Petersen International Underwriters has announced the hiring of Todd Shield as a Regional Vice President of the firm. Shield previously worked at Assurity Life Insurance Company as Manager of Disability Income Products. He is a nationally recognized personality of the disability insurance industry, and was elected the 2016 President of the International Disability Insurance Society.

NAIFA Secretary Keith Gillies, CFP, CLU, ChFC,  has been inducted into the Ameritas Hall of Fame. Gillies is the Managing Partner of Wealth Solutions, LLC, a financial planning, business consulting and asset management firm in La Place, LA.

Jack Schmitz is the recipient of the W. Harold Petersen Lifetime Achievement Award from the International DI Society. Schmitz, president and CFO of the Bay Area Disability Insurance Services, Inc., received the award for his dedication to educating people about the need for disability income insurance. He is the 11^th recipient of the award.

The Women in Insurance & Financial Services has selected Cheryl Canzanella, LUTCF, as the recipient of its prestigious Member of the Year Award. The award recognizes the consistent and ongoing commitment and contribution to WIFS on a local or national level.

MDRT has announced the appointment of Brian D. Heckert, CLU, ChFC, to President, and Ross Vanderwolf, CFP, to Secretary of the organization’s Executive Committee, effective Sept. 1, 2015.

NAIFA’s Immediate Past President, Juli McNeely, CFP^®, CLU, LUTCF, is the winner of the Women in Insurance and Financial Services’ 2015 Woman of the Year Award. McNeely was honored with the prestigious award during WIFS’ conference held late last month in Baltimore.

NAIFA Immediate Past President Juli McNeely is featured in a Retirement Advisor magazine cover article titled “Women in Insurance.” McNeely appears on the cover with Susan Combs, president of Women in Insurance and Financial Services and a NAIFA member, and Jillian Nell, a financial planner based in Houston.

New York Life agent and registered investment advisor Irma Inés Quiñones, CLU, ChFC, CLTC, was recently presented with the Jack Richter Memorial Agent of the Year Award by the Silicon Valley association of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA).

NAIFA – Toledo Member is the Sixth Recipient of the Award

Dycelia Weiss is the recipient of the LUTCF Course One Scholarship, funded by the College for Financial Planning.