The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE) has honored local Allstate Insurance Agent Brenda Soto Bryan with its RealLIFEstories Client Service Award. LIFE, a nonprofit group that conducts the Life Insurance Awareness Month campaign every September, selected the stories of four insurance agents nationwide to help raise awareness of the need for Americans to include insurance in their financial plans.
The campaign highlights stories of everyday families who have experienced the death or disability of a loved one to draw attention to the need for professional advice about life, health, disability and long-term care insurance. The featured stories, chosen by an independent judging panel, highlight examples of how insurance, along with the advice and assistance of qualified insurance professionals, helped families at times of great financial need. This year’s stories are appearing nationally in the September 2011 issues of Parents and O magazines, which are on newsstands now.
Soto Bryan won for encouraging a property and casualty client, Long Beach resident Jim Bix, who had an incurable lung disease, to make use of an option to buy life insurance through an employer-sponsored plan. When Bix died, his widow used the employer-sponsored coverage to pay off debts and keep their children in private school, as well as in their home.
“People think that their greatest asset is their home,” said Soto Bryan. “It’s not the home, it’s the person providing the income— the paycheck that enables the family to stay in the home, the car, the school and the lifestyle, and life insurance is the key to protecting that. Employer-paid insurance is good, but it’s only there for you as long as you’re employed. That’s why I believe it’s very important to have private insurance— and to buy it when you’re young, healthy and can qualify.”
The clients and agents involved in this year’s featured stories were honored at the annual conference of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors in Washington, D.C on Sept 12. The stories of these families, featuring Long Beach residents, The Bix family, and the other realLIFEstories, may be viewed on YouTube by searching “realLIFEstories 2011 Program Replay.”
