Advocacy in action blog

The 2024 Congressional Conference is coming to Washington, D.C., May 20-21. This is NAIFA's can't-miss signature grassroots event and the most impactful association fly-in in the insurance and financial services industry. See who is attending. If your name is not on the list, register today to have it added. If you know of colleagues who might like to attend, why don't you give them a friendly nudge? The more people we have in Washington advocating for our businesses, clients, and communities the more influential we are.

On Tuesday, March 12, 2024, John Richardson and Mark Miller, members of NAIFA-Tennessee, showed the impact of grassroots advocacy by advocating against two sets of bills detrimental to the industry.

The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) hosted its second Women’s Financial Security Fly-In March 6-7 in Washington, D.C. The event, designed to encourage the political involvement of women financial professionals, featured a day of grassroots advocacy training, policy briefings, inspirational discussions, and networking. On the second day of the event, attendees from 15 different states went to Capitol Hill for meetings with lawmakers representing their home states and districts.

NAIFA's Congressional Conference shines a spotlight on NAIFA's unmatched advocacy influence and provides financial professionals with another way to serve clients' best interests. NAIFA members who meet with their members of Congress this May will not only be advocating for their own businesses but also for their colleagues, clients, and communities. Decisions made in Washinton, D.C., affect families and businesses nationwide that rely on NAIFA members for financial guidance.

NAIFA state legislative days allow insurance and financial professionals to share NAIFA's grassroots message and nurture relationships with state lawmakers. Many of these events occur in the first quarter of the year. So far, NAIFA chapters in Florida, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Washington have held successful 2024 state legislative days. Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, and South Carolina have events coming soon.

Just two days after NAIFA members were on the Hill, House Committee on Small Business Chairman Roger Williams (R-TX), Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA), Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO), and Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL) wrote to Department of Labor Acting Secretary Julie SU inquiring about the impact of the DOL proposal on small businesses. 

More than 250 NAIFA members took to Capitol Hill today to meet with over 200 Congressional offices to advance the need to protect the worker classification of financial service professionals as independent contractors and to provide consumers a variety of choices in financial service professionals. The Day on the Hill was coupled with NAIFA’s National Leadership Conference which serves to train the leaders of state and local chapters in grassroots advocacy.

NAIFA members held more than 135 In-District Meetings with federal lawmakers and senior staff during the recent Congressional recess. This is the second post-COVID year in a row that the number of meetings has reached triple digits. In addition, many NAIFA members also met with state officials over the summer.

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” 
- Mother Teresa. 

On August 3rd, NAIFA-Utah held its annual Legislative Engagement Day in Salt Lake. The fact that we were able to count on all four of our U.S. Congressional representatives to participate made for a successful and informative meeting. Dori Phillips, our NAIFA-Utah VP of Advocacy and our Grassroots Chair representative, did a superb job of coordinating schedules so that each could address us. While their broad message focused on the state of the nation, each had a unique approach and shared stories of their own path and experience in working with financial professionals.

Congress has begun its August recess, and members of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) are capitalizing on lawmakers’ annual working session in their home districts by meeting with their Representatives and Senators to strengthen grassroots relationships and discuss issues important to financial professionals and their clients.