Published by Jill Beaty on May 1st, 2026

Some stories don't make sense until you're standing at the end of them, looking back! 



Picture this: It's 1994. A 23-year-old walks into her first real sales role, selling group life, disability, and long-term care insurance. She becomes one of the top Group LTC sellers at the company that year — not because of technique, but because she's seen what happens when a family isn't prepared.  

That 23-year-old was me. And that was just the beginning of my story with LTC. 

Before I started my career, I had already experienced one grandparent spending their final years needing long-term care. I watched the exhaustion. I felt it. 

Now consider this: back when 3 of my 4 grandparents needed care, a room in a North Carolina nursing home cost roughly $3500 a month. Today, that same room costs families about $10,000 a month.1 Even back then, the costs seemed unbelievable. Especially when your family was dealing with it! 

And the financial burden is only part of it. What many people don't realize until they’re in it is how many hours get consumed just finding help — researching facilities, vetting caregivers, coordinating across a fragmented system. Hours that could have been spent simply being with the people you love.  

While my experience isn’t unique, it shaped me in ways I couldn't fully articulate. But it planted something. 

At the start of my career, a mentor put words to it. He told me something I've never forgotten: "People don't care how much you know. They care about how much you care." 

So, that became my compass. Every client conversation, every recommendation — the goal was always the same: when I sat across from someone and explained why this matters, it wasn’t just a pitch. It was a warning from someone who cares about their well-being. I understood exactly what was at stake for policyholders — because I had lived it myself more than once. 

The Road to Trustmark 

Fast forward a few years into my career, I still knew the importance of offering LTC, but the benefits industry began to move away from group LTC benefits, and I eventually stopped selling them altogether.  

It wasn’t until my former mentee, Shaun Urista (at the time, serving as a Regional Sales Manager in Texas), introduced me to Trustmark and its life insurance with LTC benefits. I was so excited to see LTC benefits getting the attention it deserved, and I happily reconnected with Shaun and accepted his invitation to Trustmark's annual Producer Conference.  

What I heard during the conference wasn't a company talking about products. It was a company talking about people — specifically, about how they treat policyholders. The culture. The commitment. The enthusiasm wasn't manufactured; it came from how genuinely they served others, aligning almost perfectly with the words that resonated with me from my mentor all those years ago. 

And then, at that same conference, I ran into someone I hadn't seen in years: David Fisher, who was also working at Trustmark as a Regional Sales Manager in the Carolinas. Unknowingly, I had actually taught David in a professional selling class at UNCC early in both of our careers — one of those interactions you have and then life moves on. Yet here we were, years later, crossing paths again at the same company, drawn by the same mission and passion for LTC. 

Between Shaun, David, the conference, my grandparents, The 23-year-old selling LTC because she knew; none of it felt coincidental.  

What "Unintentionally Different" Actually Means 

As the conference wrapped, Shaun, David, and others at Trustmark all used the same expression: “We are intentionally different.” It wasn’t just a marketing slogan then; it was an honest observation. I always said if I went back to a carrier, they needed to have this vision, and solutions to back it up — so when Shaun called about an opportunity to join his team, I didn’t hesitate.  

As a broker, I gravitated toward Trustmark because of the way their policy worked at claim time and how they treated policyholders. It's just who they are, and more importantly, who I am. 

My passion is people. That's my love language, professionally and personally. Whether I'm on the tennis court teaching special needs players or sitting across from a financial professional helping them understand why LTC planning belongs in every conversation, the motivation is the same. YOU deserve to be educated. YOUR CLIENTS deserve to be protected. And when the moment comes — because for most families, it does come — the plan you built together should work. 

If you're reading this, you're probably in this industry because you care too. You've seen what happens to families who weren't prepared, and you don't want that for your clients. That shared purpose is exactly the kind of foundation worth building on. 

Let's talk about how we can build it together. 

1Calculate the cost of long-term care near you. CareScout. 2025.