NAIFA-Los Angeles members have worked with local and state elected representatives to get official recognition of September as Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM). The City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, and California State Senate have all issued resolutions or certificates recognizing NAIFA and LIAM.

When Ryan Ballesteros¹ was studying Forensic Psychology at Walden University, he didn’t imagine a career helping protect families as a life insurance agent, much less becoming a Partner at New York Life. However, when his son’s mother was pregnant with their first child, Ballesteros saw the power of life insurance. His son’s grandfather passed away, leaving a death benefit to take care of his wife and six children. Ballesteros was able to pay off debt, start a savings account for his son and purchase life insurance for himself.

Steve Cain is a self-described “LTC insurance nerd” dedicated to being a lifelong learner and advocating for Main Street USA.

Stephen Kagawa, FSS, LUTCF, founder and CEO of The Pacific Bridge Companies (TPBC), has a vision—to help families protect what they love through TPBC’s platform, Aloha Financial Advisors. As Kagawa explains, “Aloha Financial Advisors is all about doing good and having advisors who are rooted in their vision of a better world driven by their core values.”

When Christopher Faulk started out in the financial services industry, he could tell there was something missing. As a commercial loan officer, he was helping people, but there were other aspects of his clients’ financial pictures that weren’t being addressed. He wanted to offer a more comprehensive financial service. 

In 2019, Faulk joined New York Life, and their holistic approach to addressing clients’ needs was exactly what he was looking for. Now, he protects families as an insurance agent and helps clients with their investment needs as a registered representative.

NAIFA-CA member Rahim Solehdin uses his passion and experience to train the next generation of agents and advisors at New York Life.

Making a Difference

When Solehdin joined New York Life as an agent in 2013, he found the balance he was looking for—the opportunity to help people provide for their families while making good money. He always knew he wanted to be in management, and New York Life provided that career path for him. Driven to succeed, he became a partner with New York Life in 2016. "I knew what I had to do to get there, and I did it,” he says. “[At New York Life], I knew that I could do the hard work and get what I wanted.”

The 69^th Annual Will G. Farrell Public Service Award & Leaders Recognition Event hosted by NAIFA-Los Angeles (National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors) and FSP-Los Angeles/Pasadena (Society of Financial Service Professionals)-was held on February 24, 2022, the second year on Zoom.

Join us for the largest NAIFA-Los Angeles event of the year -
The 69th Annual Will G. Farrell Award & Leadership Recognition Event.

The Board of Directors for the California chapter of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) has been announced.

The last one…
The final final.

I can’t believe 15 months have flown by and feel like I am just getting started.

I should have known better. When I was president of my local, I said the same darn thing. I'm ready for another year! But it is time to hand the torch over to our third female NAIFA CA president, Sarah Martin.

Allow me a moment to reflect on the year. COVID was at the forefront, for yet another year so how we framed delivering value to our members had to be creative. In fact being in COVID almost became the norm and getting together live was the novelty!

If there was one message I wanted to communicate, it was the idea of COMMUNITY throughout the year. We all have our reasons for belonging to an organization like NAIFA, but it’s about the people and connections you make. These relationships both serves us professionally and personally.