Arthea Staeger Reed

After 28 years in teaching, writing, research and university administration, I joined the Asheville office of Northwestern Mutual.

Since joining Northwestern Mutual, I have worked in the areas of recruiting and training of new associates (1996-1998) and as a long-term care specialist since 1999.

My belief in long-term care planning stems from personal experience. My mother was my father's caregiver for eight years. In the early years, she was forced to give up her career and by the time my father died, she had given up her life.

During the years in which she had made her ultimate sacrifice for him, she gave me a gift of love. She purchased a long-term care insurance policy on herself so that I, her child, would never have to become her caregiver.

Through this experience, I learned how long-term care planning makes a difference in our lives by providing us with the financial ability to make choices and control our own care needs. We can select the kind of care that is most appropriate for our families and ourselves at home, in assisted living, or in a nursing facility. If my father had planned for long-term care, my mother could have likely continued to pursue her career with the assurance that he was receiving quality care at home.

My goal is to help others select the appropriate long-term care program for themselves and their families. Through this gift of love, they can maintain choice and control for themselves and allow their families to pursue their own goals and dreams.

As part of Northwestern Mutual, I'm proud to help accelerate the search for better childhood cancer treatments while supporting families undergoing treatment, and survivors from late effects. Here are some of the organizations we partner with:

When people feel better about their money, good things happen—they become more confident and feel more secure. For more than 160 years, Northwestern Mutual has helped people achieve the financial flexibility they need to live more and worry less.

Being a mutual company means Northwestern Mutual reports to its clients, not Wall Street. They don't believe in chasing fads or taking undue risk for short-term gains. Instead, they take a long-term approach—both in the way we help people plan to reach their goals, and in the way they do business. This has served their clients (and mine) well through all kinds of economic ups and downs, including wars, recessions, even the recent pandemic.

It's why I'm happy to be part of a company that's in it for the long-haul and prioritizes clients over profit.