For local business Trinity Insurance, being able to honestly help people enjoy and plan for their later years in life is one of the foundational goals of the independent agency.

Despite its name, Trinity helps customers with a variety of retirement planning needs, not just brokering insurance plans. The agency, located in Wright City, is run by the duo of Ivan North and stepdaughter Heather Engelage, who have been working together in the insurance industry for nearly 20 years.

After working most of that time at other agencies, the pair decided to bring their efforts and experience back to their hometown of Wright City and opened their independent agency.

They now help connect customers with whatever financial planning and insurance services meet their needs.

“The biggest upside is we don’t have to put a round peg in a square hole,” North said, commenting that agencies connected to a particular insurance provider are incentivized to sell that company’s plans. “We don’t, as independents, have to make a product fit the client. We find the product that fits the client.”

Making sure clients understand how they can meet their needs and wants in their retirement years is the guiding principle for Trinity’s work, North said. He believes retirement has gotten a lot more complicated compared to his parents’ days, and that having an expert to assist in planning will help avoid many common mistakes, especially when it comes to retirement finances.

North said their primary goal, before making sales or collecting commissions, is to simply give straightforward advice and avoid steering people wrong.

“We pride ourselves on understanding the products we’re putting out, so that people can trust us,” North said. “Sometimes we lose sales because we tell them ‘too much.’ I would just as soon you walk out of here not as a customer ... (rather than) telling somebody something wrong.”

There’s a lot of satisfaction to playing a part in people having the life they want to live once they decide to retire, Engelage said.

“You get to help people get to their end result of what they’re looking for,” Engelage said. “You have to figure out what their plans are, and then we can build plans based on those. Our motto is ‘Your plans are our plans.’”

The pair said their desire to have that mentality toward clients, working with them on goals that the client sets and directs, is part of what drove them to start their own independent agency. Retirement planning can be stressful, but Trinity’s aim is to remove as much stress as they can, Engelage noted.

As for who can benefit from consultations at Trinity, North commented that it would be prudent for anyone over 40 to know where they stand on their future retirement. As people approach retirement age, it becomes ever more important to have a plan for what comes next.

Trinity Insurance is located in Wright City on Veterans Memorial Parkway just west of Diekroeger Park. They can be reached by calling 636-791-1330.