At 7:10 a.m. MDT on September 11, the morning of the terrorist attack on the twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center, most of the agents and advisors attending NAIFA's Annual Convention and Career Conference in Salt Lake City were having breakfast when the first news of the tragedy broke.

"I was sitting down at the Society of Financial Service Professionals breakfast when I heard the rumor that a plane had crashed into one of the towers," says Arthur Kraus, CLU, ChFC, president and CEO of NAIFA. "We waited until breakfast was over before we announced what we had heard. We didn't want to alarm anyone before we could confirm what was actually going on."

A quick walk to the Salt Palace Convention Center saw hundreds of insurance professionals and advisors crowded around TV sets watching in shock as the first of the towers crumbled to dust. "Everybody was watching," Kraus says, "and you could see the frame of mind of the attendees change. It was surreal. It was as if no one believed the attack even happened."

The mood at the convention had changed from conviviality to somberness, Kraus adds. "There was anger, sure, but more than that, there was an almost religious feeling in the air. There was never any panic, just a deep concern, among delegation especially Washington and New York. New York had an especially large number of people at the convention this year." At press time, NAIFA said 68 advisors from New York state had registered for the convention.