The LIFE Foundation created Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM) for the month of September to highlight the importance of life insurance.

On Monday, Sept. 10, Warren Barhorst, LUTCF, founder and CEO of Iscential, spoke at length of the importance to make every month Life Insurance Awareness Month, and to have that continuous awareness motivate your team and grow your business.

One of the first teaching moments he emphasized was, as an agent, you must adapt to survive any situation. You must learn from your mistakes and look at them as opportunities to grow.

You also must make life and financial services part of the deal. The trends being realized by the industry are:
- Agents are decreasing while the population is increasing. The average age of agents is 58.
- Group life insurance is exceeding individual life insurance.
- 30 percent of U.S. households are uninsured.
- 50 percent of U.S. households say they need more life insurance.

The main drivers behind the last two trends are that perceived costs of life insurance varies as much as 300 percent, and 60 percent of households have not been asked about insurance in two years.

One way to remain relevant and stay in business is to become a specialist. “Specialists know, understand and are highly engaged in the industry,” Barhorst said. Generalists only dabble and pretend they are in the industry, and will eventually be phased out.

Creating a road map for your personal dreams and for business goals will keep you on track to reaching them. Activate your marketing, not only through the Internet, and hire and train the best employees for your business goal.

Taking your clients through the step-by-step process of choosing life insurance makes them comfortable that you’re helping them make the best choice. Explain how the industry works, how their estimate gets calculated and make them aware of all the options.

In the end, he said, confidence breeds competence and vice versa.