Life Happens, a non-profit organization formed in 1994, was created to encourage Americans to take personal financial responsibility by obtaining life insurance and related products.
To educate the public on the importance of life insurance, Life Happens communicates its message through a variety of outreach strategies, including advertising, informational programs, public-service announcements and a variety of social media posts. The organization also coordinates three industry-wide awareness campaigns each year, including Life Insurance Awareness Month in September, Disability Insurance Awareness Month in May and the Insure Your Love campaign that takes place each January or February.
This year's campaign is already in full swing, reminding Americans across the country that life is for living.
2019 campaign centers on "Life is for Living" theme
This year's annual Insure Your Love campaign is based on the success of the organization's tearjerker "Life is for Living" video.
The 90-second video, which debuted late last year, features a young girl getting ready for bed. Before going to sleep, she pulls out a picture book titled "Life is for Living." Her father appears sitting beside her in the bedroom, and he begins narrating the book to his daughter as she turns the pages. The text of the book encourages the reader to keep living on, even when loved ones are gone.
As the young girl finishes the book and drifts off to sleep, the video reveals that the father was never really there, as he has passed on, and the book was meant to reassure the daughter that she and her widowed mother will still be safe and protected without him.
The short film ends with the words, "Make sure your loved ones live on… with life insurance."
The emotionally resonant video is meant to express the message that although life insurance can never make up for the loss of a loved one, it can ensure that your family remains financially secure even after you are no longer there to provide for them.
Insure Your Love campaign offers facts and resources
This message is further echoed by the other resources that Life Happens is putting out this month as part of its annual Insure Your Love campaign.
The non-profit organization is using this moment to remind Americans of some unpleasant yet sobering statistics, such as the fact that more than one-third of households would feel the financial impact within a month if the primary wage earner died. Similarly, a 2018 Insurance Barometer Study found that a third of respondents wished their spouse or partner had more life insurance.
Other figures show that the issue is sometimes complicated more by priorities and perceptions than inability to afford life insurance. For example, the same Insurance Barometer study found that 61 percent of people don't buy any or more life insurance because they have "other financial priorities," while nearly half of all millennials overestimate the cost of life insurance by as much as five times the actual amount.
Those who would like a firmer grasp on the real costs of life insurance can use some of the tools found on the Life Happens website, which allows you to calculate how much your family would need in the event of your passing, and how much it would cost you to provide such coverage.
Originally known as the LIFE Foundation, Life Happens was formed in 1994 by seven leading insurance producer organizations, and now receives financial support from more than 140 of the nation's leading insurance and financial services organizations. The non-profit organization does not endorse any specific products or companies, however, and exists only to encourage consumers to seek out the protection they need for themselves and their families.
