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A Balanced Life

By C. Robert Brown, CLU, LUTCF
True success cannot be gained solely through business accomplishments. Mitchell W. Ostrove, CLU, ChFC, a 34-year MDRT member from White Plains, New York, has realized true success through a balance of quality family time and productive, proactive service to his clients, his community and the industry.

Ostrove and wife, Carole.

Starting out
Ostrove did not intend to go into the financial services industry. A graduate of the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant School of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, he was offered a job by Barco Associates, New York, New York, an agency that sold property and casualty insurance to restaurants. Upon investigating the field, Ostrove decided the property and casualty branch of insurance was not for him. The agency referred him to Bernard Mayer (38-year MDRT member Bernard Mayer, BS, MA, currently of Boca Raton, Florida) of Mutual Benefit Life, Scarsdale, New York, a firm specializing in life insurance and financial services. It proved the right fit for Ostrove. “I’m naturally drawn to helping people, and for me a career as a financial advisor was a perfect fit,” he stated. “It’s a choice that requires education and dedication. In return, I help people develop and protect their financial future.”

The company strongly encouraged membership in MDRT. If you’re going to be in the business and be successful, the firm’s leaders thought, you should strive to be an MDRT member. Within three years, Ostrove had achieved this goal, becoming an MDRT member in 1969.

He also attended his first MDRT Annual Meeting that year. The meeting had a “tremendous” effect on him. “At my FTO (first-time orientation) I sat down with Lester Rosen (1962 MDRT President Lester A. Rosen, CLU, a 66-year member from Memphis, Tennessee). MDRT gave me a chance to learn at the feet of the ‘greats’ right away,” Ostrove said.

Serving the community
It was not only the professional guidance and learning opportunities MDRT offered that had a positive effect on Ostrove. “Very early in my career, the Round Table made a huge impact on the way I view life,” he said.

Ostrove in Trinidad, building one of three playgrounds in underpriviledged areas with the Kids Around the World organization. The project was part of MDRT Foundation's Seeds of Life program.

The Whole Person and FamilyTime concepts resonated strongly with Ostrove, and the MDRT Foundation also fit with his view of life.

Raised by parents who were actively involved with philanthropic endeavors, he was already working with various community organizations. From watching his parents, he said, he learned early in life that if you were fortunate enough to make a living and be able to live as you wanted, you should share your good fortune with others.

Since 1985, Ostrove has served as commissioner of the New Rochelle Youth Bureau, New Rochelle, New York. The Bureau is dedicated to preventing and reducing juvenile delinquency through advocating and providing positive youth development programs.

In 1995, Ostrove received the Top Quality of Life Grant Awards, and the accompanying $10,000 grant went to the New Rochelle Youth Bureau. Five years later Ostrove won the Union Central Insurance & Investment’s Lester A. Rosen Humanitarian and Achievement Award for his work in the community (Union Central is Ostrove’s primary carrier). He chose the Bureau to receive the $5,000 grant that accompanies the award.

A father of two, Ostrove’s heart lies mainly with organizations that help children. “Having raised children of my own, and spent many hours coaching basketball and soccer, I can’t help but appreciate the great potential present in each and every child,” he said.

“Kids are our future. It’s as simple as that,” Ostrove continued. “Children need support and direction in order to thrive. And, the way I see it, no matter where a child lives, or the circumstances in which a child lives, there needs to be a place where children can find the help and positive reinforcements they needs.”

Currently serving as the 2003 MDRT Foundation President, Ostrove had been on the Foundation’s Board of Trustees since 1998. He is a Foundation Diamond Knight and Inner Circle Society Patron, and also served as Foundation Board Liaison on the 2002 Major Gifts Committee, Phonathon Committee and Circle of Life Committee.

During his term as Foundation President, he is focusing on volunteerism among MDRT members. “I want to encourage members around the world to share the Foundation story,” said Ostrove. “Helping people is not just about donating money. In order to be truly successful, we need helping hands. We need our fellow MDRT members to understand and embrace the importance of actually providing the time and ‘hands-on’ commitment to charitable projects. Being actively involved, [for example] actually building a playground or a house for children and families living in a low-income area, is where I truly felt a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. I know other members will feel the same way.”

Serving the industry
Ostrove’s involvement in MDRT and in the industry has not been limited to its charitable arm.

He captained the estate planning section of the Program Development Committee (PDC) for the 1996 Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California. In 1997, he served as Productivity Committee Chair, and served as the PDC’s Main Platform Chair for the 2001 Annual Meeting in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

His commitment to industry involvement goes past his association with MDRT. He is past president of the Westchester County Chapter of CLU, the Westchester Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors and the Westchester Estate Planning Council. He also has served as an LUTC Advanced Sales Course instructor and a Life Underwriters Political Action Committee Diplomat.

Life today
Professionally, Ostrove currently runs The Ostrove Group, the insurance practice he founded. The Group specializes in the business and estate planning markets.

The firm’s focus fits in well with that of his study group, the Diamond Cutters. Made up of MDRT members, the Diamond Cutters share and develop business insurance and estate planning sales ideas. “Besides the exchange of best practices,” Ostrove explains, “the study group has grown to be a very important support group to its members.”

Although heavily involved with charitable and professional duties, Ostrove makes sure to set aside plenty of time for his family – wife Carole, daughter Marjorie, who works on Wall Street, and son James, who is in the real estate business.

Ostrove’s goal of combining home, community and business has led him to achieve a satisfying and fulfilling way of life. “I am part of a profession that has given me a sense of great purpose and immense accomplishment. I live in a community of which I’m extremely proud, and a have family I love dearly. I have lived the MDRT Whole Person philosophy, and for me there is no other way.”