LIFE's LIAM Plans

Headlining LIAM 2009 is actor Chris Noth, who is best known for his leading roles in Sex and the City and Law & Order. Chris grew up in a life insurance family. Both his father and grandfather were life insurance agents. Sadly, that’s not where Chris’ connection to the life insurance industry ends. When Chris was nine, his father died in a car accident, leaving his mother to raise three boys on her own. The proceeds from his insurance helped Chris’ family during that difficult time and enabled his single, working mother to put all three sons through college. Chris will share his personal experience in a series of television and radio public service announcements that will begin airing in July and continue to be broadcast throughout the remainder of the year.

The theme of this year’s LIAM campaign is the Wonders of Life, and the concept is simple. We live for life’s wondrous moments. From simples pleasures like enjoying quality time with loved ones to major milestones such as seeing a child reach graduation day, these are the moments we cherish most. Life insurance is all about ensuring that the life you’ve worked so hard to achieve for your loved ones won’t come to a halt if something were to happen to you. Unfortunately, tens of millions of Americans lack adequate life insurance protection. If they were to die prematurely, life would quickly become a struggle for their loved ones, leaving little time to savor life’s wondrous moments. www.wondersoflife.org

To get Americans thinking about how life insurance can keep families in their familiar world and preserve life’s wondrous moments, LIFE will sponsor a photo contest on the popular photo-sharing website Flickr.com. During September, consumers will be asked to upload a picture that depicts a wondrous moment in the life of their family. The Grand Prize winner will receive the new Canon T1i, 12.2-Megapixel Digital SLR Camera to capture more wondrous moments. The contest will go “live” on September 1, 2009 at www.wondersoflife.org.

Continuing with the same theme, LIFE is creating a new web video that will drive home the “wonders of life” message. The narrated video will feature a series of still photographs that capture the kinds of moments we all cherish and hope our loved ones will always be able to enjoy, no matter what twists and turns life throws our way. During September, the video will be featured on both LIFE’s homepage and at www.wondersoflife.org. This latter URL is the page consumers will need to visit in order to enter the Wonders of Life/Flickr.com Photo Contest.

For the 14th consecutive year, LIFE is partnering with Newsweek to bring realLIFEstories to the American people. These are true stories that illustrate how important insurance can be when families and businesses are faced life’s most challenging moments, like the death or disability of a loved one. LIFE conducts an annual contest to elicit the best stories from across the country. This year's featured stories can be seen in the September 14, 2009 issue of Newsweek. Watch realLIFEstories videos at www.lifehappens.org/reallifestories

In September, LIFE will publicly announce the recipients of its 2009 LIFE Lessons Scholarship Awards. Earlier in the year, college-age students were asked to write essays or submit videos describing how the death of a parent impacted their lives, especially their ability to afford college. The vast majority of entries describe the financial hardship that resulted when a parent died and had little or no life insurance coverage.  LIFE will award 5 grand-prize scholarship of $5,000. In all, LIFE will award 45 scholarships totaling $65,000.  

Throughout September, LIFE will post new content on its blog several times each week. If you’re interested in being a part of an ongoing dialogue about important insurance planning topics, it’s time to add www.lifehappens.org/blog to your list of favorite sites.

LIAM is the perfect time to send a life insurance e-card to someone you know. It’s a free and effective way to remind people that now is as good a time as any to make sure their life insurance needs are up to date. Check out LIFE’s large selection of eCards at www.lifehappens.org/ecards. The “Just Because” cards are a particularly good choice for September.