David Byers Jr. took over from Rich DeVita earlier this month as the president of AALU in Washington, at the group’s annual meeting.
AALU is a Reston, Virginia-based group for financial professionals. It attracted about 1,000 people to the meeting, according to AALU.
Byers is the managing principal at Capital Strategies Group Inc. in Birmingham, Alabama. He has served for 16 years on the Alabama State Board of Education.
(Related: Marc Cadin to Lead AALU)
Ray Bening took over as president-elect.
Jeri Turley became vice president, treasurer and secretary.
Traditionally, AALU has focused on serving advisors who provide advanced planning arrangements for institutions, wealthy families, and families with unusual financial planning needs. Many of those arrangements involve matters related to taxation.
DeVita noted at the AALU meeting that AALU members sent more than 12,000 comment letters to elected officials while Congress was debating changes to federal tax laws, according to AALU’s account of the meeting.
Marc Cadin, who is on track to become the group’s new chief operating officer, said he wants to see AALU serve holistic advisors, or advisors who try to take all of a client’s needs into account, as well as advanced planners.
AALU announced that six life insurance organizations will be supporting its AALU diversity scholarship program. The insurers are AXA Equitable, Lincoln Financial Group, NFP, Northwestern Mutual, Pacific Life Insurance Group and Penn Mutual.
The scholarships help producers from under-represented groups participate in AALU events.
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