2015 Trusted Advisers Insurance Agent: John Brinkmann

For John Brinkmann, the No. 1 characteristic of an insurance adviser is trust, and two decades in the business is a long time to build it.

Forming Brinkmann Insurance and Financial LLC in 1993 – one year after graduating from Missouri State University – a focus on physicians and small-business owners helped grow the company to over 1,000 clients last year.

Health, automotive and home insurance sell themselves, Brinkmann says, but discussing personal life insurance and disability planning with clients requires a great degree of trust and empathy. Combine those qualities with knowledge and experience, and advisers can fulfill the responsibility of living up to their title.

“When clients trust us, they act on our recommendations,” Brinkmann says. “I routinely hear my clients joke, ‘I likely would never have purchased disability insurance had John Brinkmann not terrified me!’”

But Brinkmann seeks to normalize rather than sensationalize possibilities. Although planning for injury, illness and death are not a high priority for most clients and issuing such claims are never a pleasant experience, challenges arise in everyday life.

“When focusing on any business, one must have resources one can depend on so business owners can focus on what they do well,” says Eye Surgeons of Springfield Inc. President C. Byron Faulkner, whose company has worked with Brinkmann for nearly 20 years. “John affords our clinic with this luxury.”

Staying on top of day-to-day business means Brinkmann also spends time keeping up with his industry and its newcomers. He is a regular speaker to both agent groups and MSU graduates on planning and asset protection, serves on the MSU College of Business advisory board and, along with wife Missy, established the school’s John J. Brinkmann Marketing Scholarship. Brinkmann also participates in Principal Financial Groups’ Business, Owner & Executive Solutions program along with attorneys and certified public accounts to perform business evaluations, and he’s a member of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.

Outside of the office, Brinkmann stays active in the community. Since 2000, the former president of the MSU booster club board, has served as chairman and organizer for the club’s basketball program fundraiser through an annual golf tournament at Highland Springs Golf Club. To date, the event has raised over $1 million. He also has participated in fundraising efforts for Boys and Girls Town of Missouri, Springfield Catholic Schools and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. In 2008, Brinkmann was nominated for the Northwestern Mutual Community Service Award.

On his career path, Brinkmann says he finds opportunities for growth and satisfaction in being able to reassure clients and provide them with stability when they are at their most vulnerable.

“What remains the most cherished byproduct of my career is the fact that these people allow me to plan for and take part in their most intimate challenges,” Brinkmann says. “Few experiences are as rewarding as watching a business or practice grow from infancy to success.”