The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) is intensifying its efforts to grow membership by launching an advertising campaign using the slogan, "It Pays to Be a Member."
It is part of a multi-pronged campaign to re-energize the organization launched by its new president, Robert Miller.
According to Miller, the effort will include using what he termed "cyberspace" to improve outreach to members by using webinars and other Internet tools to provide continuing education. They will also utilize state and local associations to both recruit new members and energize existing ones.
In an interview, he said, "We at NAIFA are not sitting on our haunches and 120 years of history. We are always and continually asking ourselves. How can we do it better? You can talk all about platitudes, but we are in the business of making a living. This is another way of helping membership because we need name recognition, we want people to think of NAIFA, NAIFA, NAIFA, we want NAIFA to have that kind of market recognizability. This is our first salvo, a great start. NAIFA members earn more money. What could be better than that?"
Explaining the new slogan, Miller said, "When I see, 'It pays to be a NAIFA member', that has to pique my curiosity. What are they doing, what are they offering that helps NAIFA members earn more money? is the question that slogan brings to mind to me? As a result, I am going to go to, hopefully, a meeting, or on online to find out what they are offering. We want NAIFA to be on the tip of the insurance world, we are doing a lot of things to buttress membership and to get things organized in a way that is going to bring results. All of this is happening right now.
In an interview with the National Underwriter, he said, "We recognize that we need to do a better job of bringing members into the fold."
Implied in his remarks is a substantial loss of members over the years, as well as the defections of the Million Dollar Roundtable and the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting, both of which are now totally separate organizations.
"I'm not embarrassed to say it," he said. "We have to modernize this movement and bring it in the future and that is what we are doing"
Robert Miller is a partner at Miller-Pomerantz and Associates in New York City. He became NAIFA's president in September 2011.
Mr. Miller has served on NAIFA's Board of Trustees since 2005 and on the Executive Committee since 2009.
