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Who we are

We work for you, not for them.

We are an independent insurance agency covering life, health and retirement. Independent means no insurance company owns us — so what we recommend is what fits you, not what we are required to sell.

Our mission

“Our mission is to make the families we protect, and the families of our agents, our number one priority. Trust and loyalty is not given — it is earned, and all of us here will give everything we have to earn it.”

People > Profit

01

Independent.

Not captive to one carrier. We compare 50+ top-rated insurers to find what actually fits you — not what pays us most.

02

A-rated carriers.

Every product comes from a financially-strong, A-rated carrier. Guarantees only matter if the company behind them is sound.

03

Local agents.

Offices across the country and 6,000+ licensed agents. You get a real person who knows your state's rules — not a call-center script.

What we believe

01It's about team

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. Teamwork and culture are the single greatest catalyst of growth.

02It's about security

At the heart of everything we do is our mission to leave every client in a more secure financial situation for the future.

03It's about the client

We put the client first by teaching every agent how to effectively improve the situation of every household they meet.

04It's about new paths

Pinnacle helps you move from then to now — staying current with technology that propels the business forward.

05It's about the agent

Everything we design makes the agent experience more efficient and more profitable — partners in the mission, not a quota.

06It's about generations

Financial peace of mind that spans generations and impacts countless lives.

The rooms we work for

Ordinary rooms. Big stakes.

A family getting ready together on a school morning
School mornings
A dad helping his son with homework at the table
Homework at the table
An older couple reading through a plan document together
Going over the plan

How we are paid

You never write us a check.

We get paid by the insurance company whose policy you pick. There is no fee to talk to us, no fee to compare, and nothing added to your price for going through us — prices are set by the company and filed with your state.

We are telling you this because it is the first question people are too polite to ask.

Who actually covers you

The names behind the policy.

We compare 50+ top-rated, A-rated carriers. They are the ones who issue the policy and pay the claim; we are the ones who make sure you end up with the right one. Which companies can write your coverage depends on your state, your age and your health — your agent will tell you exactly who is in play before you apply.

Leadership

Put a face to the people handling this.

You are about to tell somebody about your health, your mortgage and your family. It is fair to know who is on the other end of that. These are the people who built Pinnacle Life Group and set how it operates.

Joseph Basso

01 · Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder

Joseph Basso

Joseph Basso is a co-founder of Pinnacle Life Group and serves as the Chief Executive Officer.

Before being named CEO in early 2024, Joe led the day-to-day of the company — operations, marketing, and how clients are looked after from the first call to the placed policy.

Before Pinnacle, he spent nearly fifteen years building companies of his own. He came into financial services for a simpler reason: it is work where doing well and doing right by families point in the same direction.

The standard he holds the whole team to is intentional availability — being genuinely reachable, listening before advising, and never letting a family feel like a file number.

Joe credits his passion for excellence in business to his love for the Lord and his family.

Gabriel Ericson

02 · Executive Chairman & Co-Founder

Gabriel Ericson

Gabriel Ericson is a co-founder of Pinnacle Life Group.

Gabe spent years sitting across kitchen tables from families all over the country — and that experience set the standard for how Pinnacle treats the people it serves. He was named President in 2024 and now serves as Executive Chairman.

His first career was ministry. He led an inner-city Chicago youth ministry for eight years, then worked as a missionary in West Africa. After completing his Master's degree, he felt his calling lay in business — as a way to fund ministry around the world.

He has founded orphanages across Africa, Asia and Latin America, with more underway and a goal of one hundred around the world.

For Gabe, this industry is the rare kind of work where the product genuinely changes a family's story. He holds every recommendation Pinnacle makes to that bar.

Gabe credits everything he has achieved in life to Jesus Christ and his mother's personal sacrifice.

Paul McClain

03 · President of Sales

Paul McClain

Paul McClain began in financial services at just nineteen years old, and has spent more than two decades helping families protect what matters most.

What Paul is known for is not numbers — it is standards. Straight answers, proven process, and treating every household's decision like it matters, because it does.

His drive for impact extends well beyond business. After witnessing the healing of his eleven-year-old daughter from stage 4 cancer, he founded a health center to help children and families battling life-threatening illnesses access life-changing care.

