Louis Berlin is the author of several books and numerous articles on insurance and financial fitness, including the highly acclaimed “How to Not F$$k Up Your Financial Future, and the Rest of Your Life,” and “Financial Fitne$$For Everyone,” both available on Amazon.

Louis focuses on saving clients substantial amounts of money on new purchases of financial products, and in reducing costs on currently owned products, either through re-design or replacement, including:

• Life insurance, including life insurance designed to produce tax-free income for long term care and/or retirement
• Disability insurance

• Property Insurance
• Annuities

His ultimate goal is to make clients at all income levels, and at all stages of their career, more successful by benefiting from his extensive experience, and more financially fit by building wealth and protecting assets efficiently.

In Louis’ own word, from his most recent book:

“I was born in 1953, the first child of Lila and George Berlin, and lived in a tiny apartment in Manhattan for six months, until my father bought a $15,000 2 bedroom, 1 bath starter home in the suburbs. Mom worked as a nurse until I was born, and then retired to take care of what would quickly become a family of four. Dad, a Navy vet and a college trained civil engineer, began a 15 year career in a concrete supply company, thinking he would be there forever. Growing up, I often spent weekends with Dad, hosing the chutes of concrete trucks before the tailings could harden. After the concrete company went bankrupt, and the owners forged papers saying that Dad had an ownership position so as to try to saddle him with their liabilities, I figured out that financial security lay not with working for others, but in building something of my own.

Mom’s youth had been colored by the Depression. Her father was often out of work, and her mother struggled to provide for the four girls. As a teenager, she sold sandwiches by the roadside, near a farm that relatives lived on, for a while, and then, back in Manhattan, went door to door selling subscriptions. The fear of not having food or money became ingrained into her subconscious, and I clearly remember bringing a sack lunch to school, every day, with 3 pennies to buy a half-pint of milk. Rarely was there an extra nickel for a candy bar, although an extra nickel a day, $13 a year, would not have taxed the family budget (even if all four children got that nickel), it rarely happened. A cafeteria hot lunch for thirty-five cents was achieved but once or twice a year. Suffice to say, with the school lunch program being my Holy Grail of gourmet food, the first time I went to an all you can eat buffet, I thought I had died and gone to Heaven. God only knows what damage I have inflicted on my children by making them eat what was in the refrigerator irrespective of its age or state of decay, but the lesson I learned from vicariously living my Mom’s youth was that if I did not provide for myself, I might, indeed go hungry in the future.

I began my working career in 3rd grade, publishing a short-lived, one page community newspaper, which Mrs. Shepard, my teacher, was gracious enough to make mimeo copies of at school. I attempted to peddle them door to door for 3 cents a copy, but the smell of the toner brought back too many memories to people of surprise quizzes and worksheets, and the lack of a base of advertisers, doomed this enterprise, which failed financially, even though my cost of goods was zero, but, in my parent’s eyes, was a flourishing success.

Since then, I’ve been involved in over 30 businesses, sometimes as an employee, but more often as owner and entrepreneur, generally with a partner, with the success or failure of my efforts dependent mainly on my wits, determination, incredibly long work day, fear of failure, and luck. These forty-plus years have brought me a wealth of experience and insight into human behavior, and clear understanding of what it takes to succeed. It has also taught me just how ill-prepared we all are for a life of financial peace of mind. Too much is invested in hopes and dreams, and wishing things to turn out a certain way, at the expense of realistic planning. A number of years ago, I turned to the world of insurance and finance, in part because, amidst the joys of life, several unpleasant surprises and tragic events occurred:

• My mother-in-law spent 27 years flat on her back in a nursing home, supported by Medicaid. Several State employees began their careers in the Department of Family Services with Jane’s case already open, and they retired before it was closed. She may well have been the longest case on record.
• My sister-in-law, age 61, was hit by a car, thrown 25 feet, broke everything, was in a coma for 3 months, and was still in rehab over 18 months later. She had no disability or long-term care insurance.
• My Dad passed away. He was woefully under-insured, and some of the insurance he had was totally inappropriate.
• My Mom’s long-term care insurance lapsed, leaving her with annual costs in excess of $100,000.
• Some investments I had were tied to the stock market, which tanked just when I needed the money.
• It turned out that some wildly popular insurance products that I owned were invested in the stock market as well.
• I discovered that I had become middle-aged, which was quite a surprise, because I had been thinking that I was still young.

Reviewing insurance was never on my list of top 10 things to do. I did not like shopping for insurance. And I thought growing old was something that would happen in the future. But after I reviewed my policies a while ago, I concluded that I was missing important coverage, that I was paying for policies that were no longer right for me, and not getting the most out of the good policies that I owned. So I took matters into my own hand; I went to school and got a license to sell insurance. Then, I fixed my policies that were worth saving, cancelled others, and added some new ones that I needed. It occurred to me that I might not be alone, so I started talking to people. It turns out that I was right–I have yet to find anyone who likes shopping for insurance, and I’ve collected a set of insurance horror stories. I turned what I learned into a career—and you can save time and money and benefit from my learning, just by talking to me.

I approach insurance the way I approach everything else—studying, gaining knowledge, seeking out mentors with experience and the proper connections. And I listen to people’s needs. That’s what I was taught at Princeton University, and at the Wharton School of Finance, while studying for my MBA . (It’s also what I taught my undergraduates students there, while I was getting my MBA.) It’s the methodology I’ve used to build several successful businesses. It’s the bedrock of my ability to help people achieve financial peace of mind.”