NAIFA’s Annual Conference Is Performance Purpose!

If you were among the hundreds of financial advisors who made it to Las Vegas for NAIFA’s 2016 Performance + Purpose Conference this September, you most likely went home a winner. With its focus on performance and its re-designed programming, the conference provided the strategies you need to enhance the financial performance of your practice.

On Friday, September 16, attendees participated in two new events — the NAIFA Masters Exchange, where they gained critical insights from industry greats, and a Stop Hunger Now Service Project, where they helped package meals for people in need.

And on Saturday, September 17, they had a unique opportunity to attend an educational workshop on the Department of Labor rule. As noted by NAIFA CEO Kevin Mayeux, CAE, “Our comprehensive, four-hour Skill Builders workshop on the DOL rule helps advisors understand the rule’s requirements and restrictions, develop strategies to implement the rule within their practices and become compliant while best serving the needs of their clients.”

The DOL rule is a topic of major concern to many NAIFA members. According to a recent NAIFA survey, many believe the rule will damage their ability to serve clients, particularly their lower- or middleincome clients. More than 62 percent said the rule will, or will probably, force them to stop serving some or all of their clients, and 11 percent were unsure if the rule would force them to stop serving clients.

Pursuing diverse markets

With the explosive growth of diverse communities in the U.S., many advisors are discovering that pursuing multicultural prospects is one of the best ways to boost production. On hand to show attendees how to pursue these often lucrative markets were some members of NAIFA’s Diversity Task Force — Aamir Chalisa, MBA, LUTCF, with Futurity First; Irma Quinones, CLTC, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF, with New York Life; Ali Agha, CFP, CLU, ChFC, with New

York Life; as well as Bryan Hughes, with Northwestern Mutual.

According to these experts, the best way to achieve success in these markets is to:

Be open to learning about different cultures, ask questions and show genuine interest in your prospects’ goals, aspirations and concerns.

“When people see that you are trying to learn about their cultures, they will truly open up to you,” said Ali Agha. • Use the fact-finding exercise as an opportunity to learn what makes your prospect tick, added Agha. For example, he said, you can ask how your prospects make financial decisions in their households. In dealing with couples from different ethnic backgrounds, always try to involve both spouses in all decision-making efforts. Embrace diversity thoroughly and do a thorough research on the group you are targeting. Google is a good way to start the research process, they advised.

NAIFA has recently released a report, “Finding Success in Diverse Markets” (available at bit.ly/ NAIFA_Report), which examines the diverse communities that are rapidly changing the face of America and offers critical insights for successful engagement. The report is sponsored by The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, an organization that recognizes the opportunities that lie ahead for advisors serving diverse markets. NAIFA has also secured the National African American Insurance Association (NAAIA) as a diversity partner.

Promises kept

During the General Session on Sunday, NAIFA President Jules

Gaudreau, ChFC, CIC, provided attendees with a checklist of some of the association’s accomplishments over the past year. Among them:

✔ Strategy: NAIFA created NAIFA 20/20, a strategic plan that reflects the realities of today and the possibilities of tomorrow.

✔ Operations: NAIFA operated under the discipline of a business plan developed from the strategic plan, identifying the key performance indicators of association success, with objective measures to determine progress.

✔ Fiscal Stewardship: NAIFA exercised financial discipline, making difficult decisions to cut non-essential expenses, assess staff size and remediate future pension liabilities so that future generations of NAIFA members would not be asked to pay for legacy liabilities from the past.

✔ Advocacy: NAIFA fulfilled its promise of advocating for the industry, with the DOL’s fiduciary rule a primary focus in 2016. “Unfortunately, the wedge it will drive between advisors and middle-income investors is something we just couldn’t stomach; so under my watch, NAIFA sued the federal government for the first time in a generation, proving once again that NAIFA was built for times like these.”

✔ State Support: NAIFA members on the local and state levels are the roots of advocacy at all levels, and the creation of the Capitol 50 Program is testament to NAIFA’s promise to support state associations.

✔ Member Value: NAIFA refined its professional development strategies based on comprehensive research from Association Laboratories. This conference reflects a new direction in the delivery of professional development, education and sales ideas to members.

✔ Diversity: NAIFA promised it would reach out to and serve more diverse communities to make the association more reflective of the profession and the country.

Gaudreau cited other NAIFA accomplishments, including improving industry relations and collaboration with all members. “Check! Check! Check! We did all of those and we kept our promises,” he said. As a mission-driven organization, “we must think bigger, better and bolder,” he added. “Have faith in our execution…I’ve done my best. I hope it mattered.”

