NAIFA and AALU Plan to Have IMPACT on Capitol Hill |
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Written by U.S. Insurance News
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Saturday, 22 December 2007 |
For so many industries, having influence on Capitol Hill can’t be overstated. That includes the insurance industry, especially now.
For so many industries, having influence on Capitol Hill can’t be overstated. That includes the insurance industry, especially now.
Thus, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) and the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU) have decided to join efforts through a political education program—IMPACT—in order for their members to increase the industry’s ability to deal with challenges facing life insurance products. IMPACT is an outgrowth of AALU’s continued recognition of the important role of NAIFA, its new leadership, and the strategic vision of the NAIFA 21 plan to increase political advocacy.
AALU has successfully used IMPACT to build relationships between its members and leaders of the U.S. House and Senate, including members of congressional tax-writing committees. These relationships have influenced how legislators view the importance of life insurance and how it benefits constituents.
NAIFA and AALU will work to significantly increase the benefits of IMPACT by providing it to NAIFA’s much larger membership base. NAIFA has 800 state and local associations representing the business interests of 225,000 members and their employees throughout the country.
AALU President Larry Raymond said that while his association is on the “front lines” in fighting back threats to advanced life insurance planning, issues like tax reform call for the broad-based, grassroots strengths that NAIFA provides. “The NAIFA 21 plan and the vision of [NAIFA President] Jeff Taggart and new NAIFA CEO John Healy are very important to better protect the life insurance industry,” Raymond said.
The immediate plan is to provide advanced training for up to 50 NAIFA members annually through intensive sessions and systematic follow-up to develop and strengthen relationships with key federal legislators.
“The intent is to form up to 250 close relationships between NAIFA members and key legislators over the next five years,” Taggart said. “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.”
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