State Farm Agent Honored for realLIFEstories

BLOOMINGTON. Ill., Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- State Farm agent Chad Gregorini, Aspinwall, Pa., is honored this year by the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education's fifteenth annual realLIFEstories.  Gregorini insured Pittsburgh Police Officer Stephen Mayhle with a term life insurance policy.  

Mayhle was almost not insured.  He wanted to cancel his life insurance because money was tight, and he thought his group life insurance policy would be enough, but Gregorini explained to Mayhle to provide for a young family, he needed more coverage, not less. Mayhle and his wife, Shandra, thought about it and decided to increase their coverage from a $50,000 universal life policy to a $250,000 20-year term policy.

Then tragedy struck. In the early morning hours in April, 2009, Mayhle and several officers responded to a domestic disturbance between a mother and son.  When they arrived, the son opened fire, killing 29-year-old Stephen and two other officers.

After hearing about the shooting while in his car, Gregorini stopped by his office to get the Mayhle's address and drove to their home.  While friends and family gathered, Gregorini let Shandra know everything was going to be okay.  The insurance money helped ease the Mayhle family's mind about finances both for the present and the future.  

"Shandra trusts that we will provide options that will help her do what is in the best interest of her and her daughters," says Gregorini. "I try to be open, honest and genuine with her so she can consider all her options."

"It's just what we do to take care of our customers," said Dick Paul, vice president – operations, State Farm Life Insurance Company and LIFE Foundation board member. "State Farm agents everywhere work hard to understand customer needs and offer the right products to meet those needs. Chad's story is one for all of us to learn from."

The nonprofit LIFE Foundation as part of its fifteenth annual realLIFEstories Client Service Awards recognizes insurance professionals for their outstanding services to a family or individual, while the personal experiences of those who benefit from life, long-term care, disability and health insurance are used to encourage Americans to examine their insurance needs.

The recipients will be honored at the annual convention of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.

About State Farm®:

State Farm insures more cars and homes than any other insurer in the U.S., is the leading insurer of watercraft and is also a leading insurer in Canada. Our 17,800 agents and more than 68,000 employees serve 81 million policies and accounts – more than 79 million auto, fire, life and health policies in the United States and Canada, and nearly 2 million bank accounts. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 34 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit statefarm.com® or in Canada statefarm.ca®. 

About LIFE

The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE) was founded in 1994 in response to the public's growing need for information and education on life, health, disability and long-term care insurance. LIFE also seeks to remind people of the important role insurance professionals perform in helping families and businesses safeguard their financial futures. To learn more about these topics, please visit www.lifehappens.org.

About Life Insurance Awareness Month

Life Insurance Awareness Month was created by the LIFE Foundation in response to growing concern about the large number of Americans who lack adequate life insurance protection. According to LIMRA International, 68 million adult Americans have no life insurance. Those who own life insurance have an average of four times their annual income in coverage, which is considerably less than most experts recommend. Held each September, Life Insurance Awareness Month is an industry-wide effort involving hundreds of leading companies and tens of thousands of agents. More information about the campaign can be found at www.lifehappens.org/liam. 

SOURCE State Farm