NAIFA and AALU Announce Plans for Increased Political Collaboration
Contact
NAIFA:
Jeffrey J. Taggart, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF (307-527-6204);
William Anderson (703-770-8193) wanderson@naifa.org
AALU:
Lawrence B. Raymond, CLU, ChFC, CFP®, CPC (248-540-5300);
Tom Korb (703-641-8120) korb@aalu.org
December 17, 2007 (FALLS CHURCH, VA) The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) and the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU) have announced plans for a joint political education program for their members to increase the industry’s capability to deal with tough challenges facing life insurance products. The joint program is an outgrowth of continued recognition by AALU of the critically important role of NAIFA, its new leadership and the strategic vision of the NAIFA 21 plan to increase political advocacy.
The program, called IMPACT, has been used very successfully by AALU to build close relationships between its members and members of the U.S. House and Senate tax-writing committees and leadership. These relationships make a tremendous difference in helping legislators understand the importance of life insurance and how it benefits constituents. The strategy going forward is for NAIFA and AALU to collaborate to significantly increase the benefits of the program by providing it to NAIFA’s much larger membership base. NAIFA is comprised of 770 state and local associations representing the business interests of 225,000 members and their employees nationwide. The immediate plan is to provide advanced training for up to 50 NAIFA members per year through intensive sessions and systematic follow up to develop and strengthen relationships with key federal legislators.
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“The intent is to form up to 250 close relationships between NAIFA members and key legislators over the next five years,” said NAIFA President Jeffrey Taggart, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF. “Given the issues we face—like consideration of broad-based tax reform that could threaten our products—this is one of many ways NAIFA will build its political grassroots systems as part of the NAIFA 21 strategic plan. We are substantially increasing our investment to build our political advocacy infrastructure and strengthen our strategic partnerships, such as the one we have with AALU.”
“The NAIFA 21 plan and the vision of Jeff Taggart and new NAIFA CEO John Healy are very important to better protect the life insurance industry,” said AALU President Larry Raymond. “AALU is on the front lines in combating threats to advanced life insurance planning. But with an issue like tax reform, we need the broad-based grassroots strength of the NAIFA membership. This new IMPACT initiative is one of many efforts NAIFA and AALU are undertaking to build greater industry unity and strength.”
About NAIFA: Founded in 1890 as the National Association of Life Underwriters, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors comprises 770 state and local associations representing the business interests of 225,000 members and their employees nationwide. Members focus their practices on one or more of the following: life insurance and annuities, health insurance and employee benefits, multiline, and financial advising and investments. NAIFA's mission is to advocate for a positive legislative and regulatory environment, enhance business and professional skills, and promote the ethical conduct of its members. Visit NAIFA's website at www.naifa.org.
About AALU: Founded in 1957, the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU) is a professional trade association representing 2,000 life and health insurance agents and financial advisors nationwide. Most members are engaged in complex uses of life insurance such as in business continuation planning, estate planning, charitable planning, retirement planning, deferred compensation and employee benefit planning. The mission of AALU is to promote, preserve and protect advanced life insurance planning for the benefit of its members, their clients, the industry and the general public. AALU's website can be accessed at www.aalu.org.
