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Photo of Catherine Runge
First Western

Relationship Manager and Insurance Specialist

For the past 12 years, Catherine has served as an insurance advisor for First Western Trust. Leveraging her knowledge as an insurance specialist, she is responsible for designing and underwriting insurance policies and maintaining a high level of client service for all insurance clients. Catherine also negotiates and manages the underwriting offers for our clients, while providing insurance administration, product analysis, and insurance policy updates and changes. Additionally, Catherine serves as an insurance expert for our internal team members, providing advice to help our local teams creatively use insurance within our clients’ wealth plans.

Before joining First Western Trust, Catherine gained more than 12 years of financial services experience as an insurance specialist as well as in other areas of financial planning. As a client service manager with Financial Designs, Ltd., she was responsible for maintaining high-touch client service, insurance administration, product analysis, and maintaining insurance policy updates and changes. Prior to that, she worked at Great West Life & Annuity and Oppenheimer Funds.

How Our Insurance Experts Use Insurance

First Western Trust’s team of insurance specialist understand that insurance is about much more than simply personal life insurance or long-term care. Our insurance advisors know that there are a number of creative uses for risk management tools.

For your personal and family needs, Catherine and her insurance experts team can help you diversify your taxes and support your financial health. Our insurance specialists can even support your charitable giving tax strategies in order to make a positive impact on the nonprofits and causes that matter most to you. Catherine and our insurance advisors can also structure risk management tools within deferred-compensation plans to help you build a strong retirement nest egg. 

Insurance For Your Business Needs

For your business needs, our insurance experts use risk management tools to support business continuity in case of the loss of a key executive. We can further leverage insurance tools to support executive recruitment and help protect your enterprise against debt.

For many clients, it can be difficult to understand how to creatively use insurance to achieve your wealth management goals, but Catherine and our team of insurance advisors are happy to review your existing policies and partner with you to identify how to use risk management tools to reach your objectives.

Maximizing Your Risk Management Services

While insurance may seem like a transactional product that you simply purchase and forget about, it is important to regularly review your policies in conjunction with your entire wealth plan. Our insurance advisors understand that, as your life and objectives change, you may need to adapt your insurance policies to support your shifting priorities.

Our insurance specialists are diligent in reviewing your insurance policies and working with you to ensure that your policies are still helping you achieve your goals for every dimension of wealth.

To learn more about our risk management services and our insurance experts’ approach, visit our risk management page.

Credentials

  • Bachelor of Science in social service with an emphasis in psychology from the Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO
  • Series 6 & 63 FINRA Licenses
  • Licensed Colorado Life Health & LTC Insurance Provider

Involvement

• High Tech Elementary PTA Member & Curriculum Advisory Member
• Stapleton Communities Block Captain, Volunteer