Whenever you talk about life insurance to your customer, use a Bell Curve illustration to aid them to visually comprehend the concept of the life cycle and the way it relates to the changing need for life insurance. The necessity for insurance as well as the benefit amounts should increase or decrease - like the form of a Bell Curve - as your customer’s earning potential and responsibilities increase or decrease. This gives Agents a chance to sell additional products to existing customers throughout their lives.

People obtain life insurance for two main reasons:

• To meet final expenses so their family is not burdened at the time of death

• To replace lost income within the event of an unexpected death

But those are not the only reasons to purchase life insurance. Others are:

• To pay off the mortgage so a family won’t lose their home as a result of the loss of a breadwinner’s income

• To finance a kid's higher education if the household loses the breadwinner’s income

No matter why they buy it, the outcome is the same - life insurance pays a specific benefit amount upon the policyholder’s death. When he purchases the policy, the prospect can choose the benefit amount that’s right for their family based on his individual needs and circumstances, in other words, where he is in the life cycle.

There are a couple of main kinds of life insurance - whole life and term life. Whole life provides coverage for his entire life and builds cash and loan value as he pays his premiums. Premiums never increase, but whole life is usually more expensive because coverage lasts a lifetime. It provides the most effective overall protection for his family, however, and covers final expenses.

Term life provides coverage only for the limited period of time. After that period, the policyholder generally pays increased premiums to maintain the coverage. Term life, however, is usually less expensive than whole life and is acceptable for those with limited financial resources or who want the coverage only in a limited time period.

From the day your prospect was born he developed a need for final expense insurance. But, life insurance is not something he consciously thought of for the next few decades while growing up. When he became an adult, however, that likely changed as he hit new milestones during the life cycle. Is he married? Does he have children? Does he own a home? Does he have someone depending on him for income? If he answers, "yes," to any of these questions, the necessity for life insurance increases dramatically. In the end, life can change in a heartbeat! Your customer needs to be prepared!

Will his death as well as the loss of his income negatively impact those who depend upon him financially? You bet it would! Having appropriate life coverage in place will assist to take care of his family financially. Adding a term policy towards a whole life policy could also help if the policyholder dies during peak earning years when he is accumulating assets and debts.

As your customer nears retirement, the necessity for term insurance dwindles. By that point, he likely has accumulated enough money to live on and his children are no longer financially dependent on him. From retirement on to the end of life, your customer generally will not need term coverage if he has an appropriate whole life product in place that can help pay final expenses.

What matters most is that customers purchase life insurance - regardless of where they are within the life cycle! But, by educating customers on their changing needs, you can present additional products throughout their lifetime.