“Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother, you're staying' alive, staying' alive.”
-The Bee Gees

Before John Travolta became a star with his riveting performance in “Saturday Night Fever,” he did a television commercial for the Mutual of New York Life Insurance Company.

The commercial had Travolta's character cleaning at a diner. Travolta said, "My dad had it all planned so that I could go to college. Each week, he saved some of his paycheck. He had it all planned out."

"I guess he didn't plan on dying." 

Anyone who saw that commercial never forgot it. It hammered home why many people need life insurance.

I don't see commercials like that today. Life insurance is sold by big financial institutions with lots of other products. Most companies soft pedal the concept. 

People are going to die and have family, businesses, and charitable causes who need help. People need to be reminded of that.

Selling life insurance is a tough way to make a living. I know. I've done it. 

Most people think of the stereotypical life insurance agent in the Bill Murray movie, "Groundhog Day." The insurance salesman character was obnoxious and only interested in getting a sale.

I was lucky to know professionals who know their business and care about their clients. 

A few years after Travolta made his commercial, I wound up at Mutual of New York. Most of my fellow agents got there the same way I did; we couldn't find a job doing anything else.

I had been working on a clean up crew at the Kentucky Horse Park . I was going to take any job where I did not see the back end of a horse. 

I was fortunate that I found Mutual of New York. I wanted to work as a stock broker but flunked the personality exam at three different places.

The testing showed that cleaning up after horses might be a career move. 

Mutual of New York no longer exists and their training program does not exist either. They put me through a four year program that taught me every aspect of financial planning. They paid for me to have a Masters Degree in Financial Services and also paid for me to be a Chartered Life Underwriter and Chartered Financial Consultant.

My manager, Dennis Pike Jr., is one of the finest human beings I have ever known. He was not going to have me represent the company unless I could do it in a professional manner. 

At that time, most companies had career agent training programs and good professionals knew the ins and outs of life insurance.

Now, few companies take the time to properly train people. 

I'm sure it is more profitable for insurance companies to sell policies over the internet or train bank tellers and stockbrokers in one day classes. But the public is suffering from the lack of expertise. There is a need for trained professionals to get a person to focus on what will happen when their life ends.

I have not sold life insurance in over 15 years or bought any recently. However, I loaded up when I was younger. I was single and it seemed like a lot of insurance at the time. I was healthy and the premiums were not high. 

Now that I am older and overweight, I am glad I bought the policies. The amounts now fit my income and needs. When I die, my family will have money and my business will continue.

I did something that more people should do. I donated life insurance policies to schools I attended. I got a tax deduction and the schools will have a significant sum when I die. 

I never know when someone from an alma mater asks how I am feeling if they sincerely care or if the endowment fund is running short that month.

With fewer trained professionals, I wonder if many consumers will have the same chance I did: to have someone guide them so their families and businesses go on after they do. 

Life insurance is a tool for people's hopes and dreams to keep staying alive.

Don McNay is President of McNay Settlement Group where they don't sell life insurance but are glad that people do. You can write to him at him This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text93809 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or read other things he has written at www.DonMcNay.com . His award winning column is syndicated on the CNHI News Service.