It’s hard to believe that not only are we drawing close to the end of another year, but also closing in on the end of the first decade of the Third Millennium. 

(I already expect to hear from pedants and calendar officials informing me that in strict terms a decade goes from a year beginning with the number one, not zero.  Then I expect to hear from some people telling me that zero is not a number.  But most of you will know what I mean, and the others will just have to deal with it.)

(By the way, these same folks are very likely the ones who are still preoccupied with what to call the decade now about to end.  My own suggestion (considering the tenor of most of those 10 years) would be the Naughties.)

In any case (and to get back to life outside the parentheses) it’s been quite a year, hasn’t it?  

For many people it will be the equivalent of Queen Elizabeth II’s annus horribilis, 1992, and not because two of their sons’ marriages went bust and one of their castles caught on fire, to cite some of the royal disasters of that year that caused Her Majesty so much distress.

Rather many will remember 2009 as a horrible year because of more mundane reasons. They lost their job and couldn’t find another one.  Or their house (castle) went into foreclosure.  Or their retirement funds, once so safely (or so it seemed) parked in a 401(k) had managed to recoup only a small percentage of the 40% or 50% they had lost when the market went into free fall. Or because they were in sales (including insurance products, of course) and every day was more of an uphill climb than it usually is due to the fact that consumers all over the place were holding on to (not to mention squeezing hard) their depleted shekels.

And on that subject, the first six months of 2009 will be (bitterly) remembered as the time when sales of insurance products saw their steepest decline in nearly 70 years, according to LIMRA International.

Things may have started to pick up in a couple of lines, however.  So, in a time when looking for good news is the equivalent of grasping for straws, then the uptick in whole life sales (which account for a thin sliver of the market) is something worth celebrating.

We could also, I suppose, take cheer from the fact that economists are declaring that the recession officially over.  But the response of many non-economists to that claim is: Really?

The danger in trumpeting the macro view in something like this is that it stretches the disconnect between what people feel in the own lives and what they hear from those who see the “big picture” or who have a stake in pushing the rose-colored view of things that the macro view encourages.  (President Obama, take note.)

Needless to say, the widespread pain has made sales of insurance products ever so much more difficult.  The ‘intangible’ thing combined with the depletion of discretionary income has taken a toll on producers and companies alike.

All of which makes it imperative for both producers and companies to keep plugging away and using this time of trouble to reinforce the message of the security that insurance products provide.  Even if sales of those products come later.  

The reality is that these tough times will pass, although not as quickly as we would surely like.  But if producers and companies don’t stay on message now, they will have to compete with a myriad of consumer preoccupations later on (like looking for the best HDTV).

So many consumers are still very scared and want to hear about security. And that’s whether they can pay for it now or not.

Once again I had the privilege of being a judge in the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education’s RealLIFEstories program. (To call it a ‘contest’ makes it seem a little too tawdry, although there is a definite competitive element involved.)

There a few things that bring you so close to the noble calling that so many long-time agents give as their reason for getting into-and even more important, continuing in-the life insurance selling business.

Having done this judging before, I was well aware that I needed to prepare myself for an emotional onslaught.  Most, if not all, of these stories are tear-jerkers in the best sense of the word.  They pack a wallop. 

I’m not going to go into particulars here, but you can always count of a number of the stories recounting early and unexpected deaths, with grieving families left behind to grieve, but also in much better condition to bear that grief because life insurance proceeds took care of immediate and long-term financial needs.

One other consistent factor in these stories is how often agents go above and beyond the selling of a policy.  Servicing the policy takes on a whole other meaning and dimension when you read about how involved some agents become in taking care of the survivors in the aftermath of a family’s tragedy.

(Just as an aside, I’d like to offer one bit of advice to any agent considering entering their own story: Presentation matters.  Just as life insurance doesn’t sell itself, but has to be sold, so it is with RealLIFEstories entries.  A well-told story creates much more resonance than a bare-bones accounting of what happened-thus upping its chances of being a winner.)

In any case, it is good to be reminded about the raison d’etre of life insurance and the good that it does.  In this sense, LIFE’s program has a very important mission within the business.

The 4 finalists in this year’s round of entries will (as is customary) be featured in a special section in Newsweek sometime in the early fall, bringing these stories to a wide swath of the public.  In addition, these stories will be available to agents to use in their own struggles to convince often reluctant clients to plunk down some premium dollars.

I know times are tough for many life insurers right now.  And I’ve heard that some companies are cutting back on their budgets for LIFE. This may be understandable under the circumstances, but it is also short-sighted. 

Agents don’t give up when the going gets tough, and neither should companies. In good times and bad, LIFE happens.