top of page

ABOUT US

About ALINK CIS

ALINK Captive Insurance Services helps business owners  make an informed decision to create a Captive Insurance Company (CIC), facilitates the many steps necessary to install a Captive, assists captives in matching their assets to their expected liabilities, and provides ongoing administration and compliance services to keep the captive in good standing.

2 successful men walking

Our Mission

We are a Capital Preservation and Risk Management organization, specializing in the utilization of Captive Insurance Companies to help business owners protect, build and achieve their financial success.

Through Risk Management and by aligning with the best partnerships and strategies, we help business owners achieve their goals.

We have been helping business owners manage risk through Captive ownership since 2010 by providing superior expertise, and full-service, turn-key captive management services.

Meet the Team

Rich Ericson Photo

Rich Ericson

 

Rich is President of Alink Captive Insurance Services and has been serving business owners for over 10 years in the Captive Insurance space. 

 

Rich was born and raised in Salt Lake City, played quarterback for Weber State University and coached football at the Division One level for 10 years at Weber State and Utah State Universities as offensive coordinator.

 

Rich’s expertise is working with business owners utilizing advanced tax strategies to reduce risk and build tax-favored and tax-free wealth.

 

Rich received his Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and his Master’s Degree in Education from Weber State University. He is an investment advisor representative as well as licensed to sell Property & Casualty, Life and Health insurance products. 

Shawn O'Keefe photo

Nathan Willis

 

Nathan was raised in Colorado and began his college education at Adams State University in southern Colorado before transferring to Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah.  He also played collegiate basketball while working towards his degree.  He graduated in December 2017 with his Bachelor’s Degree in Finance.  In 2019 Nathan earned his MBA from BYU.  He also had the chance to live abroad in Brazil for two years and speaks Portuguese.  Nathan has always been driven in all of his endeavors and will continue to bring that drive as a registered Investment Advisor Representative.

Bill Syddall photo

Bill Syddall

 

As President of ALINK Insurance, a Trusted Choice® Independent Insurance agency servicing clients in over 14 states, Bill is responsible for overseeing all sales, client satisfaction, retention, agency growth, and servicing functions with his staff of 14 highly trained and motivated insurance professionals.  With offices in Aurora, Colorado Springs, Greeley, and Pueblo, he travels extensively working with clients and business partners to generate perpetual growth, mitigate financial risk, and deliver servicing excellence.

 

His background of 24 years at First Data and American Express provided significant experience where he mastered delivering client satisfaction and operational efficiencies though six sigma protocol and client servicing and retention methodologies over the years.  Some of Bill’s roles included serving as VP of Client Services and Operations, Director of Quality Control and Call Center Operations, and Manager of New Business Development and Implementation.  While serving in these and other positions a few of Bills responsibilities included; Client Satisfaction, Project Management, Contract Negotiations/ Procurement, Call Center Servicing and Forecasting, Training Department Curriculum and Staff Oversight, Operational Sales Liaison, Employee Engagement, Strategic Planning, and much more.

Nathan Merrill photo

Nate Merrill

 

As a founding Partner of Goodspeed & Merrill, Mr. Merrill advises individuals, entrepreneurs and businesses with a wide range of challenges, including choice of business entity and formation issues, the growth process, financing, general business matters, shareholder disputes, and business transactions such as asset and stock acquisitions and divestitures, and mergers.

 

Mr. Merrill uses his master's degree in taxation to achieve the best outcome for clients, recognizing each client's unique needs and objectives.

 

Mr. Merrill heads the firm's Tax and Private Client Services practice where he advises individuals with respect to their estate planning needs, ranging from the creation of wills and trusts to insurance planning, and business succession planning. These transactions range from consolidating ownership of closely held start-up ventures and raising equity for growing businesses, to divestitures and public offerings in excess of $100 million

Dan Hunt Photo

Dan Hunt 

 

Mr. Hunt graduated Tulane University with a BA in Economics with a minor in computer science in 1984. Mr. Hunt started his career in technology development for the oil and gas industry. He helped develop several companies, the most notable of which was Harmonic Systems, a collaboration of Exxon, MasterCard and Sprint. The company was sold to Alliance Data Systems in 2000. After successful projects including restaurants and bank ATM systems, Mr. Hunt started the design of a financial planning company in 2002, teamed up with Norman Strom in 2004, and Hunt and Strom Financial was born. In 2005 Mr. Hunt learned about a highly rated stock and option trading platform called Thinkorswim (acquired by TD Ameritrade in January 2009) and integrated that into the financial practice. The purpose was to bring institutional quality money management to mass affluent clients at a reasonable price. Other advisors wanted the same for their clients, and that need created the formation of Redhawk Wealth Advisors, Inc. in 2008. Mr. Hunt resides with his wife and two sons in Minnetonka, MN. He has coached baseball and football for 12 years, and served on the East Tonka Little League and Bennett Family Park boards. He served 10 years as a Captain in the US Army and Reserves on the executive staff of the 486th CA Unit, 321st Special Operations Forces.

Rick Keast photo

Rick Keast  

 

Mr. Keast is responsible for the strategic direction and overall performance of the firm. He also oversees the regulatory and compliance functions and is responsible for growing assets organically and through the recruitment of independent, fee-based registered investment advisors. Mr. Keast has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry and has worked with financial advisors throughout the country to help them build their practices. He has a proven track record in the financial services industry for developing revenue producing relationships and delivering key customer solutions. He developed the first 401(k) offering with exchange traded funds in 2005 working with Capitol One ShareBuilder. He has also served as the lead consultant working with major Fortune 500 firms such as PepsiCo, Frito-Lay, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Continental Airlines, Merrill Lynch, State Street, CONAGRA, and Textron. Prior to joining Redhawk, Mr. Keast held various management positions with ExpertPlan, PAi, Merrill Lynch, KPMG Consulting, and William M. Mercer and has a bachelors’ degree from Northern Illinois University and an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.

bottom of page