NAIFA News

The story ran Friday on National Pubic Radio.

The NAIFA State Government Relations team has developed a State Exchange Tracking System (SETS) to track the state associations’ activities and to allow a forum in which those "on the ground" can communicate with state association leaders in other states to share and advance ideas, research, and policy solutions to help each other.

With 2011 rapidly approaching it’s time to plan, get organized and employ tested principles to make the most of the coming year!

Joel Steele says "I love what i do!"

NAIFA will watch these developments closely. Certainly the chairmen's proposal as drafted would likely diminish the market for life insurance, annuities and employer-provided benefit programs. At the moment it appears chances are good that these proposals will not get the "super majority" vote by the commissioners that will require Congress to vote on them. In the meantime, the response has been tepid so far from key lawmakers in Congress. But ideas (both positive and negative) tend to take on a life of their own in Washington. NAIFA members can expect the ideas contained in the chairmen's recommendations to be around for a long time.

While in theory it would be nice if everything were simple, the reality is that some things are necessarily complex. Heart surgery is a complicated procedure. That doesn't make it wrong. Having a health care system that pays for numerous intricate procedures in various patient-selected settings is not always simple. Having access to professional, highly trained agents who can assist consumers with complicated matters remains vital.

After surviving the mortgage crisis, families can still lose their homes to estate recovery because they didn’t plan ahead for long-term care.

NAIFA is concerned that allowing broker-dealers to compete based on the commissions they charge and the services they provide will lead to a "race to the bottom," causing middle market investors to be overly focused on price and ending up without access to valuable advice and ongoing account services.

What can NAIFA do to help its members make the most of social networking? Please give us your thoughts, and share with us your and your company's social networking sites in the comments area below.