NAIFA is pleased to announce that Suzanne Carawan is NAIFA’s Vice President, Membership and will lead a newly created department focused on creating exceptional member value and increased engagement in NAIFA’s core areas of advocacy, education, and volunteer leadership. She and her team will develop strategies and implement tactics to deliver NAIFA’s value proposition to an expanded pool of financial professionals that now call NAIFA home due to the recent merger with the Society of Financial Service Professionals.

The Department of Labor thinks it knows what's best for Americans preparing for retirement. NAIFA President Bryon Holz, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF, CASL, LACP, and his long-time client Chuck Ross think the DOL is wrong and bring their real-life experience to the argument.

NAIFA has formally elected its officers and Board of Trustees at its annual business meeting as part of the National Leadership Conference and Belong awards celebration in Washington, D.C.

More than 250 NAIFA members took to Capitol Hill today to meet with over 200 Congressional offices to advance the need to protect the worker classification of financial service professionals as independent contractors and to provide consumers a variety of choices in financial service professionals. The Day on the Hill was coupled with NAIFA’s National Leadership Conference which serves to train the leaders of state and local chapters in grassroots advocacy.

NAIFA is pleased to announce that Brian Steiner has rejoined NAIFA as the Executive Director of Life Happens, the consumer arm of the association. Steiner previously served as NAIFA’s Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships from 2015-2021 and most recently as President of United Wealth Advisors Group.

Joseph Schreck, CPFA, President at the Piedmont Group in Atlanta, GA, is the NAIFA Young Advisor Team Leader of the Year for 2023.  

NAIFA hosted its inaugural regional conference based on its national conference named Apex –  Apex East – October 24 at its association headquarters building in Arlington, VA. Apex East is a regional spin-off of the Apex conference that was launched in August 2022 and will be held again in Arizona in September 2024.

Advisor Today, the official publication of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA), is pleased to announce the winners of its 2023 4 Under 40 awards: Matthew Cloutier, CRC, RFC, of Golden Wealth Solutions (Osaic) in Littleton, CO, loyal member since 2022; Jennifer Lewis of Wise Medicare Insurance Solutions (United Healthcare) in Rolla, MO, loyal member since 2022; Joseph Spinelli, CLU, FICF, LUTCF, of the Jim Spinelli Agency (Knights of Columbus) in Tallahassee, FL, loyal member since 2009; and Mike Paffhausen, of the Paffhausen Insurance Agency (State Farm) in Butte, MT, loyal member since 2015. 

Winona Havir, CPCU, CLF, LUTCF, FSS, LACP, AIC, Executive Vice President, Business Development for Educators Insurance Resources Services, Inc. (The Horace Mann Companies), in Saint Paul, MN, has been recognized as the NAIFA Diversity Champion for 2023. 

NAIFA is proud to announce that John A. Davidson, LUTCF, FSS, President and CEO of Davidson Insurance & Financial Services, Inc., in Moorpark, CA, is the 2023 recipient of NAIFA’s Terry Headley Lifetime Defender Award.