their income, the amount of time they spent with their family and their level of community involvement. One was my Northwestern Mutual agent, one was my dad’s New York Life agent and one was a State Farm agent,” he says.
Fitzgerald spent several months talking with the men about their careers, what they liked and disliked about their jobs, their reasons for pursuing that line of work, what the training was like and how hard it would be to transition into the business at 42.
“I’d never done sales or worked on commission before, but I was ready to control my destiny. I wanted to provide for my family. I wanted to be at the ballpark when my kids were playing. And I wanted to have time to give back to my community. That wasn’t going to happen while I was working for someone else,” he says.
Fitzgerald narrowed down his options and chose Northwestern Mutual for its training program.
“They had a better track record of taking someone like me, getting them off to a quick start and helping them to succeed. I had a great work ethic, thanks to my parents, and believed things would work out if I could take that and apply it to their formula,” he says.
Fitzgerald was right. He
started his career with North-western Mutual at the Nashville office in 1992, then moved to the Scenic City ten years ago, when the company named him the managing director of the Chattanooga District Network Office.
He won Northwestern Mu-tual’s Achievement Award for productivity in 2007, and for the last three years, his office has received the company’s Growth Award for the development of new financial representatives.
The job change also provided Fitzgerald with the family and community time he wanted. In addition to cheering on his children at ballgames, he served six years on the board of Northside Neighborhood House, and continues to serve on the ex-officio board. He also serves on the boards of Little Miss Mag and Children’s Home Chambliss Shelter, and is a longtime Big Brother through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Chattanooga. He’s also on the advisory board of UTC’s College of Business and is an active member of the Downtown Chattanooga Rotary.
Northwestern Mutual has recognized Fitzgerald’s volunteer commitment on two occasions. In 2001, the company gave him its Continued Service Award for his leadership with Safe Haven Family Shelter in Nashville. This year, Fitzgerald will receive the Community Service Award for his work with Northside Neighborhood House.
Fitzgerald holds a bachelor’s of business administration degree from St. Louis University and is on the board of the Chattanooga chapter of the National Assoc-iation of Insurance and Financial Advisors.
He and his wife of 31 years, Ceci, live in Signal Mountain, Tenn. Their daughter, Kelly, is an architect in Chattanooga, and their son, Carter, is a Northwestern Mutual financial representative in Nashville.
Fitzgerald demonstrated pru-
dence, boldness and wisdom when he switched careers in his 40s. Those three qualities served him well as he established
himself in the industry and helped his clients achieve their goals. However, his true legacy will be found in his commitment to passing on those attributes to the people he’s helping to shape.
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