Industry Groups Partner To Create Financial Security Alliance

The National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies, National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors and Life Happens have joined forces  to create the Financial Security Alliance. The new partnership will answer several industry challenges including raising the level of financial literacy in American households, as well as raising awareness of career options in financial services.

The new consumer-focused website of http://www.financialsecurityalliance.org will house the work of the alliance. The new alliance is governed by a steering committee that includes two industry representatives from each partner organization.

“NAILBA represents independent brokerage distribution, but who knows brokerage as a career option?” stated Dan LaBert, NAILBA CEO. “Our members love what they do and faced with the number of people retiring from the industry, we need to cultivate the next generation of brokers. We joined the Financial Security Alliance to help shine light on an area of the financial services industry that is not well understood.”

The majority of NAILBA’s membership works in a business-to-business model, making it hard for consumers to understand brokerage as a career option. “We needed to put real faces to independent brokerage so that consumers understand how we work," LaBert said.

Jim Sorebo, senior vice president of sales with Highland Capital Brokerage, and Raymond Phillips of The Brokers Source will represent NAILBA for the alliance.

“What the Alliance and http://www.financialsecurityalliance.org does for NAIFA is give us a way to aggregate all of the work we’re already doing in communities and package it up in a way that all Americans can use," said Kevin Mayeux, NAIFA CEO. "This new initiative allows us to provide financial literacy education to any consumer and have it delivered face-to-face or virtually by a trusted financial services professional.”

NAIFA named Paul Dougherty of State Farm Insurance and Larry Holzberg of Wealth Advisory Group to serve on the alliance’s steering committee.

Life Happens is a nonprofit dedicated to educating consumers about the importance of life insurance and other related products for sound financial planning. The Life Insurance Needs Calculator and educational materials that Life Happens produces and distributes through its online Life Happens Pro platform are widely used by NAIFA members in their insurance and financial planning work with clients and prospects.

Life Happens may be best known for creating and coordinating September’s Life Insurance Awareness Month, in which they engage celebrity spokespeople who relate their own stories to the value of life insurance. In recent years, Life Happens has expanded beyond insurance to include educating consumers on annuities.

“We saw an opportunity to contribute our content to more consumers while highlighting the profession as a career choice,” explained Fasia Stafford, president and CEO of Life Happens.

Two past NAIFA chairs, Tom Currey and Cliff Wilson, will represent Life Happens on the alliance.