Early Financial Services Career
Initial Training at CIGNA
Brad began his financial services career in 1993 with Cigna Financial Advisors. At the time, Cigna was known to offer one of the financial services industry’s most prestigious and comprehensive financial training in the world. If accepted, the new hires were expected to commit to and complete Cigna’s three-year comprehensive training program consisting of two hours daily, Monday through Friday, and five hours each Saturday. If you’re doing the math that’s approximately 2,100 hours of classroom training.
The 2,100 hours of cross-disciplinary education and training would cover taxation, estate & business succession (legal), risk management & insurance and of course, investment management & retirement income planning. In comparison, the CFP® Board recommends spending at least 250 hours of self-study to prepare for their test.
Estate & Business Succession Planning for VIP Clients
At Cigna, Brad quickly distinguished himself within the organization as a young and energetic rising star and was awarded with the prestigious assignment of covering all established national brokerage relationships in the Pasadena area. In addition to his private practice, Brad soon began offering estate and business succession planning services through numerous investment brokers at PaineWebber, AG Edwards, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Prudential for their Southern California VIP clients. He also successfully forged new and exclusive planning relationships with Crowell Weeden and Citizens Business Bank’s Trust Department for their VIP clients as well.
Cigna was purchased in 1997 by Lincoln National Life Insurance and soon thereafter renamed Sagemark Consulting. Brad continued his climb and in 1998, with the upcoming probable passage of California’s Senate Bill 1289 (and other similar laws in all 49 other states) allowing California CPAs to obtain insurance and investment licensing (beginning January 1st, 1999); Brad was asked to spearhead and develop Sagemark Consulting’s Southern California efforts to forge new planning relationships with CPAs for their VIP clients.
With his growing investment brokerage, bank and CPA relationships, Brad became one of the most recognized estate and business succession planners in Southern California.
Going Independent
In a departure from the long standing Cigna corporate culture and values, the new management at Sagemark Consulting began incentivizing the former Cigna advisors to sell more proprietary Lincoln products. This prompted Brad to make the difficult decision to “go independent” and start his own firm.
Brad Creger founded BFF Financial, Inc. in June of 2000 to gain his independence so he could focus on his clients' total needs and only deliver the financial products which he felt made the most sense for his clients.