NAILBA and Finseca celebrate two years of growth, 10,000 members

WASHINGTON, D.C. – It's been two years since the National Association of Insurance and Life Brokerage Agencies and Finseca merged to create NAILBA: A Finseca Community.

As the organization kicks off NAILBA 43 here, leaders from both say the partnership is working out better than expected.

"We doubled membership over the last four years. So that's a very positive sign," said CEO Marc Cadin. "We had our seventh integration when the New York Center for Financial Studies decided to join our foundation, and transferred almost a million dollars ... dedicated for programs and education in New York. So seven integrations in four-plus years, we feel really good about that."

Surpassing 10,000 members across the NAILBA/Finseca communities is enabling the organization to step up its advocacy at the state level, where a lot of regulation sails under the radar of national trade associations.

Specifically, Finseca played a key role in helping to shape the California best-interest annuity sales law signed in February by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

A tougher bill seemed on its way to passage during the spring of 2023—passing the California Senate in May with no opposing votes at the committee level or from the floor—but industry associations objected to some sections.

For example, the initial version of the California rule would have required a producer to obtain specific personal information from a client before making a life insurance recommendation.

After weeks of lobbying, the trade associations moved lawmakers to a best-interest model based on a framework put forth by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. In addition to being one of the largest economies in the world, California is a liberal state known for its tougher regulations.

"I think that's the best win the industry's had in the states in my lifetime," Cadin said, "and more important than the industry, I think it's a huge win for Californians."

Trump and Republicans return to power

Donald Trump and congressional Republicans return to power just in time to save the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act they teamed up on in 2017. The most significant tax reform since the Tax Reform Act of 1986, most of the expansive TCJA tax cuts expire at the end of 2025.

Congress chose to make the individual provisions temporary to limit the 10-year revenue cost of the TCJA to the amount authorized in the Congressional Budget Resolution ($1.5 trillion), the Tax Policy Center explained, and to comply with Senate budget rules under the process used to pass the tax act and bypass the Senate filibuster, that required no increase in the federal budget deficit after the tenth year.

In addition to extending those tax cuts, Cadin noted some other proposals Trump floated during the campaign: no tax on tips, no taxes on Social Security, no taxes on overtime, expanding the Child Tax Credit, lessening the impact of the SALT (state and local taxes) deduction on individual taxpayers.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that extending the tax cuts alone would cost the federal government around $4 trillion over ten years.

Needless to say, taxes are likely to be the dominant issue throughout 2025 and NAILBA/Finseca members plan to be in the middle of that debate.

"We're going to have probably the biggest tax bill in our lifetime that will be enacted and signed into law in 2025," Cadin said. "So, we're going to be very, very active on that. No one should just assume that because it's a Republican president or Republican Congress, the industry is not going to face potential challenges."

Looking ahead

In addition to tax advocacy, the Finseca community plans to keep tabs on the Department of Labor's Retirement Security Rule, the agency's latest attempt to extend a blanket fiduciary duty. Texas judges have stayed the rule in a pair of lawsuits and it is expected to be derailed by the Trump administration.

A new Ernst & Young study on holistic planning is due out soon, Cadin said, in early 2025 at the latest.

"They're looking at different products, but it's still the same basic construct: a consumer that has permanent life insurance, savings through investments and an annuity, they get better outcomes," Cadin said.

Otherwise, Finseca is focused on growing.

"Our biggest goal is to double membership again in the next three years," Cadin said. "I think we're the fastest growing trade association in America, and we've got stability around where our communities are. We want to double membership in the next three years and then double it again after that."

© Entire contents copyright 2024 by InsuranceNewsNet.com Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted without the expressed written consent from InsuranceNewsNet.com.