NABIP traces its roots back to June 1930, when four industry leaders: J. P. Collins, L. D. Edson, A. G. MacKinnon, and George Brown, came together in Chicago to form the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU), now known as the National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals (NABIP). Even in the midst of the Great Depression, their vision was clear: to build a professional association grounded in ethics, education, and consumer protection.
Over the decades, NABIP has grown to represent more than 100,000 licensed insurance professionals across 200+ chapters nationwide, helping individuals, families, and businesses understand, access, and use health coverage more effectively.
By the 1980s, NABIP recognized that simply having insurance policies wasn’t enough. People needed plain-language education to truly navigate their options. Out of that recognition, the NABIP Foundation was created as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to extend the association’s mission beyond the profession itself and close the gap between everyday Americans and a notoriously confusing healthcare system.
Today, the Foundation builds on nearly a century of ethics-driven leadership. We educate the public, raise funds to expand healthcare literacy, support multilingual access, and drive campaigns that turn confusion into clarity by empowering individuals to advocate for themselves and their families.