No plans to retire...to death do they part
Wendall Walker, a former 8th grade assistant coach at Forest, once asked the team if any of them had any idea of what they wanted to do when they grew up. Jackie Calhoun surprised him by saying that he wanted to play professional football and sell life insurance in the off season. This week Calhoun is celebrating 50 years of business on the insurance side of that plan.
“I might have been influenced a bit by the person whom I looked up to the most, my dad,” Calhoun said. “Dad was a representative for Met Life. With those goals in mind, I got a football scholarship at Mississippi State and became the first insurance major to graduate from State. However, due to lack of talent and a spinal fusion at the beginning of my sophomore year, I was not a professional football player.”
After graduating in December 1975, Calhoun moved back to Forest and started his insurance career with Lincoln National Life on January 15, 1976.
At the encouragement of his father, Calhoun, completed an additional 10 Chartered Life Underwriters courses with The American College to become the first CLU in Forest. He worked as a career agent with Lincoln National until 2007 and became an independent broker for life insurance and tax deferred annuities. “My slogan became ‘Internet Prices with Personal Service,’” Calhoun said.
Over the years he was named the Mississippi Agent of the Year for Lincoln Financial, a Million Dollar Round Table member and a National Quality Award qualifier multiple times. He was also chosen to be on Midland National’s Annuity Agents Advisory Board.
“I did not have a death claim until I was in business for 16 years,” Calhoun said. “At that point, I realized how important the responsibility was that I had for my clients. There’s not anybody whom is not important to me. I’ll give the same attention to someone wanting a $25,000 policy as I will for someone wanting a $1,000,000 policy or a $5,000,000 policy.”
Calhoun said that in real estate, “they say it’s all about location, but in the insurance industry I think that it’s all about relationships. Thus, I’ve tried to build long term relationships with my clients as well as relationships with other team members such as CPAs, tax attorneys, bankers, semi-retired agents and other insurance agents who don’t sell life insurance and tax deferred annuities.
“With my products and services, I strive to provide security and income for families and business owners, money for education, liquidity for estate taxes and a road map for a real retirement.”
Calhoun is a member of the Forest Baptist Church, past president of the Forest Bearcat Booster Club, Mississippi State Scott County Alumni Association and the Forest Country Club. In addition, he is a past director of the Forest Rotary Club. He is a member of the MSU “M Club” Alumni Association, the Jackson Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors along with the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.
“Now that I’m getting a bit older, some people want to know when I’m going to retire,” Calhoun concluded. “I tell them that unless the Lord takes me or I become disabled, I never want to fully retire. I have too many people depending on me to look after their business. I was told by a family member years ago, ‘If I had your job, I wouldn’t retire, either.’ I love the opportunity to serve and visit with my clients too much to retire.”
