Tier One Interview: Catherine Runge

This month, Jay sits down with Catherine Runge, Director of Insurance Strategy at Sunflower Bank, where she leads the insurance group within the bank's Private Wealth division. She and Jay talk about serving first-generation entrepreneurs who rarely see the risks they carry, why insurance works better inside a coordinated wealth, trust, and banking platform than as a standalone sale, and how senior producers actually develop the next generation, told through her own path from the back office to leading client conversations. Plus, the infamous restaurant question, with a Denver food hall built inside a former aviation plant. Read on to learn more!

JAY:  Our readers should know that it is not only Pete and I deciding who is ‘top tier’ in the high-net-worth life insurance segment. We often solicit the opinion of others, including folks at producer groups and carriers and even producer peers. Increasingly, the feedback was that we must include you, Catherine, in the ranks of the Tier One Interviewees and I was so happy you accepted the invitation. Let’s get going by hearing more about Sunflower Bank and your role there.

CATHERINE: I am honored to join your esteemed group and thank you for the opportunity to participate.  I lead the Insurance Group within Sunflower Bank, a startup area within the Wealth Planning Division.  We are a Lion Street producer group owner firm.  Over the past 25+ years, I have built a career educating clients about the benefits of planning as well as advocating on their behalf. My passion is connecting with the client to help break down the complexity barriers sophisticated planning often entails.  If every person in the room isn’t confident they understand the planning being put in place, I still have work to do. 

Sunflower Bank is a principal retail and commercial banking institution operating as the primary subsidiary of FirstSun Capital Bancorp. The bank drastically altered its scale by completing a transformational merger with First Foundation Bank this past April.  The combined entity provides a full range of relationship-focused services to meet personal, business, and wealth management financial objectives, with depository branches in ten states and mortgage capabilities in 44 states. 

JAY:  When we spoke recently, you gave your father some credit for steering you to a career path that eventually led to the high-net-worth life insurance market.  Can you tell us about your upbringing, your father’s advice and how you ended up where you are today?

CATHERINE: My father had a long career at a major airline retiring after 45 years on the job, always focused on his role as a company man.  Fresh out of college, I had a role as a customer service agent at a large mutual fund carrier and found it to be a challenging operation.  Wanting to quit immediately after being hired, my father quickly helped me understand I had a lot to learn about life, and I needed to stay the course.  He said I should take advantage of every opportunity to learn any concepts the company offered to teach.  I stayed two years, growing, and eventually becoming securities licensed and learning about retirement planning. Eventually, my father even took my advice. 

Two years into his retirement, in the aftermath of 9/11, his airline declared bankruptcy.  The planning we had completed prior to that resulted in maintaining his hard-earned retirement plans.  His gratitude for my role was more than a father-daughter moment.  By making the necessary changes in planning, my parents were unscathed by those events.  From this experience, I realized there was more to finance.  I wanted to share that lesson after seeing first-hand how impactful planning is.  The seed was planted, today, I am fortunate and grateful so many families have put their trust in me to help them. 

JAY:   You work with a lot of clients who are first generation wealth builders.  I imagine that these clients are masters of their own domains but need to rely upon you for planning support.   What are some of the unique challenges these clients face and how do you help them?

CATHERINE: Entrepreneurs are an exciting segment of clients, building and growing their enterprises to varying levels of success, sometimes far greater than imagined. However, whatever the product or service they provide, they fail to see the risks they are taking or how quickly things can change. Education becomes critical to establishing trust and creating a long-term plan that is beneficial to both their business and, most importantly, their family. 

JAY:   I envision when some of your clients have liquidity events, they are hounded by every conceivable advisor and pitched all sorts of schemes.  How do you differentiate what you bring to the table?

CATHERINE:   It’s important that clients don’t see me as a one-off service provider. I am part of a larger team, with a built-in legacy.  Part of the appeal in working within a larger organization is having a comprehensive approach with my full wealth planning, trust operations and banking teams. We can look in totality at the entire financial picture. Operating in a vacuum or treating planning as a singular task, leaves gaps in what can be a very comprehensive tool.

