5 reasons clients buy life insurance

3. Covering funeral expenses

At its roots, life insurance is a final expense product, designed to protect loved ones from the financial cost of death (see our infographic: Death by the Numbers). Today's policies may come with a lot of extra bells and whistles, but many clients want it simply to pay for funeral costs, so that their family doesn't have to. Thirty-eight percent of producers cited this as a top client concern, making it No. 3 on our list. This builds on data uncovered by an earlier National Underwriter research study: In the African-American market, covering funeral expenses is the No. 1 concern, cited by 57 percent of advisors who work with African-American clients.

4. Passing wealth to heirs.

As a financial planning tool, part of the beauty of life insurance is its flexibility. This is a product that can fulfill a variety of needs for a variety of clients in a variety of income brackets. Thirty-five percent of survey respondents noted that passing wealth to heirs was a top goal of their clients. Guy Baker, managing director, BTA Advisory Group, explains why it's important to pitch life insurance not as a product but as a key part of the financial planning process: "We can sell life insurance as a product or part of a process starting with defining the problem and leading to an ultimate solution. Most people are too busy being successful to focus on making a BIG decision. So we break the problem down into little decisions that lead to implementation. Work on the problem, not the solution."

5. Being able to pay for a loved one's education in the event of death of an income earner.

Twenty-five percent of advisors cited education expenses as a primary goal for their clients and a primary selling point for life insurance. And for good reason: As a secure investment vehicle, life insurance is tough to beat. Mark Hug, Prudential's EVP of product & marketing, individual life insurance business says this about why the product is so relevant to so many — and also why a change in public perception is still needed: "The more people understand the relevance of life insurance, the more we can shift the nature of the conversations. Ultimately that change will help people see that life insurance isn't a commodity, but rather a source of protection for their loved ones and a resource for their future."

Click here for more content from LifeHealthPro's 2013 Life Insurance Study.