The new Talent Development Center bundles together business & personal performance programs for every career stage

The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) announced the creation of the Talent Development Center which focuses on providing personal development programs to serve every stage of a financial service professional’s career. The new Center was announced Sept. 14 at NAIFA’s 2019 Performance + Purpose Conference held in Orlando, Florida.

“With a current workforce seeing massive numbers of professionals leaving the industry each day to retire, we’re faced with the need to grow a new generation of financial services professionals who adhere to a Code of Ethics and work to serve the more than 90 million American families that NAIFA serves,” stated Kevin Mayeux, CEO of NAIFA. “We asked ourselves, who better than NAIFA--the association for producers-- to lead the way in developing the next generation of talent and modernizing the current workforce?”

To create the Center, NAIFA quickly tapped its Diversity & Inclusion Task Force that was created four years ago as part of NAIFA’s 20/20 Strategic Plan. “One of the key driving programs within the new Center is the work that has come from the Diversity & Inclusion Symposiums,” explained task force member, Wes Booker. “Our work over the last four years has produced programs that can aid companies and agencies in recruiting and retaining a new workforce that mirrors the changing face of Main Street USA. We see the principles of diversity & inclusion as fundamental to evolving the workforce in the financial services industry.

In addition to offering individual and corporate programs for diversity & inclusion, the Talent Development Center also bundles in free programs such as the Advisor Ambassador Program that focuses on new advisors, as well as NAIFA’s Life Underwriter Training Council Fellow (LUTCF) and the Life and Annuities Certified Professional (LACP). The Leadership in Life Institute (LILI) will also be housed within the Talent Development Center and is the penultimate personal development program for NAIFA members that seek performance excellence.

The new Talent Development Center is the third Center launched by NAIFA this year following the launch of the Limited & Extended Care Planning Center for long-term care and the renamed Business Performance Center for advisors in advanced markets.

“Our supporting companies asked us to reinvent NAIFA,” stated Mayeux. “Putting our newly accredited and FINRA-list LACP under the umbrella of the Talent Development Center along with all of the other complementary programs therein is a reinvented member experience—allowing members to create their own journey of professional excellence.”

The Talent Development Center is part of NAIFA’s implementation of its new brand strategy which will launch in 2020 as part of the celebration of NAIFA’s 130^th anniversary.