Tyler Horning

Tyler Horning began his career at TDC as a founding member of an entirely new company. After graduating from Hillsdale College with a degree in marketing in 2006, Tyler became the President of the Exclusive Marketing Company, or EMO. 

Tyler described the organization as “a company that was created out of a change in the way that life insurance got distributed. American General, as an insurance company, didn’t like working with individual producers. They wanted to deal with one company and have that company deal with them.”

TDC did just that. Instead of going through a marketing organization, TDC created their own high-end group, and then sold it to become Lion Street. In addition to no longer running the EMO, Tyler no longer deals with life insurance settlements and 401(k) plans, other elements of his starting role at TDC.

“My role has evolved a ton,” Tyler said. “I’m not focused on the same things as when I started….. Today I run TDC Life, our life insurance business, which started in 2011. Before that, I went to (Cleves) and said hey look, I really enjoy this, but how we’re doing stuff is screwed up, and I think I can help make it better. That was kind of the first step in the evolution of running our life insurance business.”

Tyler saw a need for consistency and leadership in a life insurance segment that lacked both. 

“What excited me the most is that we’re on the cutting edge doing things literally no one else in the country is doing. We are involved in redefining and changing the life insurance business.”

A Lancaster, Pennsylvania native, Tyler’s only other experience working in Toledo was a marketing internship at Rudolph Libbe. He has relished the opportunities TDC has provided him, and encourages others to do the same.

“Your career path here is what you make it. There’s so much opportunity around this building and around this company. It’s yours for the taking. Step up, ask questions, be interested, come up with better ways of doing things, suggest ideas, care about what we’re doing, and your career is what you make it,” Tyler said. “That’s the only way this worked out for me. I kind of raised my hand and said here’s an idea where I think I can help and have an interest in helping.”

While Tyler has accomplished a lot in his 12-year career at TDC, he knows he could not be successful without his team.

“We have great people that really care and want to work hard, and they share the vision of trying to be the best we can be while building a nationally recognized firm,” Tyler said. “People really care about their job, but really they really care about their clients. I know every time we put a plan in place for our clients, it’s as good as anyone can do it. We are helping people transfer wealth, plan estates, ensure their business continues, solve problems, monetize assets they didn’t even know they had. We’re all about helping people.”