Losing a loved one is painful for anyone. And the distress can be exacerbated by financial problems if no life insurance policy is in place. Sharon Donawa's work involves providing life insurance and convincing people of its importance. Alex Wright spoke with her about her life and career.

Many Bermudians go through life thinking they can do without insurance coverage until a life-changing event happens.

It could be buying a home, having a baby or the death of a loved one.

But life insurance is about much more than just that — it is part of a complete financial security plan at every stage of a person's life, from childhood to retirement, and can help to properly settle an estate, giving the client's family peace of mind and allowing them to continue to enjoy the quality of life they have been used to, should the client die.

That is where Sharon Donawa comes in — for the senior sales adviser, who heads up the life insurance department at the Freisenbruch-Meyer Group specialises in providing all the insurance needs of her customers, enabling them to have the funds available to pay final expenses, take care of immediate liquidity needs and to ensure a family's financial future, while the cash value of a permanent life insurance policy can offer liquid savings.

"I think the biggest thing in Bermuda is that everyone needs to know that they should be insured," she said.

"If people in Bermuda are insured, they are often under-insured, and if they are not they need to include it in their budget.

"But everybody needs life insurance and it is so much better to get it at an early stage of life — the premiums are going to be a lot less when you are younger and when you are older you may be uninsured.

"People do not realise until it happens to them or someone they know that they need life insurance."

Ms Donawa started her career as an accountant, working for a number of companies across the Island, before becoming a preschool teacher with Government at the Happy Valley Day Care Centre for five years, and then deciding it was time for a change and went into insurance as a financial consultant with Colonial Insurance, where she stayed for 10-and-a-half years, prior to joining Freisenbruch-Meyer last year.

Her day job can range between drawing up life insurance policies to making sure beneficiaries are paid out, with her background in accounting standing her in good stead for the financial planning aspect of insurance.

Ms Donawa, who has a Sales Agents Licence from the Bermuda Insurance Institute and a certification from the Canadian Association of Insurance and Financial Advisers, offers every kind of policy, including term life insurance, permanent life insurance (participating life insurance) and permanent life insurance for children aged one and above. She also dispenses key man insurance for business owners to protect their companies against the loss of a key employee and provides them with the money to fund a buy-sell agreement.

Her favourite part of the job is advising individuals on life insurance and helping them to make the right choice, coming up with solutions for their needs, but she also has to deal with the disappointment of telling a client that their application has been turned down or postponed, mainly due to medical reasons.

However, contending with a death claim can be a double-edged sword — while unpleasant it also provides a certain degree of satisfaction that the person's family has the resources available to maintain a comfortable standard of living, cover the mortgage and any outstanding debts, as well as the children's education.

"The most interesting part of my work is developing a sound relationship with the clients and guaranteeing their needs are met," she said.

"Advising clients on a daily basis, that the right life insurance can have an enormous effect on your life and the lives of those you love.

"It can mean the difference between leaving your loved ones well-positioned financially or leaving behind debts and an inadequate home.

"Also, with health insurance, individuals can have a death benefit with their annual salary, but it is only applicable when you have a job, and in this day and age, no job is secure, so it is important to have life insurance for any eventualities."

Ms Donawa, who relishes the challenge of not knowing what kind of requests she will have to process every day, said it does not cost the earth to take out life insurance, sometimes setting aside as little as $200 per month.

"People might think it is too expensive, but when you think of the money that could be spent on a round of drinks on a night out or buying a new CD, then it is not much," she said.

"It is also important to get insured early on and our children's coverage gives them a good start and if they stay with it, by the age of 25 they are almost guaranteed to get life insurance."

Ms Donawa, who is married with two children and a dog and lives in Somerset, has a busy exercise regime outside of work, going to the gym everyday, as well as running and playing squash.

She hopes to retire to her holiday home in the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean some day and continue the volunteer work she does with the Sousa Children's Foundation, such as building schools and churches and making sure the children have clothes and stationary like pens and pencils to go to school. Having sponsored a boy who was found on the streets of the Dominican Republic, for four years, she has been pleased to see his progress and wants to further her Spanish language education, which she has received in exchange from the children she taught English to there.

"The plan is now to establish the life insurance department more in the community and grow the team with more advisers and administration, and to build the client base we already have here with those who have property and motor insurance so that we can be a force in the insurance industry here," she said.

"What we are trying to achieve is to have a one-stop shop where you can get every kind of insurance you want."

Freisenbruch Meyer, which has been selling life insurance for the past 31 years, is the sole agents for London Life on the Island offering its insurance products, which is in turn A+ rated by AM Best Co.

For more information about the policies offered contact the Freisenbruch-Meyer Group on 296-3600 or visit www.fmgroup.bm