Grassroots event focuses on the important role advisors play in protecting middle-income Americans.
Several dozen citizen-activists from the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors took their advocacy message to Capitol Hill Tuesday, engaging in meetings with their elected leaders and congressional staff.
The 54 federal legislative contacts with NAIFA’s Advisors Political Involvement Committee (APIC) were in Washington for an annual training session. They visited their lawmakers and congressional staffers, including meetings in the offices of key members of tax-writing and financial services committees.
Among those in meetings were NAIFA Trustees Matthew Huntington, Lisa Laliberte and Van Land.
NAIFA members explained the crucial role they and their colleagues play in helping Main Street Americans provide for their families and protect their financial futures.
The products sold by NAIFA members benefit 75 million American households and account for about 20 percent of savings in the United States, the NAIFA members explained. The tax treatment of these products creates incentives for Americans to provide for their own financial well-being.
Among the other issues raised by NAIFA members was the negative impact the healthcare reform law’s “medical loss ratio” rule has had on the ability of agents to serve their clients.
The NAIFA members thanked members of the House of Representatives who have signed on as cosponsors of H.R. 1206, the “Access to Professional Health Insurance Act of 2011,” and urged other representatives to add their support.
“It’s great to participate in the political process and to help lawmakers understand how laws and regulations affect the clients of NAIFA members back home,” said Laura DeGolier, NAIFA’s National APIC Subcommittee chair, and herself a financial advisor. “APIC is all about forging relationships as constituents with our elected officials. These meetings help us renew and strengthen those ties.”