Women agents and advisors making history in 2023

With March being Women’s History Month and 2023 ushering in a new Congress, it is a good time to note that the 118th Congress has a record number of women. Women now hold 28% of congressional seats, which is a 59% increase from a decade ago.

As our industry is well aware, there have been more women than men in the U.S. since 1946, women outlive men, and more women than men vote, but women still comprise a fraction of the total population of agents and advisors. It is clear why so much emphasis is now being placed on recruiting women into the financial services sector, studying women in aging, and creating policies and products that address women’s issues.

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, which was passed in 2019, and then its corollary bill, the SECURE 2.0 Act, which passed in December 2022, made monumental strides in creating mechanisms and closing gaps to make it easier and less risky for Americans to save for their retirement. Although both new laws provide a multitude of provisions to help savers, SECURE 2.0 includes a specific provision that can be extremely beneficial to women. The provision focuses on allowing individuals to make catch-up contributions to their retirement plans. This can be a particular benefit to women who may have chosen to stay home during portions of their career and missed out on income during these times.

Our population will continue to shift radically in the next decade as we see the baby boomer generation retire in record numbers and we welcome the oldest millennials into their 40s. So it is clear that we need innovative new ways to ensure that Main Street American individuals, families and small businesses have access to, and consume, risk protection products. It’s also clear that to do this well, we need innovative ways for agents and advisors to serve this clientele and advocate for their own businesses as well as their client base.

To do our part, NAIFA has deepened our partnership with the Women in Insurance and Financial Services national association to create the inaugural Women’s Financial Security Fly-In, which will happen March 29-30 in Washington. Through the support of New York Life, Northwestern Mutual, Guardian and Ameritas, the fly-in will bring women advisors from across the country to meet and hear from congressional leaders before making Capitol Hill visits to their representatives.

This historic fly-in will become an annual event and will allow women to unify their voices to advocate on issues that specifically affect women’s financial and economic security in the U.S. All women advisors who participate are also invited to return to Washington in May to attend NAIFA’s annual Congressional Conference and share their experiences during the eighth annual Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Symposium, which will be held in conjunction with the conference.

Both events will be part of NAIFA’s ongoing effort to educate agents and advisors on their critical role in state and federal advocacy. Only a fraction of American agents and advisors currently participate in associations such as NAIFA that advocate for positive legislative and regulatory environments, and frankly, we need more. Too few agents and advisors understand that the producer population is the closest to the individuals, families and small businesses that comprise Main Street America — and therefore comprise the constituent voter base of every state and federal elected leader. It’s no coincidence that the SECURE Act passed in December 2019 soon after agents and advisors participated in an impactful Day on the Hill, and the same occurred in 2022 with SECURE 2.0.

The voices of women agents and advisors hold particular importance, which is why NAIFA is the advocacy representative for WIFS and we work closely together to educate women agents and advisors on every aspect of state and federal advocacy, from grassroots relationship building to meeting leaders in statehouses and on Capitol Hill.

Although March is Women’s History Month, a focus on women will not be relegated to one month in 2023. Instead, we are seeing quite the opposite. With the rise of long-term care legislation and the changing nature of the workplace after COVID-19, we have created legislative working groups with our members and industry partners in the areas of long-term care and aging issues as well as in employee benefits. While we encourage all agents and advisors in the industry to belong to NAIFA, we provide a plethora of information and resources for the industry, including our Get Out the Vote platform, to ensure that producers start by exercising their right to vote.

With the changes that occurred during the midterm elections and the 2024 elections coming up, now is the time for agents and advisors to get educated, vote and get involved in advocating for their businesses. Let’s work to ensure that there are record numbers of women who have the right financial security plans in place, that there are record numbers of women agents and advisors advocating for their clients and their businesses, and that there are record numbers of women entering the financial services industry to match the record number of women who are making the laws that affect us.

Diane Boyle is NAIFA’s senior vice president, government relations. She may be contacted at [email protected].