Randy L. Zipse, JD, CPA
VP & Senior Counsel
Randy Zipse is the Senior Counsel of the Advanced Markets Group and is responsible for its day-to-day management.  Mr. Zipse has published articles on trust taxation, estate and business planning concepts, and business succession planning.  Prior to joining Manulife, Mr. Zipse was in private practice, specializing in estate planning.  He received his BA in accounting from the University of Northern Iowa and graduated first in his law school class from Drake University College of Law.

Kevin W. Blanton, JD
AVP & Associate Counsel
Kevin Blanton is Associate Counsel and Assistant Vice President of the Advanced Markets Group.  Before joining Manulife Mr. Blanton was in private practice for several years, providing estate planning and general tax services to high net worth clients.  Mr. Blanton has provided tax compliance for several large mutual fund companies in Boston and served as bond counsel to many of the municipalities and state agencies in the New England area.  He received his BA in economics from the University of Michigan and graduated cum laude from Boston University School of Law.

Rachna D. Balakrishna, JD
AVP/Associate Counsel
Rachna Balakrishna is Associate Counsel and Assistant Vice President of the Advanced Markets Group.  She works closely with the Manulife field force and its distribution channels.  She is responsible for the development of innovative advanced marketing materials and programs.  Prior to joining Manulife, Ms. Balakrishna worked in private practice specializing in estate and business planning for affluent clients.  Ms. Balakrishna received her BA with honors from Harvard University and her law degree from Georgetown University School of Law.

Timothy  C. McFarland, JD
AVP/Associate Counsel
Timothy McFarland is Associate Counsel and Assistant Vice President of the Advanced Markets Group.  He is responsible for providing Manulife´s field force and distributions channels with advanced case design and research materials.  Prior to joining Manulife Mr. McFarland was in private practice where he provided moderate to high-net worth clients with estate and business plans. He received his BA from Cornell University and graduated magna cum laude from Syracuse University School of Law.

Cynthia A. Crino, CLU
Manager, Advanced Markets Consultants
Cynthia Crino is the manager of the Advanced Markets Consultants, overseeing their day-to-day operations, as well as participating in active casework.  Cynthia’s eight years of experience in the industry has left her well versed in both estate planning and corporate owned life insurance.   Cynthia has worked for John Hancock, Paul Revere Insurance Group, and Sapers & Wallack Insurance Agency.  She holds a BA in Mathematics/Anthropology, cum laude from Wellesley College.

Yves Meheut, CLU, ChFC, FLMI
Senior Advanced Markets Consultant
Mr. Mehuet is the Senior Advanced Markets Consultant for the Advanced Markets Group.  He is responsible for providing the Manulife field force and distribution channels with advanced case design.  He is also a memeber of the MLI Solutions software development team.  Mr. Meheut has been with Manulife for a number of years and spent some time working in the field.  He received his BA from Temple University.

Lina Storm, CLU, ChFC
Advanced Markets Consultant
Lina Storm is an Advanced Markets Consultant.  She is responsible for providing advanced case design for Manulife distribution channels and the field force.  She works closely with the associate counsels.  Ms. Storm has over 14 years of experience in the industry, 5 of those years in sales.  Ms. Storm received her BA from Trinity College and her MBA from Rensselar Polytechnic Institute.

John F Harrison, CLU, CHFC
Advanced Markets Consultant

John Harrison is an Advanced Markets Consultant who specializes in the small business planning area. Prior to joining the Advanced Markets Group he worked with a major COLI producer in the Boston area. John received his BA from Sienna College and his Masters in Social Work from Boston College.

Joseph N. Scianna, CLU
Advanced Markets Consultant

Michael J. Walker
Advanced Markets Consultant
Michael Walker is an Advanced Markets Consultant.  He works closely with the other members of the team providing advanced case design for the Manulife field force and distribution channels.  Prior to joining the Advanced Markets Group, Mr. Walker was a National Sales Associate.  Mr. Walker received his BA from the University of Massachusetts.

Jennifer E. Roper
Director of Marketing
Jennifer Roper is the Director of Marketing  for the Advanced Markets Group.  She is responsible for writing advanced concept pieces and promoting the MLI Solutions^SM system.  Ms. Roper has written several articles for popular industry trade magazines on variable life insurance and executive benefits.   Ms. Roper received her BA from the University of Maine and her Master in Public Administration from Suffolk University.

Ric Fradera
MLI Solutions^SM
Ric Fradera is the developer of the MLI Solutions^SM Business and Estate Planning software system.  Mr. Fradera has over 14 years of experience in the executive benefits market.   Prior to joining Manulife, Mr. Fradera specialized in developing innovative marketing strategies and plan administration systems for executive benefits.  He also has experience presenting non-qualified deferred compensation plans to multi-national corporations.  Mr. Fradera received his BA in finance from New York University.

Daniel  Castle, ChFC
Director of Training
Dan Castle is the Director of Training and is responsible for the Continuing Education program. Prior to coming to Manulife, Dan worked at a small insurance brokerage firm in the Boston area that specializes in estate and business planning. Prior to that, he was a producer and sales manager in his own practice. Dan's undergraduate work was in the field of aerospace engineering at Tri-State University in Indiana. He then continued his education studying religion and philosophy at Mt. Vernon Nazarene University in Ohio.

Elizabeth Goff

Continuing Education Coordinator

Betsey is the Continuing Education Coodinator for the US Insurance Division.  She is responsible for the day-to-day organization of the program. Betsey received her BS from Suffolk University in Interpersonal and Organizational Communications.