Married for eighteen years and a proud father of five, Paul leads from gratitude, faith, and a commitment to generational impact — for his own family, and for every family Pinnacle serves.

Paul credits his passion to serve and empower others to his deep love for the Lord and his family.

Michael Cavaleri

04 · Chief Marketing Officer

Michael Cavaleri

Michael Cavaleri serves as the Executive Chief Marketing Officer of Pinnacle Life Group, where he focuses on marketing, technology, customer acquisition, and the overall agent experience.

Michael has spent his career building and scaling high-growth companies. In his mid-20s, he helped grow Better Earth, a residential solar company, from inception to approximately $180 million in revenue in just three years.

Today, Michael brings that experience to Pinnacle with a relentless focus on improving the agent experience—believing that better-equipped and better-supported agents ultimately create a better experience for every client they serve.

At the core of his approach is a simple philosophy: do right by people. By combining innovative technology, world-class marketing, and a genuine commitment to agents and clients, Michael is focused on helping Pinnacle set a new standard for the financial services industry.

Martin Schafer

05 · President

Martin Schafer

Marty brings nearly 30 years of experience in financial services and insurance, with a career shaped by competition, entrepreneurship, and a drive to make an impact.

Before entering the industry, he competed as a professional soccer player, an experience that helped shape the discipline and competitive mindset he still brings to his work today. Since then, his career has taken him from building businesses to working alongside entrepreneurs and startups as they scale and grow.

Beyond the industry, Marty has served on college boards, giving him the opportunity to invest his experience into developing future leaders.

Over the years, he has built a reputation for bringing people together around a shared vision and challenging teams to think bigger about what is possible.

In 2026, Marty was named President of Pinnacle Life Group. In this role, he is helping build on the foundation Pinnacle has already established while bringing a fresh perspective to where the company goes next.

As the insurance industry continues to change, Marty is focused on keeping Pinnacle ahead of that change and creating an environment where agents, agencies, and leaders have the opportunity to build something bigger.

Giving back

People > Profit, in practice.

Pinnacle has funded 7 orphanages, including two separate sites in Guadalajara. Thailand is nearly finished and Colombia is targeted for the end of the year, which makes 9.

It is easy to print a slogan. This is what ours looks like when it costs something.

  • GhanaBuilt
  • LiberiaBuilt
  • Sierra LeoneBuilt
  • NigeriaBuilt
  • PakistanBuilt
  • Guadalajara IBuilt
  • Guadalajara IIBuilt
  • ThailandAlmost complete
  • ColombiaTarget: end of year

Where we are

15 offices across the country.

New Jersey · HQ

Corporate Headquarters

209 Philadelphia Ave
Egg Harbor City, NJ 08215

Indiana · HQ

Headquarters

9245 Calumet Ave Suite 201
Munster, IN 46321

Arizona

Scottsdale

8700 E Via de Ventura Suite 300
Scottsdale, AZ 85258

California

San Diego

9191 Towne Center Dr Suite 510
San Diego, CA 92109

Florida

Boca Raton

1515 N Federal Hwy Suite 218
Boca Raton, FL 33432

Florida

Deerfield Beach

550 Fairway Drive Suite 203
Deerfield Beach, FL 33441

Florida

Fort Lauderdale

1057 SE 17th Street #201
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316

Florida

Pompano Beach

4701 N Federal Hwy #430
Pompano Beach, FL 33064

Florida

Tampa

5402 W Laurel St Suite 1B
Tampa, FL 33607

Florida

Tampa

5520 W Idlewild
Tampa, FL 33634

Georgia

Augusta

4499 Columbia Rd #1
Augusta, GA 30907

Illinois

Chicago

1044 W Kinzie St
Chicago, IL 60642

Michigan

Clinton Township

36175 Harper Ave
Clinton Township, MI 48035

South Dakota

Sioux Falls

100 S. Dakota Ave Suite 200
Sioux Falls, SD 57104

Texas

Addison

14275 Midway Rd Suite 145
Addison, TX 75001

Now you know who you're calling.

A licensed person picks up — and they'll give you their name and license number before they ask you anything.

Talk to an advisor