Greg Ayers, CLTC, RICP, is a New York Life Insurance Company agent and advisor committed to serving Main Street USA through education and political advocacy.

Getting Started 

Ayers got a later start in his insurance and financial services career than most. He has always been interested in finance and had two career paths to choose from when he graduated from college. He was offered a financial services position, but it was an intimidating prospect. At the same time, he received a job offer for a banking position. He chose the banking job. While he gained valuable experience, he eventually got discouraged because of the lack of opportunity for upward movement. When he started looking for other options, he found his true passion as an insurance agent.

Jennifer B. Barthol, CEP, has been in the financial services industry since 1986 but found her niche working with estate planning attorneys and CPAs as a paralegal. Now, she’s a certified estate planner and helps her clients find solutions that fit their life-long goals. 

Raydania Peña got her first taste of financial literacy when her family immigrated from the Dominican Republic to the United States. Her mother didn’t speak English, so Peña translated bank documents for her. The more she learned, the more she wanted to use her knowledge and skills to help others in her community navigate their finances, too. But she didn’t plan to build a career in insurance and financial services. In fact, she dismissed the idea the first two times it came across her path. The third time, however, she decided to give it a try and became an agent with New York Life Insurance Company.

NAIFA-OK Vice President of Advocacy Chad Tredway, LUTCF^®, FSCP^®, always knew he wanted to be in the financial services industry. He studied actuarial science in college but found his true calling working with customers directly, learning their stories, and helping them as they mapped out their financial futures. After several years as an agent, he was appointed as a district manager. Now, he uses his years of experience as an agent to mentor and train agents.

Rick Lam has spent his career helping his clients plan for their financial futures and mentoring the next generation of insurance and financial professionals. Just after college, Lam became a claims adjuster with State Farm. After seven years of learning about the insurance world, he spent over 12 years as an agent before taking his current position as a sales leader in 2012. 

Peg Fraser began her career in insurance and financial services selling health insurance part-time, but she soon found the same question coming up again and again from her clients. They asked if she could help with other types of insurance and financial planning. She wanted to do more. So, when she got the opportunity to work with COUNTRY Financial in 2008, she embraced the challenge. She got licensed and “careered” with COUNTRY, joining an elite group of financial service professionals within the company, just four years later.

Eric Bottolfsen, MBA, is a Vice President at GoldBook Financial and a financial planner with a passion for protecting the medical professionals and small business owners who make up Main Street USA.

Getting Started

Bottolfsen knew from an early age that he wanted a career in financial services. When he played Monopoly as a kid, he insisted on being the banker. In high school, he loved his finance classes and read old issues of the Wall Street Journal in his free time.

Scott Blake, MBA, is dedicated to protecting young professionals, small business owners, and families through holistic financial planning and political advocacy.

Learning From the Best

After earning his MBA from Capital University, Blake transitioned from politics to financial services. He founded Blake Wealth Partners with Northwestern Mutual in 2016 and, since then, has learned from some of the top producers in the country. One of Blake’s first mentors was Bob Roach, CLU, ChFC, a 54-year veteran of Northwestern Mutual and the recipient of NAIFA’s inaugural Terry Headley Lifetime Defender Award. Roach introduced Blake to NAIFA, where he met another mentor who helped shape his career—NAIFA-Columbus Past President Patrick Cannon. In 2020, Blake joined the NAIFA-Columbus Board of Directors at his suggestion. Now, Blake is taking the lead as NAIFA-Columbus President and continuing in his role as the chapter’s Vice President of Advocacy.

Brett L. Moore, CFP®, grew up in the insurance and financial services business. His father, long-time NAIFA member William C. Moore, CFP®, founded W.C. Moore Financial Services, LLC, and Moore remembers spending hours at his dad’s office, stuffing financial papers into plastic sheets and helping out any way he could.  

When NAIFA President Bryon Holz graduated from college during the recession of the early 1980s, career opportunities were few and far between. So, when his high school biology teacher, who had left teaching a few years earlier to become a financial advisor, offered to have Holz come work with him, Holz accepted. He planned on staying until he found his “real” job, but he fell in love with helping families plan for their financial futures. Four decades later, it’s safe to say he’s found his calling.