Congratulations to NAIFA member Steve Walker, CLTC, LUTCF, on joining NAIFA educational partner E4 Insurance Services as Vice President of Institutional Accounts.

Walker has been a loyal NAIFA member since 2009 and was honored with Advisor Today’s 4 Under 40Award in 2021. For over 13 years, he has served Main Street USA, dedicated to finding the right solution for each person who walks through his door. He is committed to NAIFA's political advocacy, fighting for his clients and the insurance and financial services industry.

When Christopher Faulk started out in the financial services industry, he could tell there was something missing. As a commercial loan officer, he was helping people, but there were other aspects of his clients’ financial pictures that weren’t being addressed. He wanted to offer a more comprehensive financial service. 

In 2019, Faulk joined New York Life, and their holistic approach to addressing clients’ needs was exactly what he was looking for. Now, he protects families as an insurance agent and helps clients with their investment needs as a registered representative.

Loyal NAIFA-CA member Louis H. Brownstone, CLTC, proposes a new solution for long-term care insurance planning in a recent Broker World article. Brownstone is the owner of California Long Term Care Insurance. A NAIFA member since 2007, he is the Government Relations/APIC IFAPAC Chair for NAIFA-San Francisco Peninsula and a NAIFA Financial Security Advocate.

Congratulations, Louis. We're #NAIFAproud of your commitment and dedication to our industry.

Loyal NAIFA Member Marty Peters has been a part of NAIFA (then NALU) since 1968 and is now serving the community he is a part of in Solana Beach and Del Mar, California. Peters started out his career while working on his master's degree, having a job offered to him that started him in the financial services industry, leading him to stop his Master's degree and focus on the position he was offered. He initially found a different job that had less than desirable actions against the benefits of the customers they were assisting and moved on from that position after a bit. He was then convinced by his family to investigate the life insurance business. After a bit of convincing and learning that his education was paid for by his father’s life insurance, Peters interviewed with a few companies and secured a position with one, starting his journey in the career.

NAIFA’s Advisor Today reports on NAIFA's advocacy successes and challenges, as well as the association's fall membership campaign: "Taxation Needs Representation." The campaign highlights what you, as a NAIFA member, can do to strengthen NAIFA’s advocacy voice in the face of a daunting threat to our industry. While the "Taxation Needs Representation" campaign confronts the issue of federal taxation, its call to action — effective advocacy requires member participation — applies to interstate and state advocacy issues, too.

Rodrigo Menendez, MBA, CRPC, LACP, has been a NAIFA member since 2011. He began his career with State Farm in 2011, taking over a book of business from a retiring 30-year veteran of the insurance industry. He was recruited by a family friend who was looking for Spanish-speaking agents.  

Early on, Menendez could tell it was the right fit for him. The most important thing in Menendez’s work, he says, is helping people. He builds relationships with his clients and their families that last years. “Being able to provide them some sense of relief, financially, in a situation when they’re grieving - I think that's one of the reasons we focus on life insurance so much in my agency,” he explains. 

Congratulations to NAIFA member Maureen Kirschhofer who won the W. Harold Petersen Lifetime Achievement Award for this year at the International DI Society Conference.

NAIFA is pleased to announce that Flagship Financial, with offices in Sanatoga and Trappe, PA, has become a NAIFA 100% Agency. Under the membership program, Flagship Financial has enrolled all of its advisors as NAIFA members and enrolled them in NAIFA’s grassroots advocacy programs.

NAIFA wants to hear from you! Tell us about yourself and your business, as well as what you want from us, in the 2021 NAIFA Workforce Survey. Your responses will help us ensure that we offer programming, professional benefits, and support NAIFA members want and value. 

NAIFA has reopened access to the NAIFA Family Response Fund to benefit members of the association impacted by Hurricane Ida and its remnants, which hit New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities, as well as Northern states including New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. High winds, extreme rainfall, flooding, tornadoes, and utility outages have resulted in significant property losses and fatalities.