A great time to sell more insurance

On Monday, September 19, veteran producer and popular speaker Van Mueller, LUTCF, told the audience that although the U.S. will be facing a financial crisis, now is the greatest time to sell life insurance. While we are being told that the economy is recovering, the Federal Reserve is afraid to raise short-term interest rates. “Does that sound like a recovery?” he asked. “You are the only hope for the American people,” he said. “It’s your time.”

Advisors often make a mistake by telling clients and prospects that they know what is going to happen. A better approach is to emphasize that no one knows what will happen. The presidential race, the Federal Reserve, SEC regulations and myriad other things all create uncertainty. Life insurance, on the other hand, provides security and liquidity, as well as the opportunity to access credit, which will dry up in a full-blown crisis.

Most Americans would prefer to be guaranteed that they will never be poor than to have an opportunity to be rich. So advisors need to change their messages to prospects and clients. “Don’t tell people you will make them a lot of money,” Mueller said. Instead, explain how you can help them protect what they already have with life insurance.

In one of his typical “elevator speeches” with prospects, Mueller often asks, “Is there someone at the IRS or the local nursing home you are so in love with that you want to leave all of your money to them?” He then explains how life insurance provides tax advantages and can mitigate retirement and long-term-care expenses.

In another elevator speech to prospects, he says, “We’re afraid there’s going to be a major economic disaster and we don’t understand why people let it happen to them, because it doesn’t happen to any of our people.” The point is to grab a prospect’s attention and open the door to a discussion about the security that life insurance provides. Overwhelming a client or prospect with “fabulous information” will not resonate with them. To be successful, advisors must have conversations, ask questions and build relationships.

The business of NAIFA

Also, on Monday, NAIFA leaders and members tended to the business of the association. One year after joining NAIFA as its CEO, Kevin Mayeux, CAE, told the National Council that the association “has forged a new path” through NAIFA 20/20 (learn more at bit. ly/NAIFA2020). In his address, he recalled how he was “impressed and inspired” by NAIFA members’ dedication and loyalty to their association. But to move forward, leaders must acknowledge existing challenges, such as an aging and shrinking field force, declining NAIFA membership and increasingly burdensome government legislation and regulation.

NAIFA 20/20 provides a new financial and business model to streamline the federation, diversify revenue and grow membership. The plan identifies three major goals for the next five years:

✔ Empowerment. This will create a positive environment for advisors and their clients. “NAIFA is the advisor community’s strongest and most resilient voice,” Mayeux said.

“Empowerment strengthens that voice and ensures our concerns are heard loud and clear in Washington and in every state capital.”

✔ Improving the NAIFA business model. By improving the model, NAIFA can more effectively and efficiently deliver member value and grow membership across the federation, with nimble decisionmaking, a governance structure that empowers NAIFA to act quickly and decisively on new opportunities and challenges.

✔ Transforming the NAIFA financial model to generate more revenue from a diverse portfolio of products and services, including training, certifications and direct corporate support.

“Tomorrow’s NAIFA will be different from today’s in the way it is structured, the products and services it offers, the markets it pursues and the members it attracts,” Mayeux said. “What we hold true, though, the values that we instill in each new generation of advisors — trust, service, integrity, professionalism, political involvement — those values will endure. By working together, there is no limit as to what we can accomplish.”

National Council

The association’s National Council also elected new officers and trustees. NAIFA’s new president is Paul R. Dougherty, LUTCF, FSS, HIA, of State Farm Insurance Companies in Hyattsville, Maryland.

“From state-run retirement plans to the DOL fiduciary rule,

Recognizing Top Performers

Performance + Purpose 2016 was more than a great place to take advantage of the knowledge and talent of great presenters — it was also a community gathering for attendees and the ideal place to greet old friends, make new ones, network with the best in the industry and share ideas.

Along with the larger community of advisors, the conference featured special events for various advisor groups, including young advisors, LILI graduates, LUTCF designees and members of Women in Insurance and Financial Services.

NAIFA Performance + Purpose was also the perfect venue for members of the NAIFA community to recognize their peers for their outstanding work and dedication to the profession. During the conference, Kim Kieschnick received NAIFA’s most prestigious honor in association management — the C. Carney Smith Award. Kieschnick is the executive director of NAIFA-Austin (Texas) and the 41st recipient of the Award, which was created to honor the legacy of C. Carney Smith, CLU. Established in 1976, the award promotes the advancement of professionalism in the field of association management among NAIFA state and local associations. Receiving the 2016 Young Advisors Team Leader of the Year Award was Jason Carter, LUTCF.

The 2016 John Newton Russell Memorial Award was bestowed upon D. Scott Brennan of South Bend, Indiana. The JNR Award is the highest honor accorded by the insurance industry to a living individual who has rendered outstanding services to the institution of life insurance.

