Our Genesis

In 1976 the National Association of Life Underwriters (NALU), which is based in the USA and with whom LUAJ was affiliated as Associate Member, increased its membership dues significantly. LUAJ's President, Earle Anglin and a board member the late Owen Thompson visited NALU Headquarters to protest the increase in the dues but NALU was unbending.

Consequently the board of the LUAJ took the decision in August 1976 to withdraw its membership from NALU and seek the formation of a regional Association.

CARAIFA may, however, very well trace its conception to a very passionate appeal for Caribbean unity made by the late Samial Jadoonanan of Trinidad and Tobago to about 400 underwriters who were attending LUAJ's Biannual Sales Congress in Ocho Rios in May 1977.

During the Congress a small group of representatives from Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago met to discuss some of the points that were made by Samial Jadoonanan and they resolved to continue their discussions after the Congress, incorporating representation from the Life Underwriters Association of Barbados.

The first annual general meeting became a reality on October 31, 1977 in Guyana and present were representatives from Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago.