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NAIFA’s Advisors Political Involvement Committee (APIC) is responsible for identifying federal legislative contacts, maintaining a national database of politically active agents and advisors, coordinating communication with state and local APIC chairs, and developing political involvement programs and resources. The APIC committee consists of a chair, a first vice chair, six regional vice chairs, six assistant regional vice chairs, a NAIFA trustee liaison, a liaison from the Young Advisors Team, a local chapter executive representative, and a state chapter executive representative.
The APIC program is divided into three phases that operate towards the goal of identifying and fostering the creation of significant relationships between agents and advisors and their members of Congress. Phase I refers to the identification of NAIFA members who have personal relationships with members of Congress. Adding new contacts, deleting invalid contacts, and assigning and reviewing contact ratings are all part of Phase I.
The second phase of the APIC program encourages agents and advisors to meet with the appropriate congressional aides or the top staffer in their legislator’s district office. The purpose of Phase II is to establish and develop positive relationships between insurance agents and financial advisors and congressional, district and state staff. Phase II has led to an increase in the number of NAIFA members who are active in political campaigns. The distinctive feature of Phase II is that it provides visibility for NAIFA members outside of Washington, D.C. and increases involvement in the political process for agents on their “home field.”
Phase III is the heart of the APIC program. It revolves around the formation of Constituent Groups. Federal Coordinators are appointed by the state APIC chair for each member of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives in their state. The Federal Coordinators have three main responsibilities as volunteer leaders in their local communities.
First, they continue to foster the relationship that they have with their member of Congress. Second, they form a Constituent Group. A Constituent Group is generally comprised of four to six individuals, including the Federal Coordinator, who preferably are constituents living in the district (or state for senators). Third, and most importantly, the Federal Coordinators commit to meeting with their legislator in the district (with their Constituent Group) three to four times a year to discuss federal legislative issues of importance to the insurance and financial services industry. All Federal Coordinators are expected to keep NAIFA informed about their meetings by completing a District Meeting Response Form for every meeting they have in the district. These forms are available from the APIC office at NAIFA National and on the APIC section of the NAIFA website.
As an APIC chair, your top priority is building a network of politically active NAIFA members who can be called upon to discuss insurance and financial issues with members of Congress. Your goal is to have one Key Contact, one federal coordinator, and at least six Legislative Contacts in place for each member of Congress at all times.
There are two types of APIC contacts and you should keep the following distinctions in mind when recruiting agents to serve as APIC contacts:
The Key Contacts should be the best of all possible contacts for a member of Congress (possibly a campaign/ finance chairman or close personal friend). Key Contacts are expected to keep themselves apprised of NAIFA’s legislative issues and make themselves available for district meetings 3-4 times a year.
Legislative Contacts are not as close as Key Contacts, but they have cultivated relationships with the legislator and/or the legislator’s staff either through business and/or social interactions or through campaign work done on the legislator’s behalf. Legislative Contacts are expected to participate in district meetings as requested by the Federal Coordinator and respond to all NAIFA GovAlerts (action alerts). Each legislator should have at least 6 legislative contacts.
It is the responsibility of the state APIC chair to assign ratings to the contacts in each state. Every contact in the APIC network is assigned a rating based on his/her level of political involvement. “Key Contact” is assigned to the best of all possible contacts for a particular member of Congress. “Legislative Contact” is assigned to constituents and others who may be helpful in contacting the representative. It is vital that all contacts are rated based on this system and the ratings are reported to the APIC office at NAIFA. (For more information about rating your contacts, see “Explanation of the APIC Rating Structure” in the APIC Resources and Forms section of this guide.
The legislative contact list for your state should be reviewed at least once per year to ensure that contacts are still current. From time to time it is necessary to update ratings for contacts as relationships grow stronger (or weaker) to ensure an accurate rating system.
An APIC Grassroots Contact Form (available on NAIFA’s website) must be filled out for each contact. Completed forms should be returned to the APIC office at NAIFA. Since the information contained in the form is used to rate contacts, it should be completed in detail.
A contact’s chief responsibility is to maintain a positive relationship with his or her member of Congress and to quickly respond to GovAlerts.
Contacts should attend any APIC meetings held by the association and keep the APIC Office at NAIFA apprised of personal visits they have with members of Congress. They should also keep the APIC Office at NAIFA informed if any of their contact information changes so the APIC database can be kept up to date.