The support behind better financial decisions for clients
Sponsored by
Protective’s Jim Wagner and tennis legend John Isner discuss why confidence comes from work completed well before consequential decisions are made
More
JOHN ISNER'S explanation for why some of his best tennis arrived relatively late in his career has little to do with his serve.
By then, his life away from the court had changed considerably. He had married and started a family, and the single-mindedness that defined the beginning of his professional career had given way to a different set of priorities. Family came first, and tennis, as he puts it, became “1B.”
The change did not diminish his performance. Isner says the stability he found away from the court helped him play with greater freedom on it. Some of the strongest stretches of his 17-year professional career came in his 30s.
Protective recently named Isner a brand ambassador, adding to the company’s existing involvement in tennis. What carries over from Isner’s career is the way he talks about what sustained it: preparation, the people around him, and the confidence that came from having both in place.
Protective has helped protect people for more than 115 years. Through its subsidiaries, Protective provides life insurance, retirement, employee benefits, and asset protection solutions to nearly 32 million people. With a long-term focus, financial stability, and commitment to doing the right thing, Protective empowers customers to move forward with confidence because we’re all protectors℠.
Protective Life Corporation, a subsidiary of Daiichi Life Group, Inc., had $148 billion in assets as of June 30, 2026. Headquartered in Birmingham, AL, Protective employs more than 3,500 teammates nationwide, including at core sites in the greater Cincinnati region and St. Louis. Life insurance and annuity products are issued by Protective Life Insurance Company in all states except New York and by Protective Life and Annuity Insurance Company in New York. For more information, visit protective.com.
What sits behind one client recommendation
Client context
protection, income, health needs, and legacy priorities
“People see the match, but they don’t always see everything behind it. The years of preparation, the support system, the daily commitment required to be ready when the moment arrives”
Jim Wagner,
Protective
Jim Wagner, senior vice president and chief distribution officer at Protective, sees a similar dynamic in financial advice.
“People see the match, but they don’t always see everything behind it,” he says. “The years of preparation, the support system, the daily commitment required to be ready when the moment arrives.”
Wagner emphasizes how much of the work in financial advice happens beforehand. What a client might receive is the recommendation, the retirement-income decision, or the insurance conversation. Behind it sits the financial professional’s preparation, product knowledge, and access to the people and resources needed when a case becomes more complicated.
The team behind the advisor Isner understood that kind of support quite literally. Although tennis is often thought of as an individual sport, Isner’s professional career rarely operated that way.
At various points, he travelled with a trainer and physiotherapist. Away from tournaments, he worked with a strength coach and dietitian and, for a period, a chef. Sleep, recovery, nutrition, and preparation were treated as parts of the job rather than activities surrounding it.
“One of my favorite sayings is ‘the hay’s already in the barn,’” Isner says. “You have to have that confidence in your team.
You’ve got to get your body right, you’ve got to get your mind right, and all that hard work is done before you get to the tournament site. Once you get to the tournament, it really should be easy.” He credits those decisions with helping him stay on tour for 17 years after four years of college tennis.
Wagner draws the comparison at the level of support rather than performance. A financial professional can sit across from a client and guide a discussion, but the quality of that conversation also depends on what the advisor can draw on when the situation requires more information or a deeper understanding of a product.
A client considering protection, retirement income, future health needs, or legacy planning is “not doing that in isolation,” he says. “They’re relying on a financial professional to guide them through simplifying that complexity and help them think through what really matters most. And then those financial professionals need support behind them.”
Protective wants to occupy part of that second layer, Wagner explains, by supporting advisors with solutions and the resources around them.
A carrier cannot know a household in the way the financial professional does. What it can do is make it easier for the advisor to obtain information, understand the available solutions, and work through a decision with the client. Wagner includes education, insights, training programs, and product support in that role.
Confidence is not certainty That support becomes particularly important, Wagner argues, when confidence can be mistaken for certainty.
“Confidence sometimes is also misunderstood,” he says. “It doesn’t mean that there’s no pressure or uncertainty. It means you have prepared, you have thought through those possibilities, and you have people around you who can help you navigate what comes next.”
A retirement plan cannot remove uncertainty around longevity, markets, or future health needs. Nor can an insurance recommendation anticipate every change in a family’s circumstances. The advisor’s job is to make sure those possibilities have been considered and that the client understands the choices available.
Isner’s “hay’s already in the barn” philosophy worked on much the same premise. Preparation could not dictate what happened in a match, but it meant he was not arriving at a tournament still searching for answers.
“One of my favorite sayings is ‘the hay’s already in the barn.’ You have to have that confidence in your team. All that hard work is done before you get to the tournament site”
John Isner,
TENNIS LEGEND
Wagner sees the work before a consequential client meeting in similar terms. Protective has invested in education, training, and resources around life insurance and retirement planning so financial professionals can develop that knowledge before it is needed in front of a client.
The value of that preparation becomes clearer when a client’s circumstances begin to change.
Planning before the transition Isner faced a transition most clients eventually encounter, but much earlier. Professional athletes can reach the end of their primary careers decades before conventional retirement, forcing questions about income, purpose, and family priorities to the forefront sooner.
By the latter part of his career, marriage and children had already begun to reshape his priorities. When he first turned professional, Isner says, his focus was on tennis and earning a living from the sport. Now retired, he is focused more on his wife and children − and on passing along the discipline he developed through years of training and competition.
Published October 19, 2026
Share
Advisor judgement
deciding what matters most and simplifying the trade-offs
Specialist support
product expertise, training, and technical resources when the case becomes more complex
Preparation
working through possible outcomes before the recommendation is presented
Decision
giving the client enough clarity to move forward without pretending uncertainty has disappeared
John Isner on what
sustained a long career
Played 17 years of professional tennis after four years at the University of Georgia
Says some of his strongest tennis came in his 30s, later than is typical for many players
Travelled with coaches and physiotherapists and also worked with strength, nutrition, and recovery specialists
Viewed spending on that support as an investment in extending his career
Says marriage and fatherhood changed his priorities without diminishing his performance
Wagner sees a planning lesson in the timing of that change. Financial decisions around retirement are easier to examine before the client has reached the point where work has stopped and a new source of income is immediately required.
He says financial professionals can help clients think through that shift in advance, whether they are preparing to retire, starting a family, or considering a different direction after a long career.
The conversations can bring several parts of a client’s financial life into focus at once: retirement income, protection needs, future health costs, and what may eventually pass to family.
“Our goal is really to be a trusted source of knowledge and support, so financial professionals have access to all the information they need to help guide clients through those important decisions,” Wagner says.
That support is meant to strengthen the advisor’s ability to prepare, explain trade-offs, and recognize when a planning question calls for deeper expertise.
Wagner returns to preparation as the foundation of confidence. “It doesn’t mean that there’s no pressure or uncertainty,” he says. “It means you have prepared, you have thought through those possibilities.”
Isner’s career makes the point clear. The match was what people saw. What they didn’t see was everything that went into getting Isner there, from training and recovery to the people around him helping him stay healthy and keep playing in top form.
Financial planning works much the same way. Clients see the meeting and the recommendation. They don’t always see the preparation, judgement, and trusted support that make those moments count.
By the time the decision arrives, the heavy lifting should already be done.
