Ameritas held its Pathways conference this week in Denver, Colorado. Randy Clark, Senior Director of Membership Outreach & Engagement, and Beth Helberg, Director of Partner Marketing, attended from NAIFA staff to support the event. Thanks to Ameritas, we were able to organize a group photo of some of our many NAIFA members who are part of Ameritas. NAIFA members were ecstatic to have the opportunity to unite together for the first time in over a year to show their pride in belonging to their beloved professional association.

While we have not been able to be together in person, Ameritas and NAIFA have been working on an expanded partnership. This year, Ameritas and NAIFA partnered together to bring advocacy training to the Ameritas' Growth Leaders program which is an invitation-only study group that recognizes Ameritas' rising leaders. You can learn more about the Ameritas Growth Leaders program and our shared stars of Blake Gillies, Kate Kilgore Cihon, and Rebecca Brown Schulter in the spring edition of Advisor Today. We thank Ameritas for providing their young advisors with the training and platform to get politically engaged at the federal, interstate, and state levels through NAIFA's comprehensive advocacy program.

Additionally, Ameritas always provides exceptional speakers to NAIFA programs. Andrew Rinn, JD, CFP, CLU, ChFC, (loyal member since 2018) has lent his time and talent to supporting both FSP and NAIFA within our recent Business Performance Center Impact Week in which he addressed "Non-Qualified Executive Benefits and Beyond" as part of the Advanced Practice track. Shannon Berry, CFP, CLU (loyal member since 2021), will speak at this year's 2021 Performance+Purpose Conference on "Investing in Your Future: Building a Meaningful, Sustainable, & Rewarding Practice" within the Practice Management track.

Special thanks to Kurt Shallow and Beth Goldsmith for the invitation to participate in this year's conference and Ameritas' support of NAIFA's mission.