I was born (1944) and raised in Hays, Ks. After graduating from St. Joseph’s Military Academy in 1962 (now Thomas More Prep High School), I enrolled atKansas State University on a basketball scholarship. My coach was Tex Winter, the innovator of the Triangle Offense. Following graduation at K-State in 1967 , I was an assistant basketball coach to Tex Winter, Cotton Fitzsimmons and Jack Hartman during my 4 year coaching career(1968-71).
I may be the only former college assistant basketball coach in America who worked with three famous legends in coaching during a four year period. All three coaches greatly influenced my life and prepared me for my evolving career that eventually led me to return to coaching, but this time as The Medicare Coach.
After leaving the K-State Athletic Department, I stayed at K-State for 7 years as a fundraiser for the KSU Foundation, and then spent the remaining10 years as Executive Director of the K-State Alumni Association. In 1989 I joined Pat Keating’s firm Keating & Associates and now serve as our firm’s MedicareCoach and Certified Senior Advisor.
When my mother- in- law struggled with Medicare paperwork following the death of my father- in- law Cade Suran, I soon learned that Seniors are operating at a tremendous disadvantage when they are expected to keep up with all the changes pertaining to Medicare including billing, eligible expenses, deductibles, co-pays, etc, especially during a time right after losing their spouse.
This experience led me to specialize in senior related issues like long-term care, and aging. Although, I am Certified through the Corporation for Long–Term Care as an expert in the design of long-term care protection plans, and continue to help clients with their planning in this area, I’ve found tremendous satisfaction in returning to my coaching instincts from my basketball days and helping clients breakdown the confusion surrounding Medicare by using an important coaching principle I learned from Tex Winter.
Tex Winter had a complex triangle offense, with many options, but he taught us which options to run based on what the defense was doing. The triangle offense is predicated on the premise that “the defense names the play“. That’s exactly how Medicare Coaching works. My clients show me their defense regarding existing health, prescription use, financial status,etc., and I teach them which play to run and which options will work best for them.
What turned out to be a part time service for our existing clients, has now become a full time coaching service as a National Medicare Coach because Seniors are all using the same Medicare manual (play book with multiple options),but don’t know how to interpret it.
Now, I’m dedicating my time and efforts to provide value to seniors everywhere who continue to struggle with their Medicare decisions, and it provides me with personal satisfaction knowing the “defense names the play” concept also works for Medicare.
Since I joined Medicare in February of 2009, my primary mission is to share these strategies with clients before they become eligible for Medicare, clients who are already on Medicare, and advisors who work with Senior clients who someday will enter the Medicare system.
Since all clients become eligible for Medicare at age 65, I thought it would be fun to sign my letters “Eventually Yours”. I hope to continue in this work the remaining days of my life and never plan to retire.
