Employee Spotlight: Walter Grant

Walter is the Senior Vice President, Retirement Plan Services for Hub Mid-South. He and his team joined Hub via acquisition in 2021. Since 1998, Walter and the team at the Aegis Retirement Group, LLC have successfully served their clients in Tennessee and throughout the U.S. guided by a simple philosophy: to educate and coach both companies and individuals to successfully achieve their retirement goals.

Walter received his B.A. in Accounting from University of Mississippi in 1998 and spent several years at Met Life and New England Financial where he received a number of accolades, including Lifetime Leaders, Chairman’s Council twice, and achieved Master’s level five times.

Walter is also an Adjunct Lecturer for The Plan Sponsor University where his role is to lead interactive classes for plan sponsors interested in a retirement plan fiduciary and management education in the Mid-South Area. Walter also holds several other retirement and financial advisory licenses including Certified 401(k) Professional(C(K)P), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), Certified Retirement Plan Specialist (CRPS), Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor (CPFA), Certified Business Financial Analyst (CBFA) and Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF).

Walter lives with his wife Tanya and children Noah, Gavin and Savannah in Collierville, TN. Walter’s oldest son, Noah, just completed his first year at University of Memphis. He plays for the football team. Gavin wants to follow in his brother’s footsteps and play collegiate football. He is a top ranked punter as a High School freshman. Walter’s youngest, Savannah, loves softball and is excited to have made the high school team as a freshman.

Getting to know Walter:

Q. What is your best advice for someone starting in the insurance business?

A. Be deliberate and purposeful in how you work each day. Set short term, mid-term and long-term goal. I have seen hundreds of people that had a lot of potential bomb out of the business because of the lack of work ethic.

THE PHONE IS YOUR FRIEND. Do not be afraid to fail. I used to tell myself that if I didn’t make phone calls then we may not eat. That pushed me into doing what I was capable of doing.

You must show them that you are an expert in your field and if you are not yet, partner with someone who is. Clients buy knowledge and experience, especially in the larger markets. I always say "Friendships get you in the door, but knowledge and expertise will keep you planted in their council”.

Our business is probably the hardest out there. Every day you must wake up with a great attitude to conquer the day and out do yourself the day before. Our careers are full of rejections; it takes a strong-mind to overcome those to be GREAT.

Q. My greatest accomplishment:

A. I’m from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and played college football back in 1991 with Memphis State Tigers before transferring to Southwest Mississippi Junior College and finishing with the Ole Miss Rebels. I held a couple of kicking records for a short time and got to play three years of Arena Football. Sports allowed me to meet people and have conversations with folks I would never of had the opportunity to meet with. These experiences would later help me with my financial services career. People like sports and it gave me a way to connect.

Tanya and I moved to Memphis to build our own lives away from our families in FL and MS. I started building my practice from scratch and it was very hard but has been so rewarding. I remember times where all we could afford to eat were the box of biscuits from KFC with Honey. Those were challenging times to say the least. My wife was and has always been behind me from the very beginning. There were times early on I didn’t even receive a paycheck. That really sucked. Working 70 plus hours a week with nothing to show for it. Then all of a sudden, the seeds that were planted for months and months started to take root. I started to get clients and that manifested into more referrals into more clients. It wasn’t long before I started to be mentioned in the leader boards of the organization for top producers. It just fed on itself. While all of this was going on, I honed my craft in retirement plans and investments and gained knowledge by obtaining 5 designations. After 14 years at New England/ MetLife, I achieved Lifetime Leaders, earned Masters five times and Chairman’s Council twice. I only missed Leaders my very first year which was a partial year. All of this success has allowed my wife and I to have gone on some of the most amazing trips and seen countries and lands I only imagined from reading books or watching movies. This business has been very rewarding to me and my families. It is only through the grace of God, hard work and support from the ones I love that enabled me/us to be so successful. It has truly been a tremendous journey so far and I can’t wait for the next 23 years. I LOVE WHAT I DO and YOU SHOULD TOO…

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