Jim Kerley, Chief Membership Officer at LIMRA, is not the first to say the life insurance industry is poised for significant opportunity. The most creative agents in the industry say the same thing. So does one of the country’s smartest VC firms. Non-traditional retailers like Walmart have dipped their toe in the life insurance sales waters, and will likely continue to pursue middle market consumers who, by all accounts, are underinsured.

But Kerley is surely one of the most persuasive. Asked about a recent LIMRA study that identified opportunities and challenges for the year ahead, he shared a number of ways he thinks independent agents can capitalize on all this opportunity.

And he gives a compelling reason for doing it, too. “At the end of the day, the single best advantage that we offer to the American public is that we provide a product that will be there when tragedy strikes,” Kerley says. “The product development and the underwriting might be complex, but the psychology of the sale is not.”