To help NAIFA celebrate Life Insurance Awareness Month, a dedicated NAIFA member since 1975 share how the life insurance business has changed over his career.

In 1975 when I entered what then many called the “life insurance business,” the marketing of policies and emphasis on what the product was intended to provide was completely different. Many would say the difference between then and now was light years apart. As carried over from the 1950s and 1960s, the focus of life insurance when I came in the business and joined NAIFA during the 1970s remained primarily centered on the issues of financial security – not the more complex issues involving financial planning and wealth management like we see today. The goal was making sure life insurance provided that certain, basic needs were being met: final expenses, mortgages, financial emergencies, and education for the kids. In some situations, retirement income opportunities were addressed.

The presentation of life insurance I was taught appealed much more to the emotional aspects of the product. I observed a lot of this training firsthand from my father who came into the business in the late 1940s. The marketing process and sales presentations were much more geared towards the nuclear family in America coming out of World War II and continuing into the 1950s and 60s. Sales materials normally emphasized a one income family where the husband was oftentimes the primary income generator. Any emphasis on cash value accumulations or dividends focused on the systematic discipline of storing money away. As opposed to “put and take” products, often characterized as bank savings, a “put and keep” philosophy emphasized financial success for the long term. It would not be until the latter part of the 1970s and into the 1980s that the product narrative dramatically changed in the industry with the advent of IRAs and employer sponsored 401(k) programs emerging as “put and keep" assets. This significantly changed the conversation going forward.

One narrative still very popular during the early years of my career was called “The Miracle of Life Insurance.” It was another marketing carry over from my father’s generation and packed with the emotional “mojo” for generating the prospect’s acceptance and getting the application signed. Here’s how it went:

“A life insurance policy is just a time-yellowed piece of paper with columns of figures and legal phrases, until it is baptized with a widow’s tears. It then becomes a modern miracle, Aladdin’s Lamp. It is food, clothing, shelter, and undying affection. It is the sincerest love letter ever written. It eases the aching heart of the partner who remains behind; a comforting whisper in the dark and silent hours, It furnishes new hope, fresh courage, and the strength to pick up the broken threads and carry on. It supplies the milk that quiets the crying of a hungry baby in the night. It provides a college education for the child, a chance for a career rather than the need for a job. It’s a father’s and mother’s blessing to their daughter on her wedding day. It can be a parent’s uninterrupted dreams and plans for the family’s future. Through life insurance, they live on. The premiums they pay help provide the greatest of all privilege; the privilege of providing for his or her famiy after death”.

Very clearly "The Magic of Life Insurance" emphasized a bold perspective in earlier times of financial protection and “peace of mind.” There were, however, marked differences in the way business was achieved along with the tools used to gain business:

• Applications were much shorter. In 1975, the first company I represented had a “front and back” one page application with a single place for an applicant’s signature. Replacement disclosures along with separate applicant signatures were neither a part of the application nor required.
• Computer generated proposals 25, 30, or more pages long were nonexistent. In utilizing a KISS formula (keeping it simple and sincere) most proposals were illustrated on a one page sheet with a ball point pen. Many, in fact, could be drawn on a paper napkin. Occasionally, when a large proposal was drawn up, it would be typed via an IBM Selectric typewriter. Rarely was there a home office requirement that it be approved beforehand.
• Compliance issues and regulatory requirements were literally nonexistent. If dividends were being used for the proposal, there would be an asterisk indicating that dividends were not guaranteed.
• While policies could be illustrated with non guaranteed features, there was little if any verbiage referring to “current assumptions,” “flexible premiums,” “adjustable coverage,” or “insufficient values.” In other words, there were not a lot of references to how policy figures might change in the future.

This all changed by the early to mid 1980s with the introduction of interest-sensitive life insurance. First introducted by the E.F. Hutton Life Insurance as Universal Life, this not only refocused the character of the product, but it fundamentally changed how life insurance was sold to the public. Unquestionably, the life insurance industry was forever changed.

Ike S. Trotter, CLU, ChFC, AEP is a well recognized career professional from Greenville, MS and in 2025 is celebrating his 50^th year as a NAIFA member. He operates his own planning and risk management practice.