2014 March/April President's Message

NAIFA’s Mission is to advocate for a positive legislative and regulatory environment, enhance business and professional skills, and promote the ethical conduct of our members. I know that you are reading this message and newsletter because you are a dues paying valued member of NAIFA and that you understand and aspire to live up to this mission. Many of you have sponsored new members over the years and continue to do so with my sincere gratitude.  I can’t say it enough how important it is to our profession, our clients and prospects that we grow the numbers of NAIFA members. You know as well as I that legislators listen more intently when a large number of their constituents are affected by issues. Therefore I am going to share with you some research relating to other professions and their respective organizations.

There are approximately 1 million doctors in America with 250,000 of them paying $420 annual dues to The American Medical Association.  

There is a difference between real estate agents and Realtors. Realtors pay dues and are members of their association whereas agents don’t. They pay a little over $500 per year and have a PAC just like we do with IFAPAC. They are the largest lobby of the professions with around 1 million members nationally. In fact the Pierce County Realtor Association has 1100 members, over 200 more than NAIFA WA.

Lawyers are required to pay dues of $355 per year to The American Bar Association or lose their license. From the yellow pages there must be as many lawyers as doctors but maybe not as many as Realtors and real estate agents.

Washington teachers pay $80 per month ($960 annual) and have no choice in the matter. I am thinking that the typical lawyer, doctor, realtor and insurance agent/financial rep make substantially more money than teachers yet pay much less in dues.

There are 15,000 life and disability agents in Washington according to the commissioner’s office but only 850 of them are dues paying members of NAIFA Washington. This doesn’t count any financial advisors that may not be insurance licensed.

Now that we know what is going on with other professional associations I challenge you to take just a bit of time to ask a non-member agent/advisor to join NAIFA, their own professional association. Remind them of our mission and the impact NAIFA membership will have on their own career as well as our profession in the eyes of legislators.

Thank you for your membership and may God bless your practice!

 

Kevin