About Us

Firm Bio

Jennie Hunsberger and Michael Weintraub are the founding principals of Next Step Retirement & Insurance Services LLC. Their combined experience working in the retirement plan industry is over 68 years. They specialize in working with tax-qualified retirement plans with broad experience in plan design, sales, and administration. They provide advice on plan investments as 3(21) and 3(38) fiduciaries. They help for-profit and not-for profits establish plans to help employees save for retirement while also saving income tax.

Management

In 1973 Mike founded Contemporary Pensions, Inc. (CPI), a third-party administration firm. In 2009, CPI was acquired by Portal Insurance Agency and after a short time Portal was acquired by Ascension Insurance Solutions. Michael’s position was President of the retirement plans division. Ascension was re-branded as Relation Insurance Solutions in 2018 and his role continued as President of the retirement plans division with responsibilities for managing the Third-Party Administration (TPA) as well as the marketing and sales operations of the division. Relation had approximately 450 employees.

Jennie started as a Senior Financial Consultant in 2003, for Ryan Beck & Co. and soon became a member of their Executive Council. In 2007 she become a Regional 401k Sales Director (Northern California and Northern Nevada) for Lincoln Financial, where, among many other things, she put together educational meetings for financial consultants and exceeded all sales goals.

In 2009-2010, Jennie became a New Business Consultant for ING (Now Voya) developing business for the American Bar Association Retirement Funds in Northern California. From 2011-2013, Jennie became the Lead wholesaler for 5 Western states for ADP. Her title was Regional Channel Manager. She developed key relationships, advisor strategies, and improved her public speaking skills while winning many awards from ADP for superior performance.^*

In 2013, Jennie joined Fidelity as Vice President Defined Contribution Investment Only. Her role was to position Fidelity Advisor funds with retirement-centric investment consultants, advisors and recordkeepers. In 2016, Jennie was recognized by the trade association NAPA as a top DC wholesaler. In 2017 Jennie joined Mike at Relation Insurance and helped develop better processes for handling investment and fiduciary consulting for existing and prospective clients of the company. In 2019 Jennie and Mike co-founded Next Step.

^{*Third-party rankings and recognitions are no guarantee of future investment success and do not ensure that a client or prospective client will experience a higher level of performance or results. These ratings should not be construed as an endorsement of the advisor by any client nor are they representative of any one client’s evaluation.}

Consulting and Advisory Service

In February 2019, Jennie and Mike left Relation Insurance to co-found Next Step Retirement & Insurance Services LLC. While no longer providing TPA services, we use a consultative approach to companies and organizations of all sizes for retirement plan related services and products.

Leadership

Mike is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting, AALU. He is a life and qualifying member of the international Million Dollar Round Table, MDRT^**, where he has chaired committees for many of its annual meetings and given speeches at 4 of them. Mike is also a member of the prestigious Top of the Table, TOT, and past Chair of its Advisory Board. He spoke at TOT meetings in 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, and 2014. He is Past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Life Insurance Foundation for Education, LIFE Happens, which is a resource to the public and media, and sponsors Life Insurance Awareness month each September. Mike is currently the treasurer of LIFEHappens.

Jennie is a Certified 401k Professional and Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor

Mike is a Chartered Life Underwriter, CLU.

^{**Qualifying membership in the MDRT is based on minimum sales production requirements and gross business generated within a year. Lifetime membership is achieved in the 10th year and this status is maintained in future years by attesting annually to having met current minimum production levels and by paying the required dues.}

Volunteer Leadership

Mike is past president of the Leading Life Producers of Northern California, East Bay Chapter of the Society of Financial Professionals, and the Estate Planning Council of the East Bay. He speaks often at meetings of accounting, insurance, legal, and service associations. He is President of and member of the board of directors of the Northern California Institute for Bone Health, Past President of the MDRT Foundation, and is listed in “Who’s Who in California”.

Jennie lives in Oakland CA and Mike lives in Alamo CA.

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