The leading association and most influential advocacy association in the financial services industry undertakes a multitude of events in celebration of Women’s History Month
The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) has undertaken a series of events this month to raise awareness of the importance of women’s economic security in our country, as well as to highlight the importance of the voice of women financial advisors in their voting districts. The series of events was created as part of NAIFA’s participation in Women’s History Month and to deliver on several aspects of its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative that is part of its 2025 Strategic Plan.
To start, NAIFA participated in the ILTCI Conference held in Denver, Colorado by featuring best-selling author Carroll Golden, Executive Director of NAIFA’s Centers of Excellence in several sessions. Focused on the role of the caregiver—which predominantly falls to women—Carroll’s new book How Not to Pull Your Family Apart is a how-to guide written for consumers to combat financial destruction often caused by unplanned and unexpected long-term care needs. The book was first soft-launched earlier in the month at Engage’s In Honor of Caregivers event which featured Senators Cassidy and Gillibrand discussing the true economic hardship that caregiving has on American families.
Kathleen Owings, a loyal NAIFA member since 2011, and principal at Westbilt Financial Group in Colorado Springs joined NAIFA’s Advisor Today podcast to discuss her new book, Put Your Money to Work: A Woman’s Guide to Financial Confidence. The new book focuses both on Kathleen’s own journey as a woman advisor, as well as addresses many of the areas where she sees her women clients falter in their financial wellness. Owings has been instrumental in not only building a successful financial services practice, but in serving in leadership roles within NAIFA to encourage more women to undertake a career in financial services.
All of the previous events built up to the last week of the month which featured two inaugural launches: NAIFA Women’s Financial Security Fly-In and Engage for Women’s State of the Majority Summit both of which kicked off on March 29th and featured a cross-pollination of sponsorship and speakers to showcase the support of the joint initiative to increase the bipartisan conversation of women’s economic security. NAIFA’s event featured a panel of women government relations professionals including Laura Haines from Guardian, Jennifer Taft from New York Life, and Susan Callanan of Northwestern Mutual to discuss how and why women advisors should develop relationships with elected leaders. Rachel Pearson, founder of Engage, was the guest speaker at the dinner held in the Barbara Mikulski room of the U.S. Capitol that was supported in attendance by board members from NAIFA’s advocacy partner, Women in Insurance and Financial Services (WIFS). Pearson stressed the criticality of womens’ constituent voice and urged more participation. The sold-out event was made possible by support from Ameritas, Northwestern Mutual, New York Life, and Guardian.
Women attendees of the inaugural fly-in were invited to the Engage reception to honor recipients of their inaugural awards, as well as challenged to be the voice of the majority in upcoming town halls, voter registration, and voting campaigns. The culmination of Rachel Pearson’s speech and NAIFA’s inaugural Women’s Financial Security Fly-In resulted in an overarching call to action for women in financial services to further get involved, get informed, and lend their voice to uplift women’s economic security. NAIFA will next address topics specific to women financial advisors at its upcoming 8th Annual DEI Symposium where Rachel Pearson will again be a guest speaker. The event will be held on May 22nd prior to NAIFA’s Congressional Conference. To learn more, visit conference.naifa.org/2023.