Brad Noller is all about building relationships, both with his clients and with other insurance and financial services professionals.

Making a Difference

Noller didn’t start his career in the insurance industry, but he found he was good at it and excelled quickly. Just nine months after starting an Agent in Training position with American Family Insurance, he opened his own agency—an accomplishment that normally took between 18-24 months at the time.

Nicholas “Nick” Romo knows the impact life insurance can have and works to protect families every day.

Romo didn’t start out in the insurance and financial services industry, but he was drawn to it by two factors. First, he saw two of his friends who opened successful insurance offices. They were helping people who weren’t being served by large investment companies, and he knew that he, too, could make a difference. Second, he saw the real-life effects of not having insurance, as several family members passed away unexpectedly without life insurance—or without enough coverage. He knew that, if they had been covered, it would have been much easier for their families. “I thought it could be my role to help people in those situations,” he says.

Join us on March 17, 2022, at 2 pm eastern for the special webinar "Designing Insurance Solutions to Address Clients’ Macroeconomic Concerns."

The discussion will feature John C. Snider II, JD, AVP and Associate Counsel with the Advanced Markets Group at John Hancock. Snider will discuss inflation, rising interest rates, geopolitical instability, and other economic factors that affect Main Street Americans.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to help your clients find the right life insurance for their unique situation and how to plan for their long-term care needs. 

In 2022, Joe Simon, LUTCF, will celebrate 27 years in the insurance and financial services industry. He’s learned a lot in that time and is eager to share his knowledge and expertise with his community.

A Changing Industry

When Simon began working as a group health representative, the world of employee benefits was in a time of transition with the advent of managed care. Despite the changing landscape, Simon learned as he went and quickly rose through the ranks. He became a regional sales representative and worked with top brokerage firms before transitioning to being a broker himself. As a broker, Simon took a two-pronged approach, continuing to sharpen his skills with group benefits while simultaneously learning the ins and outs of executive benefits.

NAIFA is proud to welcome Underwriters Marketing Service, our newest NAIFA 100% agency!

Getting Started

When Mary Ann Lacey-Gray, CLTC, began working in 1965, there weren’t many career options for women. She joined the insurance and financial services industry as a secretary at Fireman's Fund Insurance Company (FFIC) and quickly rose through the ranks. Driven to succeed, she seized every opportunity she could to learn and grow. She took on more and more responsibility and soon became an area sales manager.

For Bob Kelly, insurance runs in the family. Kelly’s father was an insurance salesman and a family man through and through. He instilled in Kelly the importance of using your talents to help others. “He'd bring various instances where he’d sold policies, and something happened a short time afterward and the family was taken care of,” Kelly says. “They didn’t have to worry about anything.”  

When Kelly was a teenager, his father passed at the age of 42. Because of his life insurance policy, his family was protected. Now, Kelly strives to protect other families through his own work. “That’s what motivates me, especially after what I’ve gone through, seeing how insurance protected our family.” He continues, “I just want to be able to go out and do that for the community I serve.” 

Chadd Watson, LUTCF, RICP, is an unabashed people person with a passion for helping others achieve their goals.

Watson was born and raised in Utah. He spent his early career as a high school football coach and photography and multimedia teacher. After he started a family, however, he began looking for other opportunities and found one through a close friend who was a claims manager with State Farm. Watson wasn’t sure if insurance was a good fit for him at first. However, after he started talking to agents, he was impressed to find them genuine and caring, so he decided to give it a try. He became a State Farm agent in 2007. After five years, State Farm asked him to lead a team of agents in Northern Nevada, where he and his family have stayed since.

NAIFA-CT's Richard Terhune, a loyal NAIFA member since 2008, will present a special webinar on Thursday, February 3, 2022. The event will feature two real-life stories of the power of life insurance on the lives of families across the country.

Terhune and his client, Sara Mathews Dixon, were selected as recipients of the Life Happens' Real Life Stories program. When Sara's husband died unexpectedly, his life insurance policy protected her and their three children from financial hardship.

Don't miss this impactful and inspiring webinar on February 3, 2022, at 2 pm eastern.

NAIFA has partnered with Life Happens and LIMRA in promotion of their Help Protect Our Families campaign, a national effort to shed light on Americans who are at risk due to lack of appropriate insurance and financial guidance.

With the American population in desperate need of insurance and financial services, it's more important than ever for us to reach out and engage with underserved populations. Here's how you can help.

NAIFA-NY’s Don Lippencott, a loyal member since 1985 and a New York Life financial professional, told the Wall Street Journal that 23 of his clients passed away in 2020, approximately double the total for a typical year. Not only did COVID-19 increase the death rate among his clients, but pandemic-related restrictions prevented him from delivering death-benefit checks in person as he has done in the past. “It was gut wrenching and excruciating,” he told the Journal.