September is…?

No, not NFL football season…September is Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM).

True, If there were official rankings for public knowledge of all the themed calendar
dates in a year, Life Insurance Awareness Month would probably fall somewhere

between National Bath Safety Month (January, in case you were wondering) and Pet Peeve Week (October).

This September marks the 12th anniversary of LIAM. While the event is well known among industry insiders, it’s barely on the radar for a significant portion of the general population.

If you look at the statistics, it’s startling how under-insured we are
in this nation, it should be our mission to have that life insurance conversation with every person we touch.

And that’s a lot of lives…

Here’s the bottom line: A majority of families have either no life insurance or not enough;
leaving them one accident or terminal illness away from a financial catastrophe for
their loved ones.

The questions to ask your clients are simple… What if you were suddenly gone and your
family had to manage on their own? When was the last time you did the math to make

MVP Financial Services, Inc.
is a proud member of AimcoR
Group, a national IMO. 

sure your loved ones would be OK financially? Have you checked with your employer to find out what kind of life insurance benefit you have through work and whether you have the option to increase your coverage? When was the last time you had your life insurance needs reviewed by an insurance professional?

To make sure Americans are reminded of the need to include life insurance in their financial plans, the nonprofit LIFE Foundation coordinates Life Insurance Awareness Month. Each September, LIFE is joined in this educational initiative by more than 100 of
the nation’s leading insurance companies and industry groups.

Your client’s family financial future is too important to leave to chance. 
     Check out these websites for LIAM materials and resources:

• LifeHappens.com
• MVP4me.com      

This blog post was brought to you by AimcoR Group.

Have Clients that Work for a Living?

It's the end of May and the industry push for Disability Insurance Awareness Month is coming to a close. Did you do your part to promote disability income protection in your practice this past month? Will you continue to promote it? Is it your ethical obligation to make sure that your clients are

protected? We think it might be.

Whatever your primary business is, let's just say, for the purpose of example, that it's selling life insurance... So you sell a life insurance policy to your client to protect their estate, their retirement, their loved ones; and you don't talk to them about disability insurance to protect their income. Then your client becomes disabled. Instead of their first phone call being to you to help them set the wheels in motion to tap into their disability policy, maybe their first phone call will be to their lawyer because you didn't offer them disability insurance as a means to protect their income. Suddenly the burden has fallen right into your lap.

If you have clients that work for a living, not only should you be selling the idea of financial protection, your most serious advice to them should be about protecting their paycheck.  95% of disabling accidents and illnesses are not work related, so Worker's Compensation doesn't cover them and only 1/3 of workers have access to a disability insurance plan at work. 

If you sell disability insurance, you must also practice what you preach, and buy a disability policy on yourself. When you purchase a disability insurance policy on yourself, you benefit in many ways:

• You experience firsthand the application and underwriting process, giving you valuable insight into what your clients will experience
• You address your own income protection needs
• You earn first-year commissions and ongoing renewals that help offset a portion of your premium each year

According to Life Happens, approximately every 7 seconds, a working-age American suffers a disabling injury or illness that will last for at least one month. 50% of them wouldn't be able to meet their expenses after one month without a paycheck and some won't last even that long. 

Selling disability insurance is also a huge market opportunity because there aren't many agents selling it. 51% of consumers are concerned about supporting themselves if they were injured or became ill and couldn't work, but only 29% actually own disability insurance. 

The disability insurance sale is a more difficult one, but if you put forth the effort, it pays well and it might help you sleep better at night. We challenge you to find ways to make the need for disability insurance relate-able to your clients. There are many tools and calculators available to help you draw connections between the coverage and your clients’ everyday lives. 

*All references to statistics can be found at lifehappens.org.