Prohibition, war bonds, the formation of social security—the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors has seen it all. In August 1989, the National Association of Life Underwriters—later to be renamed NAIFA—published Voices from the Field, a seminal work chronicling the history of the insurance industry and the association. This book was the result of four years of research and writing by Advisor Today senior editor George Norris. Voices from the Field is an engaging look at the lives and events that shaped our dynamic industry. The book remains a lasting tribute to everyone who has worked to make NAIFA what it is today, but particularly to Norris, who has dedicated 21 years to the association.

For the next eight months we will be publishing Voices from the Field in chapter installments. They will be available to you on the website. We hope you enjoy this entertaining history as much as we do.

Voices from the Field
“Historians have, perhaps, been too preoccupied with mortality tables and the founding dates of companies to consider the astonishing influence that selling method, or the lack of it, has had upon the development of life insurance in every age.”

— J. Owen Stalson, Marketing Life Insurance: Its History in America

This book is dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of unnamed and often unsung, life underwriters who, over the past 100 years, have labored to provide security and financial independence to millions of their fellow Americans.

Foreword by Alan Press, 1988-1989 NALU President

Preface by Jack E. Bobo, 1989 NALU Executive Vice President

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

Laying the Foundation—A Meeting at the Parker House

Leading Figures—Ransom, Carpenter, Blodgett and Plumber

Conditions Leading to the Foundation of the NALU

Rise of Modern Life Insurance and the General Agency System

Issues and Accomplishments of the First 15 Years

Chapter 2

In the Wake of the Armstrong Investigation

A Royal Commission Investigates Life Insurance Operations in Canada

A Period of Growth and Visibility for the NALU Under Strong Leadership

The NALU Plays a Leading Role in Insurance Education

The NALU During World War I

Chapter 3

The Post-War Decade

The NALU's Extension of Activity

The Agents Move For Recognition

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