April is Cherry Blossom time in our nation's capitol

April 8-9, 2013 was my fourth trip to Washington, D.C. in 18 months. These were not sightseeing vacations but business trips. When insurance is your profession, politics is your business. On this sojourn to the nation's capitol I was with nearly 1,000 other members of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, NAIFA. Our group was "on the hill" April 9th and included advisors from every State. We covered 85% of the offices for Senators and Congressmen.

Some Senate and House members were in their offices but we met mostly with their tax counsels, chief of staff and legislative aids. Our message was to make sure they know and understand the role of insurance agents to their constituents.

• 75 million American families depend on insurance for their family security.
• 20% of all long-term savings are held in life insurance policies
• The insurance industry pays out $1.5 Billion per day in benefits
• 18% of all bonds are purchased by the insurance industry
• Life insurance, annuities and long-term care policies reduce dependency and promote self-reliance, thrift and individual responsibility

President Wilson in 1913, the year Congress enacted the income tax, made sure than Americans would have incentives in life insurance products so they would put away money to provide for their future. Those incentives remain in place today.

Although there are no bills pending that would change those incentives legislators are looking everywhere for "revenue" to feed their spending habits. And it's early in the session with many months of wrangling ahead of us.

None of the legislators or staffers indicated they would seek to change the incentives found in the current tax law. In fact, each office assured us they would reject any plan to alter the current tax treatment of life insurance.

However, our work is not done and we dare not rest. We will be back to advocate for our clients, our families and our industry.