Financial Representative
COUNTRY Financial
Financial Professional
Equitable Advisors
Brian Ashe, CLU, LACP, has been a NAIFA member for 51 years and served as the President of the DuPage County Chapter. Since 1969, Brian has assisted clients with life, health, disability, annuity, and equity products in the insurance and investment business. His work concentrates on estate conservation, retirement planning, employee benefits, and business insurance strategies. Brian specializes in business continuity, transition, succession planning, executive benefits, and estate and legacy planning.
Brian is also a partner at The Business Strategies Group of Illinois, helping business owners implement strategies to protect, preserve and pursue more value from their business more tax-efficiently for 15 years. He served as the Executive Vice President at LIFE Foundation for 10 years, as a financial professional at AXA Advisors, LLC for 13 years, and was also the Chair at the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education.
President
The Brennan Group
Founder & CEO
Midwest Legacy Group, LLC
Christopher L. Gandy, LACP, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Midwest Legacy Group (OneAmerica) in Lisle, IL. He has served as President of NAIFA’s Chicagoland chapter and has been a NAIFA member since 2003. He entered the insurance and financial services industry in 1999 after playing professional basketball for the Chicago Bulls and the San Antonio Spurs as well as in L’Hermaine, France.
Gandy serves on NAIFA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force and is a member of the NAIFA 2025 Strategic Planning Committee. He is a highly sought-after speaker for industry events and has been a speaker at NAIFA’s Performance+Purpose annual conference and published in Advisors Magazine, GQ, Advisor Today, and InsuranceNewsNet among other publications.
Gandy is also an active volunteer in the community. He serves on the Board of the Chicago Concussion Coalition, which strives to make amateur sports safer for children, and on the Board of Directors of the Urban League. He is part of the United Way’s Young Community Leaders and volunteers for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization.
Founder & President
Carolina Benefit Administrators, Inc.
Financial Professional
Ike Trotter Agency
Ike Trotter, CLU, RICP, ChFC, is a well-recognized career professional in the financial services industry. He is highly skilled in analyzing financial products including long-term care insurance, Medicare supplement coverage, disability insurance, life insurance, and retirement planning.
He is educationally credentialed with the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), and Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP) from The American College of Financial Services in Bryn Mawr, PA. He is also credentialed through The National Association of Estate Planning Councils as an Accredited Estate Planner (AEP) as well as a member of The Estate Planning Council of Mississippi.
VP, Marketing & Communications
NAIFA
Suzanne Carawan has more than a decade of experience working in fast-growth tech companies in social networking, events, CRM, and virtualization. She is passionate about establishing and growing technology companies globally and leverages her social and high-tech digital marketing background to provide insightful commentary to audiences worldwide.
Suzanne holds an MBA in management of global information and high-tech marketing from the Kogod School of Business at American University and an MPH in international health economics and social marketing and research design from Tulane University. She also received her BA in philosophy with minors in biology and government and politics from the University of Maryland.
