LifeBridge: 10 years of insuring low-income families

In today's challenging economy, every penny counts — especially when it comes to providing for your family.

As a father of three, I know the hard work that goes into caring for children and the endless worries that parents face as they work to ensure their kids grow to successful adults. Working in the life insurance industry, I see how life insurance can make a big difference if a tragedy should strike.

Unfortunately, as many financial professionals can attest, families on tight budgets all too often put life insurance on the back burner because of other demands like mortgages, debt and groceries. That's not surprising, given today's tough economic conditions.

However, what many people don't realize is that when we lose a loved one, we not only lose them as a person and all the love they contributed to our family, but we also lose their income and support, making it that much harder to pay the bills and care for our families.

Think of a mom and dad who work long hours to ensure they can provide for their children or the parent that works extra hours so the other can be home with the kids. If one of the parents passes, what happens to that family financially? More importantly what happens to their children's futures?

This is why Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) created the LifeBridge Free Life Insurance program, to protect families that can't afford life insurance and to ensure that a child's educational aspirations remain intact if a tragedy should strike. LifeBridge combines two concepts that MassMutual cares most about: life insurance and education.

Now celebrating its 10^th anniversary, LifeBridge provides free $50,000 term life insurance policies (MassMutual pays the premiums) to families who qualify. If an insured parent or guardian should die during the term, the benefit is placed in a trust administered by The MassMutual Trust Co., FSB, a wholly owned stock subsidiary of MassMutual. The funds help pay for the children's educational needs, which can range from pre-school to college tuition, paying for room and board at a school and even affording books and materials for classes.

This program helps to remedy a great need in our society for lower income families that require life insurance the most. It helps to bridge the gap between the financial realities hard-working families face and their desire to make a better life for their children. Education is such an integral part of achieving success and financial stability in today's society. Through LifeBridge, children who lose their parent or guardian still have the money and means to help pay for their education.

Over the past 10 years, LifeBridge has given away more than 12,600 policies to families across the country, totaling more than $630 million in free coverage, and, surprisingly, it is still the only program of its kind.

With an end goal of issuing a total of $1 billion in free coverage, you can be assured that LifeBridge will continue to help us do what we do best, which is help people at all income levels prepare for the unexpected and protect what matters most to them — their families.

For more on life insurance, see:

Life insurance is sold, not bought. But for how long?

Customer focus will put life in your sales

Genworth: Many Americans with pre-existing conditions hold no life insurance