The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) is proud to announce its participation in The American College of Financial Services' sixteenth annual Conference of African American Financial Professionals. The event is being held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. this week and is attended by many NAIFA members and association partners.

NAIFA is a benefactor this year and provided a scholarship to Mitrick "TJ" Johnson, a rising senior at Alabama A&M University. The HBCU institution is a traditional 1890 land grant university established the same year as NAIFA and greatly expanded the efforts of its 1879 founder, Dr. William Hooper Councill, into creating a sustainable institution focused on teaching, research, and public service. 

As a college student, Christine Pikutis-Musuneggi, CPRC, CLTC, LACP, planned to study architecture. Her plans changed, however, when her family inherited a third-generation business and needed a financial planner to work with insurance agents, attorneys, accountants, and the other professionals required to run a business. So, Pikutis-Musuneggi changed her major to business management and became a financial planner. 

In a competitive job market, businesses are looking to financial professionals for benefits to help them attract and keep talent. Nonqualified benefits, like deferred compensation plans, may be a good solution to appeal to executives looking for pre-tax opportunities beyond IRAs and 401(k) plans to accumulate greater wealth for retirement. Knowing the ins and outs of these products may help you practice stand out and appeal to a larger pool of business clients.

NAIFA’s Advisor Today magazine has launched a new Podcast series featuring outstanding NAIFA members and partners sharing their stories and answering questions about their own professional success. Their insights will offer practical ideas and inspire agents and advisors to reach their own levels of peak performance. Industry thought leaders featured on Advisor Today podcasts have a deep understanding of the insurance and financial services industry and what it takes to thrive in the profession.

On August 10, 2022, tune in for "DEI Success: From Making a Great Hire to Serving a Wider Audience."

Presented by InsuranceNewsNet, this special webinar will feature two NAIFA members: Kristen Hall Eskew, Vice President of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at OneDigital, and Toni L. Gonzales, MBA, LACP, Vice President of Sales at Ohio National Financial Services and Vice President of Women in Insurance and Financial Services (WIFS).

NAIFA has opened access to the NAIFA Family Response Fund to assist members of the association impacted by devastating flooding in Kentucky that resulted in a federal disaster declaration covering many of the state’s counties. In addition to widespread flooding, severe storms, mudslides, and wind and tornado damage have resulted in significant property losses and fatalities.

Caleb Guilliams is the Founder and CEO of BetterWealth, a company that helps people gain control over their money today while maximizing their future wealth potential. At an early age, Caleb read every financial book he could get his hands on. Now, he’s one of the youngest leaders in the industry and is quickly becoming “the new face of finance.” Caleb is the Author of The AND Asset, hosts the BetterWealth podcast, and is on a mission to impact as many lives as possible.

NAIFA is sad to announce that Peter C. Browne, former NAIFA National Treasurer and Past President of NAIFA-NY, has passed away. Peter was a loyal NAIFA member since 1965. During his career spanning nearly six decades, he achieved phenomenal success as an advisor and agency manager, much of it with Price, Raffel & Browne, a firm he co-founded.

NAIFA CEO Kevin Mayeux, CAE, who has overseen the rebirth and transformation of NAIFA under the NAIFA 20/20 and now the NAIFA 2025 Strategic Plans knows his stuff when it comes to association management.

Do you know what laws have passed in your state legislature this year? As a financial services professional, knowing current and pending laws and regulations is essential.