Join Us, Because Washington Does Actually Listen to Us: NAIFA Leaders

NAIFA has good results with new initiatives, including a new consumer financial education website, financialsecurity.org, and a new Life and Annuity Certified Professional (LACP) professional designation program. More than 20 large life insurers now recognize the LACP credential, Mayeux said.

Advocacy

Diane Boyle, NAIFA's senior vice president for government relations, told the Zoom meeting participants that joining NAIFA helps NAIFA do a better job of representing financial professionals' interests in Washington and in state capitals.

"This might be surprising, but numbers actually matter to lawmakers," Boyle said.

Boyle said NAIFA has been shaping a wide range of state and federal efforts, such as a Massachusetts financial services sales standards regulation, a Colorado tax bill, and the new federal Paycheck Protection Program.

Boyle said NAIFA helped persuade Massachusetts regulators to tweak their sales standards in ways that reduced the standards' adverse impact; helped persuade Colorado not to tax annuities; and contributed to the effort to persuade Iowa and Arizona to adopt annuity sales standards based on a new National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) model.

Persuading states to stick as much as possible with the NAIC model will increase regulatory consistency and make doing business easier, Boyle said.

Boyle said having members in every jurisdiction, encouraging members to contribute to NAIFA political action committees, and mobilizing members to build personal relationships with regulators and lawmakers at the local and state level, is critical to giving NAIFA a voice in Washington, as well as in state capitals.

"State legislators often find their way to Congress, and, when they do, NAIFA already has a warm relationship," Boyle said. "There's no cold calling for us… By supporting campaigns NAIFA is able to develop relationships with state and federal candidates before they're elected…. We don't always agree with each other, but at least they know they can ask for assistance."

Recently, Boyle said, NAIFA was able to get benefits like short-term disability insurance included in the definition of "payroll," for Paycheck Protection Program purposes, because it volunteered support for a lawmaker who was already trying to persuade colleagues to take that approach.

The lawmaker was open to NAIFA's help partly because she already had a good relationship with a NAIFA member who was a constituent, Boyle said.

The Mission

Scott said the key for NAIFA members, and prospective members, is to see that helping clients achieve financial security is an important mission.

"You've all seen the news with the lines at the food banks," Scott said. "You've watched the struggle of mainstream Americans as they waited in line. It's hard times."

Scott said that NAIFA members can help at least some people avoid those kinds of situations.

"You deal in hope," Scott said. "You train, educate, equip and empower people."

— Read Why NAIFA Needs to Update Its Bylaws, on ThinkAdvisor.

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