About
The full picture
requires a wider lens.

Christopher Gipe
California-licensed Estate Planning Attorney
Founder, Insurance Brokerage · Partner, Modern Life
I started my career as an estate planning attorney because I believed in the work. Helping people protect the things and the people that matter most to them. Trusts, wills, powers of attorney. These are the instruments. But over time, a pattern started to trouble me.
Client after client would come to me with a beautifully drafted estate plan and a gaping hole where their insurance strategy should have been. Or a generous life insurance policy that had no connection to their actual estate structure. The legal plan, the financial plan, and the insurance strategy almost never spoke to each other. Each advisor worked in their own lane, and the client was left trying to make it all connect.
"The legal plan, the financial plan, and the insurance strategy almost never spoke to each other."
That realization changed everything. I founded an insurance brokerage, partnered with Modern Life, not because I wanted to sell policies but because I wanted to be the person who could see the whole picture. Someone who understands how a trust interacts with an insurance policy, how an entity structure affects a wealth transfer strategy, how the legal framework and the financial plan have to move together.
Today I work at the intersection of estate planning, insurance strategy, and legacy planning, primarily with individuals and families who understand that wealth isn't just a number. It's a responsibility. A reflection of values. When managed with intention, it becomes something that outlasts any single generation.
I don't believe in cookie-cutter plans. I don't believe in checking boxes. I believe in understanding the full scope of what a person is building, and helping them protect it with the same care they brought to building it.
If that resonates with how you think about your own legacy, I'd welcome the conversation.