Life insurance is – or should be – a central element in most households’ financial planning. Yet life insurance sales have been on a steady decline for years. According to LIMRA, the life insurance industry trade association, the number of individual holders of life insurance in the U.S. dropped 45% – from 17.7 million to 9.7 million – between 1990 and 2010. Only 44% of households had any life insurance in 2010, which is a 50-year low. In 1960, it was 72% of households.