2013 June/July IFAPAC

Independence

Do you celebrate the 4^th of July or do you celebrate Independence Day? If you think about it, every other significant day we honor has a name attached to it but we rarely describe the event by the date on a calendar. Societal changes are taking place all around us, often with deleterious effects on values and traditions. Importance of the reason for celebration gets lost when we talk about and make plans based on the date or the day of the week it happens to fall. For example, how many of you remember when we marked Washington’s Birthday and Lincoln’s birthday? Now we have Presidents Day and young people no longer make the connection to those two very important men in the history of the greatest nation on earth.

Ask your children or grandchildren to tell you about Independence Day. You may open up a “teaching moment” and have to explain what it is. Too many Americans relate to 4th of July as a summer holiday, a time for parades, picnics, BBQ, beach parties and fireworks without pausing to think about and embrace the concept of what makes this country unique among nations of the world. As for me and my house, we celebrate Independence Day. 

You and I are in a profession that celebrates and promotes independence every day we put on our uniform. We discuss self-reliance; providing for and guarding the security of individuals and families through the use of financial products. We create independence for the people we serve; financial independence from the effects of poverty, illness and old age. We must never lose sight of the value we bring to individuals, families and society in general. Ours is a noble profession.



And yet this noble profession is constantly under attack and must be protected. This requires our attention today more than ever before. Our very independence and the independence we bring to our clients is in danger of being undermined by powers that do not see or appreciate our value to society. If we fail to participate in the defense of our profession we stand to lose relevance. If our profession loses relevance our clients will suffer, our careers will suffer and much of what we have done or hope to do in the way of delivering our valuable services to the community will unravel and fall in a heap to the floor.

For this reason we need to participate, make our voices known and join forces to preserve this great profession. Each one of us can do a little, some can do a lot. One sure way for every NAIFA member to do this is by participating in IFAPAC. Back The PAC. And NOW is the time to act. NAIFA is asking every member to make a contribution to IFAPAC this month, July. Why now? Because NAIFA will return 100% of your contributions to our State PAC account for all contributions received in July. There is a 50-50 split for the rest of the year but JULY is unique. We have elections coming that are going to be critically important to our profession. We need to be ready to remain relevant.

Show your independence! Get out your checkbook or credit card and make a contribution to IFAPAC today so it reaches NAIFA before the end of JULY. I will. Will you?

Richard Ek, LUTCF
IFAPAC-Washington Chairman

Contribute online or file your Directive here