[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 58 (Thursday, April 10, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E724]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   A TRIBUTE TO DANIEL COELHO FOR 50 YEARS OF HELPING AMERICANS WITH 
                           FINANCIAL SECURITY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JERRY LEWIS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 9, 2003

  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I would like today to 
congratulate Daniel S. Coelho, a good friend and mentor of mine, as he 
celebrates his 50th year as a leader in the financial security 
industry. As he celebrates this milestone, he can take pride in having 
helping thousands of families to ensure their financial future and 
start productive new businesses.
  Many of my colleagues know that I began my professional life as an 
independent insurance agent, specializing in whole life insurance. It 
was during those early years that I came to know Daniel Coelho, who was 
my general agent with Penn Mutual Life and helped me learn the trade 
and how important these policies can be for American families.
  Americans today have an entire universe of options to invest in their 
future, from Individual Retirement Accounts to 401k savings. But before 
any of these were established, whole life insurance was the most 
important way for American families to plan for their future. Millions 
of families ensured that their spouses and children would have 
financial security, while at the same time laying a foundation for 
their own retirement. And millions of entrepreneurs have used these 
policies as the only way to get capital to start the small businesses 
that are the bedrock of our economy.
  Dan Coelho has spent 5 decades in this industry, establishing a 
record of business ethics and policy leadership that has earned the 
trust of thousands of families who have counted on him and his firm to 
lay their financial future. His advice and support has helped 
entrepreneurs create thousands of small businesses--many of which are 
now large and successful firms.
  A California native born to immigrant parents, Dan graduated from 
University of California, Berkeley in 1950 after capping his college 
career by being elected student body president. He went to work for 
Bechtel Corporation in Arkansas, where he met his future wife, Jenny 
Johnson.
  After service in the Korean conflict, Dan entered his life insurance 
career with the Penn Mutual Life General Agency in San Francisco, and 
was appointed General Agent in Detroit in 1957. After that agency was 
given the company's President's Award, he was offered the Los Angeles 
agency in 1962. Over the next 23 years, the Los Angeles agency grew 
into one of the nation's largest, and was renamed Resources Financial. 
It now offers a full range of investment and estate planning and 
business services for small and large companies.
  Daniel Coelho has become known to many of my colleagues as a Core 
Group Member for the Association for Advanced Life Underwriters, which 
seeks to protect these basic investments for Americans. There is no 
doubt that some in government have had their eye on these pools of 
individual financial security as potential sources for taxation, and 
investors should thank Dan Coelho and his fellows for watching over 
their interests in Washington and state capitals.
  Mr. Speaker, thousands of families owe their financial peace of mind 
to Daniel S. Coelho and the company he has led for the past 50 years. 
Please join me in congratulating him for those years of success and 
service, and wish him and Jenny well in their future endeavors.

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