Ameritas’ Growth Leaders Program

By Suzanne Carawan

The Talent Development Center was launched in 2020 to provide a digital hub for content, events, programs and conversations around the topics of personal and professional performance. The newest Center of Excellence is devoted to the betterment of the individual advisor, and whether that is in regard to building out your centers of influence, personal branding, prospecting tips, or how to navigate each stage of your career, the Talent Development Center will cover it through content curation and event programming.

One of the member programs that is housed in the Talent Development Center is the Young Advisor Team, which provides a community home for advisors who are under 40 years old or have been in the business five years or less. Otherwise known as YAT, the program offers chair positions at the local, state and national levels, and it names one Young Advisor Team Leader of the Year at the national level. The YAT National Committee oversees the popular Advisor Ambassador Program, which seeks to promote membership to new advisors who don’t know NAIFA, as well as oversees a webinar series. YAT also offers the Future Leaders program, which seeks to expand NAIFA’s outreach into junior colleges, colleges and universities.

In late 2020, the YAT program was met with a new opportunity in partnering with Ameritas, which has long offered an exclusive study group called the Ameritas Growth Leaders program focused on developing the next generation of financial service industry leaders. Ameritas’ advisors must qualify for the study group and actively participate. Ameritas and NAIFA partnered the Growth Leaders Program with the YAT program to extend the following to all Ameritas Growth Leaders:

• Membership: Complimentary NAIFA membership courtesy of Ameritas.

• Mentorship: NAIFA mentors will provide resources and foundational courses for career success.

• Advocacy training: Learning will focus on building relationships with legislators and advocating for clients.

• Recognition: Spotlight features aimed to elevate professional presence with clients and prospects.

The incredible foresight that Ameritas showed by partnering with NAIFA to provide accelerated advocacy and media training to its up-and-coming advisors evidences its commitment to not just recruitment of top talent, but more importantly, retention. Several stellar NAIFA YAT members have been part of the Ameritas program and actively provided testimonials as to the power of participating in NAIFA during the special orientation held for the group in late February.

Blake Gillies, the current National Co-Chair of the Young Advisor Team, provided the study group with a testimonial on how his involvement with NAIFA has provided him access to several trips to the Louisiana statehouse and Capitol Hill where he has been able to meet face-to-face with his representatives to discuss issues affecting the financial services industry at the state and federal levels. Kate Cihon, another NAIFA YAT who is also a past national Advisor Today

Four Under 40 winner and NAIFAColorado member, talked about how important NAIFA is to finding mentors and modeling your practice and approach after the legendary members who have been in the business for decades and are more than willing to share what they know with another NAIFA member. Rebecca Schulter, another national YAT committee person and current Membership Chair and President-Elect for NAIFA-Memphis and a NAIFA-Tennessee member, completed the set of testimonies by discussing how NAIFA has allowed her to improve her personal performance and commitment to her own practice and the industry through volunteering and actively advocating at the local, state and national levels.

The endorsement of the power of NAIFA and the invitation to get involved from key YAT leaders, such as Gillies, Cihon and Schulter, paved the