The NAIFA Advisor Advantage - YouTube

- NAIFA, or the National Association of Insurance

and Financial Advisors is working

to raise awareness around the importance

of financial planning and to bring attention

to the role it's members play in offering affordable,

sound advice to Main Street Americans.

We traveled to Washington, D.C.

to learn more about NAIFA's history

and efforts to empower members as they guide

their clients to a more secure financial future.

- The work that you do, is so important

because it helps American prepare for retirement.

- [Reporter] These insurance and financial professionals

are driven to share their knowledge

and want every American to benefit

from what's often called the advisor advantage.

- We've seen study, after study, after study

that those individuals that actually sit down

with and an advisor, they save more money for retirement.

They have better protection in terms of disability.

They become less dependent upon

Government provided services.

And what a critical role that is.

- [Reporter] Paul Dougherty is the immediate

past president of NAIFA, the National Association

of Insurance and Financial Advisors.

We attended the organizations annual

Congressional Conference in Washington.

Close attention to legislative

and political success clears the way

for the group's main focus.

- NAIFA is all about serving Main Street.

- [Reporter] On all of the streets and avenues

across the country, advisors and agents

help consumers create a budget, a strategy,

to include insurance as part of a sound financial plan,

to build basic savings to buying a first house.

- All the way through the birth of their child,

planning for their child's education,

planning for their own retirement

and we see that entire lifecycle,

and it's incredibly humbling to us

to be a part of that person's life.

- [Reporter] There is also planning

for the difficult moments.

Lori Gubash specializes in long term care.

- So many people, even in their fifties and forties,

will have a medical event, that they need care

over a longer period of time

and that's what the long term care insurance is for.

- You know, first hand, the burdens

of not having long term care insurance.

- I was very blessed to be able

to care for my grandmother who had cancer.

She was my grandma, but I cared for her

so that dynamic changed and I became a caregiver.

And it's a very hard place to be.

- A trusted resource for 125 years,

NAIFA continues to expand it's reach.

The association says it's dedicated to promoting diversity

in the insurance and financial planning profession.

Members coming from a wide range of backgrounds,

offer consumers the opportunity

to work with an agent or advisor

who specializes in the specific needs

of their community.

- It's really important to make sure that

the sales force and our field force

mirrors the community that we're serving.

- [Reporter] Delvin Joyce is a financial planner

and a former running back in the NFL.

He calls his new career a promotion

and says the NAIFA Diversity Symposiums

will keep the organization at the top of it's game.

- Absolutely need to get more boots on the ground

and even more importantly is to make sure

that we have equal representation

for maybe some of the underserved communities

that aren't necessarily getting that advice.

- [Reporter] Jennifer's approach

as a financial advisor leans toward financial coach.

- We talk about rick management, wealth accumulation,

retirement planning, estate planning,

how taxes effect money, what the rule of 72 is,

why is that important?

It's the same thing in the LGBT world

and everywhere else, it's inclusion

that helps bring the business.

- It became a passion for me, to serve the community

that had not been well served.

Today over 80% of my new clients are Hispanic.

All of my staff speak Spanish

and this is a community that needs us as advisors

because we're not just an insurance agent.

We are sometimes their doctor, their lawyer,

their financial advisor or just a good friend.

- Retirement, long term care and the cost of college

are three of the biggest expenses Americans will pay

in their lifetimes, consumers often find it difficult

to tackle these without the help of a trusted expert.

NAIFA stresses the importance of financial planning

and provides it members the tools to assure

they're giving main street households sound advice.

In Washington, I'm Craig Boswell.

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