JAY: Can you tell me more about how Sunflower Insurance Solutions aligns with Sunflower Bank and their Private Wealth offerings?

CATHERINE: Sunflower Insurance Solutions is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sunflower Bank, N.A., and an integral part of Sunflower Bank Private Wealth. Through that relationship, we help clients address important objectives such as risk management, wealth preservation, business succession, estate planning, and legacy planning through tailored insurance strategies.

What makes our approach unique is the collaboration across the Private Wealth platform. We work closely with teams in Private Banking, Investment Management, Wealth Planning, Trust and Fiduciary Services, and Philanthropy Services to help ensure insurance solutions are aligned with each client's broader financial goals.

By bringing these specialized disciplines together under the Sunflower Bank Private Wealth umbrella, we're able to provide a more comprehensive and coordinated experience for high-net-worth individuals, families, and business owners. Ultimately, our goal is to deliver personalized, relationship-focused guidance that helps clients protect, preserve, and transfer wealth with confidence at every stage of life.

JAY: As I thought about this next question, Catherine, it arose because I wanted to focus on how you went from working in the back office to being one of the few client-facing female producers in our industry.   However, when you told me how this came to be, it dawned on me that your story is really about how senior producers can foster and grow new ones.   This is something our industry generally fails at.   Can you share how this process went for you?

CATHERINE: Great question Jay, I never saw myself as a salesperson.  I started in my career as a service manager, evolving into underwriting and later design. I liked the plans and products we were putting in place and wanted to grow in my knowledge and abilities.  I partnered with a fellow Lion Street owner and he helped me grow my abilities.

I found I was doing more than simply answering questions about policy function, I was educating the clients about their plans, selecting which products and solutions made the most sense and cultivating an environment where those clients understood the tools being put in place.  Change doesn’t happen all at once, and over the 20 years we worked together my abilities, strengths, and confidence grew, allowing me to have the opportunity to create this role where I am leading client conversations today.

I am equally honored to foster that in the younger partners entering my team. A lot of people in our roles forget the advice we are giving our clients about engaging the next generation. While my retirement is far in the future, having younger partners to help me continue to grow professionally has allowed me to sit where my clients do and be shown similar planning.

JAY: You have two kids out of the house with one still there.  You identify yourself as a sports mom, so I want to hear about this as well as how else you spend your time outside of work.

CATHERINE: I am a proud lacrosse and recovering swim and dance Mom. Juggling three kids in various seasons, that usually overlap, as well as a full-time career was a tall order. The entire year felt like one long sports season!  There’s a lot of waiting with teen athletes, so I am often found in my car during practices working, even if it at 5am at a swimming facility.  I quickly learned how to make an office on the fly.

I have also learned that with only our third child at home, how quickly it all goes by.  As I reflect on parenting, I am proud how I was always “present” for the car rides where my kids would talk about the positive and negative outcomes of their athletic endeavors.  Maybe a start goes badly, maybe a time isn’t achieved, or you don’t get the goal.  You still must pick yourself back up and go forward. 

Sports and the rest of life are just like that, and the most important thing is to prepare  day-in and day-out, never stopping to put in the proper preparation.  It is weird that, oddly, I miss the smell of chlorine?

JAY:  You have done a fantastic job, Catherine, and the voice of the industry was correct for recommending you for this interview.   We have reached our famous restaurant question, and I know you have some excellent responses.  Without naming a steakhouse or a steak dish, please give me some recommendations of where I should eat and what I should order when I am there.

CATHERINE: I absolutely love The Stanley Marketplace because of the roots to aviation that remind me of my father, formerly an airplane ejection seat manufacturer.  The Marketplace holds a collection of some of Denver’s finest eateries. All local -  from bagels at Rosenberg’s to a James Beard award winning restaurant, Annette. If I am not on a lacrosse field you can often find me there, hopefully with one of my kiddos.  

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Since its inception, Life Insurance Strategies Group has solely focused on the individual high net worth life insurance market. We do not sell products. This allows us to offer unbiased, pragmatic advice. Visit us at www.lifeinsurancestrategiesgroup.com.