NEW YORK - Insurance agent Clif Rosenberry knows firsthand what can happen when a family's breadwinner dies without life insurance: His brother was killed at the age of 39 in a work accident, and he didn't have his own policy.

"He had a wife, two kids, a brand new house ? and not one speck of life insurance," Rosenberry said. "The family wound up having to sell the house, having to move. It was an absolute mess."

It is scenarios like this that have led the insurance industry to sponsor National Life Insurance Awareness Month each September to encourage Americans to take a hard look at life coverage.

Rosenberry, co-owner of the McCartney & Rosenberry Group in Ardsley, N.Y., and a past president of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of New York, said many young people "are more worried about getting tickets to the Yankees game or buying a BMW" than about investing in insurance.

"The issue is, death can wreck lives around you from an emotional standpoint," he said. "Do you want to wreck it from a financial standpoint, too?"

The people who need insurance are those who have others depending on them financially, including couples with children or even individuals supporting their aging parents, he said.

"In most cases, you're looking to replace a stream of income," Rosenberry said. "Say you're earning $100,000 a year. If something happens, you need to replace that income."

So a family that gets a $1 million policy "is talking about 10 years of replacing income," he said. That gives the surviving spouse time to get his or her life back in order.

The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education, also known as the LIFE Foundation, is a nonprofit organization funded by the insurance industry that coordinates the national awareness campaign. It has a calculator on its site at http://www.life-line.org that consumers can use to determine their insurance needs.

"The calculator adds what your obligations are in the event of your death, such as a mortgage that may need to be paid off and funds for a college education for your kids and special funds, say for a disabled child," to help families determine how much insurance they need, said the foundation's president, David F. Woods.

Term life insurance provides protection for a specific period of time, say 10 years, and pays a benefit if you die during that period. It's generally much less expensive than permanent life insurance, which promises a death benefit as long as the consumer pays the premiums. Permanent life also accumulates a cash value, which can be tapped in emergencies.

"If you can afford to buy as much as you need, the preferred way is permanent life insurance," Woods said. "But if you can't afford to buy permanent life, then because the most important thing is to get enough coverage, you definitely should buy term."

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