Families deserved better,
Montana needed better,
so we created Big Sky.
We set out to build something rooted in real relationships, real products, and a genuine commitment to the people we serve across the country.
A mini history to help you understand our heart.
Our mission is to spread the heart of Montana to the rest of the nation.
2022
Montana finally had its own.
For the first time in over fifty years, a life insurance company was domiciled right here in Montana. Not a branch office. Not a regional rep. A real company, built by Montanans, licensed by the State of Montana, and built around a simple belief that families deserved more than what the industry was offering them.
2024
The idea was working.
Before a national footprint. Before a marketing budget. Before any of the infrastructure that comes later, the product was already finding families who needed it. Built on conviction and word of mouth, Big Sky proved the concept was real.
2026
The table got a lot bigger
ScholarGuard and Family Protector launched nationally, bringing Big Sky into homes across more than a dozen states. The company that started with one product and a handshake culture is now one of the fastest-growing life insurers in the country, still run by the same people who knocked on doors in Montana to explain why it mattered.
Our founding board members.
Who helped form the foundations for Big Sky.
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Craig Tilleman
Automotive & Equipment Leader
Craig Tilleman runs a family group of businesses, including Tilleman Motors and Tilleman Equipment in Montana, and is a former member of the Montana State Senate. As a member of Big Sky Direct, Craig is a founding member passionate about leading the company into supporting Montana.
Montana State Senate
From 2011–2013
NADA
Voice of Montana dealers in D.C.
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Flint Rasmussen
PBR Face
For twenty-five years, Flint Rasmussen was the face rodeo audiences turned to between rides, taking the sport from county fairgrounds to national television. He brings that same instinct for talking plainly to people to the Big Sky Direct board.
Most Famous Rodeo Clown In All of History
PBR
Hall of Fame
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Jim Sitz
Agricultural & Ranch Leader in Montana
Jim Sitz is a highly prominent American cattleman, agricultural leader, and co-owner of Sitz Angus Ranch, one of the most respected and historically significant registered seedstock operations in the United States. Alongside his brother Bob Jr., Jim represents the third generation of his family to pioneer advancements in livestock genetics and ranching.
100 Year
Family ranching history at Sitz Ranch.
2024
Inducted into Angus Heritage Foundation
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Joe Goggin
Automotive & Equipment Leader
Joe Goggins is the President of the Livestock Marketing Association and CEO of Vermillion Ranch Corp. based in Billings, Montana. A prominent fourth-generation rancher and purebred auctioneer, he oversees multiple major livestock marketing channels, including the Billings Livestock Commission and Northern Livestock Video Auction.
#1 Elite
Auctioneer in the entire world.
Grassroots
Advocate for movement of keeping the youth in farming.
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Don Peoples Jr
Founding Board Member
Don Jr. coached Butte Central Maroons for over 35 years, compiling more than 200 wins and building one of Montana's most respected high school football programs. He also serves as superintendent of Butte Central Schools and president of the BC Foundation. In 2023 he survived a widow maker heart attack, brought back by his daughter's CPR on the side of the road. He came back to the sideline. That is the kind of person Big Sky builds with.
Butte Sports Hall of Fame, 2026
200+
Wins as Head Coach of Butte Central
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Pete Anderson
Founding Board Member
Pete Anderson grew up on his family's Montana ranch and took his head for numbers to college on a football scholarship. Six years in the financial sector — first with New York Life, then independently alongside ranchers, farmers, business owners and healthcare professionals — taught him to build the plan around the person in front of him. He is now Vice President of Wealth Management at Clarity Capital Partners, and still rides the family place when the office lets him.
Series 65
Licensed in 2023, the year he joined Clarity Capital.
Rocky Mountain
Football scholarship, degree in Business Management.
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Don Peoples Sr.
In Memoriam 2026, Founding Board Member
Notably recognized for his tenure as the Chief Executive of Butte-Silver Bow County, Don guided the region through critical economic transitions, earning national distinction as one of the country's top local leaders. Don's deep-rooted commitment to regional growth and structural oversight plays a pivotal role in steering Big Sky Direct's strategic initiatives.
“The man who saved Butte”
Top 20
Mayors in the United States
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Mike Tilleman
In Memoriam 2020, Founding Board Member
A Hi-Line kid who threw rocks because there were no baseballs on the farm, Mike Tilleman took that Montana grit to twelve NFL seasons, came back from cancer surgery twice, and still led the league in sacks. He brought that same conviction home to Big Sky, believing that Montanans deserved institutions built to last.
“There’s no northern football without Mike”
1973
All Pro
What the team at Big Sky Direct believes.
What we believe informs the experience in how we serve you.
Montana is not just where we are from, it is how we operate
No riders you cannot read, no clauses that only surface at claim time. If it takes a lawyer to understand, it is not a policy we will sell.
Life insurance should serve you while you are living
We started by knocking on doors in Montana to explain why this mattered. The company is larger now; the way we treat the person across the table is not.
Protecting the youth, protecting the future
Every product we launch has to hold up for the family buying it, not for the quarter it ships in. That has cost us revenue and we would do it again.
We are better together.
No one wins alone, not internally and not for the families we serve. The village mentality is structural to how we operate.