Brennan, a career MassMutual agent, is a past MDRT president and an active and long-time NAIFA member. On accepting the award, he described himself as “a very ordinary man who worked in an extraordinary profession. I took a vow of poverty my first few years in the life insurance businesses. I didn’t qualify for the Round Table; I don’t think I would have qualified for an end table,” he said. “There may be someone here who is thinking about leaving the profession who shouldn’t. If that is so, I dedicate this talk to you. If I can do it, you can do it.”

He described the act of buying life insurance as “an exchange of emotion.” And to those agents who endure days of landing no sales, his advice is, “Forgive yourself. Learn how to accept the tough days and celebrate the great days. And, join NAIFA. NAIFA isn’t good because we are old. NAIFA is old because we are good.” the future of our industry is being impacted by likely well-intentioned but misinformed legislators and unelected regulators,” Dougherty said in his first National Council address as 2016–2017 NAIFA president. “As a result, we cannot afford to only be vigilant — we must also be aggressive and proactive in our efforts to educate and inform our public leaders, to share with them the potential hazards faced by our customers when they attempt to navigate these financial waters without our help.”

Also featured during the conference was The Client Service Recognition Program, which is sponsored by Life Happens and recognizes recipients of the Real Life Stories Awards. The emotional stories told by the recipients’ clients who overcame tremendous difficulties with the help of insurance captivated the audience and brought to life the powerful role insurance plays when tragedy strikes. Real Life Stories videos are available on the Life Happens website (lifehappens.org/videos/).

Dougherty urged members to remain involved in NAIFA’s political advocacy initiatives and to build upon relationships with elected officials so they will hear the NAIFA Story. “Every day, we ask our clients to sacrifice a little to protect what is at stake. It’s only right that each of us do the same” for the industry, he said.

He also encouraged members to help grow membership. “Our work today, tomorrow and for the next year together is to bring [non-members] to NAIFA, to help them understand that we are the guardians at the gate for our industry and that it’s time for them to pick up a shield and stick and do their part. Our most significant foe in today’s environment is apathy, and our challenge is to kick in the door of those who are sitting on the sidelines and get them back in the game.”

NAIFA is on track for a successful future with implementation of NAIFA 20/20, he said. “We have to follow the course and be unapologetic in our pride as we get this done…We cannot quit, we cannot fail because so many others are counting on us…our clients, our communities, our country.”

Joining Dougherty on NAIFA’s Executive Committee are:

President-Elect Keith M. Gillies, CFP, CLU, ChFC, of Ameritas in La Place, Louisiana; Treasurer Matthew S. Tassey, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF, of

Principal Financial Group in Portland, Maine; and Secretary Jill M. Judd, LUTCF, FSS, of State Farm Insurance Companies in Capitola, California.

After serving his one-year term as president, Jules O. Gaudreau, Jr., ChFC, CIC, of the Gaudreau Group in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, becomes immediate past president and will remain a member of NAIFA’s Executive Committee.

Gregory T. Toscano, LUTCF, of Johnson Insurance Consultants in Duluth, Minnesota, was elected to the board to serve a two-year term. Toscano was previously a member of the board, 2013-2015. Delvin L. Joyce, CLU, ChFC, of Prudential Financial in West Palm Beach, Florida, was appointed to the board for a one-year term.

Re-elected for two-year terms were board members David A. Beaty, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF, of Heartland Financial Services in Cedar Falls, Iowa; Thomas O. Michel of Michel Financial Group in Los Angeles; Charles M. Olson, CLU, ChFC, of

OCI Financial in Omaha, Nebraska; and Brock T. Jolly, CFP, CLU, ChFC, of Capitol Financial Partners in Vienna, Virginia.

Remaining on the board as trustees are: Aprilyn Geissler, of the Chavez Geissler Agency in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Todd G. Grantham, CFP, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, of the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network in Durham, North Carolina; Bryon A. Holz, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF, CASL, of Bryon Holz & Associates in Brandon, Florida; Booker Joseph, CLU, ChFC, FLMI, of United Healthcare in Birmingham, Alabama; and Cammie K. Scott, LUTCF, REBC, RHU, of CK Harp & Associates in Springdale, Arkansas.

The National Council also voted in support of two bylaw amendments initiated by the NAIFA Board of Trustees. The first adjusts each NAIFA member’s national dues investment by $6.00 a month, beginning Jan. 1, 2017, to fund NAIFA 20/20 and maintain NAIFA’s operations as the plan is implemented.

The second will revise the existing NAIFA bylaws provision that authorizes the NAIFA Board to set a corporate dues rate for specific companies. The amendment authorizes the NAIFA Board to set dues rates for companies who wish to pay a group dues rate for their advisors, whether those companies are insurance carriers, independent advisor groups or broker-dealers.

Be sure to join us in Orlando from September 8 to 10 next year for the 2017 Performance + Purpose Conference. See you there!

By Michael Hedge and Steve Klein