The Insurance & Financial Communicators Association (I.F.C.A.) "is an international organization dedicated to the ongoing professional development of its members in life insurance and related financial services communications." [1] The associations primary objective is to promote the exhange of ideas among its members through educational programs, events, and publications. Among industry profesionals the I.F.C.A. award is prestigious.

The Life Advertisers Association was organized in 1933, after life insurance underwriters split from the eight-year old Insurance Advertising Conference which had included representatives from both life and casualty companies. It was intended to provide a context for the exchange of information and ideas. The Association included both American and Canadian members from its inception. It changed its name to the Life Communicators Association in 1984 and to the Insurance & Financial Communicators Association in 2003.

Three of the four "roundtable" areas (North Central, Southern, and Eastern) were established in 1934, and a tradition begun of rotation among the regions of the annual meeting location. The Western roundtable was established in 1958.

Annual workshops were established in 1951 as a response to a postwar influx of college-educated but inexperienced men and women into the insurance business. The standing committee on education formed to set up these workshops has continued to hold workshops as part of a broader program of education, which has included intensive communications workshops, specialized projects, and advanced seminars for those employed in the industry.

Standing committees on advertising research, public relations, research, and sales promotion research were established in 1951 to 1952 as part of the Association's interest in member education. In the mid-fifties the research committees began to gather, publish, and distribute case histories and research reports as a way of exchanging information and ideas about marketing insurance and streamlining company operations.

The Association has divided itself into four informal specialty areas: advertising, internal company communications, public relations, and sales promotion. Committees exist for each of these areas, but there is no formal hierarchical structure for them, and participation in all association activities is voluntary. The clerical needs of the organization are handled by an outside firm. The change in the organization's name in 1984 was intended to reflect the association's emphasis on communications as a vital part of the insurance industry, and to be more inclusive of the group's three other specialty areas.

I.F.C.A. has made little attempt to influence public policy on insurance regulation. Interest in public opinion about insurance or the insurance industry seems to have been left to those involved in sales promotion, and I.F.C.A.'s educational efforts focused on those in the industry. While the association has maintained contacts with other insurance organizations through institutional representatives, there has been little discussion of combining with any of these groups to form a larger or more comprehensive association.

I.F.C.A. continues to regard itself primarily as a vehicle for information exchange, for increasing efficiency among its member companies, and for promoting high standards for professional practice.