We are thrilled to announce that the Young Advisor Team (YAT) program is being expanded in 2024! The first change is to note that the "A" in YAT can now stand for agent, advisor, accountant, or attorney! With our expanded FSP membership, we are looking to welcome in and provide the needed support to our young members so that they can be super successful.
Secondly, the YAT program has a new staff lead--Zack Huels! Zack has been on NAIFA staff for over six years and has recently joined the Membershp Team after serving members in the professional development department. You might know Zack from the many webinars he's hosted over the years, as the emcee of NAIFA Live, and possibly, you got to witness his incredible voice at our Triangle Team Karaoke Party at National Leadership Conference this past December.
The revitalized YAT program will include a few key components:
1) YAT Chairs can now look to Zack to organize communications, share ideas, and support one another across NAIFA Nation. Zack attends all of the Cohort calls and urges your YAT chairs to do the same. We are surveying YATs to assess interest in additional meet-ups and activities, and the best ways to share best practices during the next few weeks and will report back to our Leaders after we analyze the results.
2) The YAT program will now include the award-winning Advisor Ambassador program. The original program was launched in 2018 and used to be focused on prospects. We've updated the program and made it a members-only program for YATs to attend as part of a member-to-member accelerator program. The four-week program will begin in February and run each month. Each week there is a 30-minute virtual presentation and networking event put on by another YAT (or former YAT or YAT-at-heart as we like to say for those over 40) on topics such as prospecting, personal branding, and time management. The program also includes a session with Coaches' Circle and NAIFA member Joe Templin to teach how you can have endless leads. YATs will love it --and so will their managers--as we focus on providing tips and techniques to help YATs not only make it in the business, but thrive in the business! We've long known that NAIFA members make more money and last longer in the business, but we are ready to prove it with hard numbers in 2024!
3) YAT Chat is back! If you remember the newsletter that used to connect YATs and celebrate YAT achievements, well, we're bringing it back, but modernizing it so that there's more interaction. The new YAT Chat blog will launch in February and allow YATs to comment on articles, write for the publication, and more. We look forward to re-introducing this tool and bringing YATs across the country together to share their journey in financial services.
4) The YAT program includes two sets of awards: the YAT Leader of the Year and Advisor Today's 4 Under 40 Awards. Many chapters also have these awards and our goal in 2024 is to pull all of them together so we can see all of our award winners at the local, state, and national levels. We are not just a formidable force on Capitol Hill, but we are a formidable force in driving our industry forward by bringing up the next generation of financial security professionals! Note that all awards will open in February this year, but close earlier due to the Belong Awards gala being held during Apex in September!
5) Members who are YATs will be identified so that we can recognize the powerful association work that they are doing early in their working career. The new YAT identifier will allow us to identify who is a YAT that is a LILI graduate, an FSA badge holder, an IFAPAC contributor, and more. It's just another way to celebrate and recognize our young talent when we are gathered together at meetings and events.
6) YATs can participate in our popular MentorLoop mentoring program. Our goal is to match up mentees and mentors and YATs are a natural group to participate in our MentorLoop program (and might be a great refreshing experience for those that want to mentor a younger member and experience reverse-mentoring!) Interested in learning more? Email mentoring@naifa.org
Zack can be reached at zhuels@naifa.org if you want to ask any YAT questions, or just congratulate Zack on the new role!
