My Message to the AALU: Drop the Restrictions on Press Access

I can appreciate this rationale—to a point. Reporters, true to their profession, have a penchant of asking those in the public eye probing questions that may not be to the liking of (in this case) conference speakers and/or audience members.

Also, session speakers and attendees want to be able to engage one another forthrightly in a relaxed, informal environment. That can be difficult if they know their comments will be faithfully aired—or distorted—in the next web or print edition of an industry magazine or general business publication.

These concerns, in my view, are outweighed by the greater benefit that unrestricted press access would yield for the association's organizers. And what I wrote last year about this bears repeating: My reporting of conference content serves both to: (1) educate readers about news and trends that impact them; and (2) offer advisors a window into career-enhancing skills and expertise available to them in greater depth, if only they would attend.

By preventing journalists from covering professional development content at the annual conference, the AALU also denies itself a valuable member outreach opportunity. At a time when attendance at association meetings is on the decline—because of restrictions on business travel budgets; a disinclination among many young professionals to attend professional development events; and, in the insurance space, a fragmenting of the advisory workforce—it's more important than ever that the AALU avail itself of every opportunity for increased exposure And the AALU, like many of its sister organizations, needs to significantly boost its membership to wield the political clout needed to ward off the perennial threats to the tax-favored treatment of life insurance. The danger is particularly acute now because Congress is now keen to end various "tax-expenditures"—revenue the federal government forgoes through provisions in the tax code—in order to close the burgeoning budget deficit and national debt.

Evidently, AALU executives remain unconvinced by these arguments. So I and editorial colleagues at Summit Business Media will report on what we can for our loyal readers—AALU member prospects or otherwise. And we'll continue to hope that the association will ultimately see the wisdom of reversing its position on press access.