September is Life Insurance Awareness Month.. Insure your love today

Life insurance can do some pretty amazing things for people. It can buy loved ones time to grieve. It can pay off debts and loans, providing surviving family members with the chance to move on with a clean slate. It can keep families in their homes and pre-fund a child’s college education. It can keep a family business in the family. It can provide a stream of income for a family to live on for a period of time. Life insurance can do all of these wonderful things for your family…there’s just one small catch. You need to own life insurance.

There’s a growing crisis of too many Americans not having adequate life insurance protection. According to the industry research group LIMRA, 30 percent of US households have no life insurance whatsoever. Today there are 11 million fewer American households covered by life insurance compared with six years ago. Here’s the bottom line: A majority of families either have no life insurance or not enough, leaving them one accident or terminal illness away from a financial catastrophe for their loved ones.

What if you were suddenly gone and your family had to manage on their own? When was the last time you did the math to make sure your loved ones would be OK financially? Have you checked with your employer to find out what kind of life insurance benefit you have through work and whether you have the option to increase your coverage? When was the last time you had your life insurance needs reviewed by an insurance professional?

Your family’s financial future is too important to leave to chance.   Contact your local SBS Insurance Agent to obtain more information or receive quotes for Life Insurance.

Seat belts save over 13,000 lives every year

“No one can predict when they will be involved in a motor vehicle crash, yet almost all of us will be involved in an automobile crash in our lifetime. Last year, 382 people lost their lives on Kansas roadways and 50 percent of them were unbuckled,” said Cherie Sage, State Director for Safe Kids Kansas. “The single most effective means of protecting the lives of you and your passengers is wearing seat belts and using appropriate child restraints every time you ride in the vehicle – even short distances.”


According to the 2011 KDOT Safety Belt survey, only 83 percent of those surveyed ages 14 and older were wearing their seat belt. This is around the national average of 84 percent. In 2010, Kansas ranked 36th in the nation in seat belt usage.

“It is important that Kansans get the message that seat belts save lives,” stated Sage. “An average of 93 people die each day in motor vehicle crashes nationally; that’s an average of one death every 16 minutes. This is unacceptable.”

Here are the top 5 things you should know about buckling up:

1. Buckling up is the SINGLE MOST EFFECTIVE thing you can do to protect yourself in a crash.

2. Air bags are designed to work WITH seat belts, not replace them.

3. Buckle up safely … Place the shoulder belt across the middle of your chest and away from your neck. Adjust the lap belt across your hips, below your stomach and NEVER put the shoulder belt behind your back or under an arm.

4. FIT MATTERS -- before you buy a new car, check to see that its seat belts are a good fit for you. Ask your dealer about seat belt adjusters, which can help you get the best fit.

5. Everyone in the car should BUCKLE UP, regardless of their seat position.

For more information about safety belt or child safety seat use, visit

www.safekidskansas.org, www.safekids.org or www.nhtsa.gov