Voting is now closed!

We're busy counting all the ballots for Life Insurance Selling's "What's Your Big Idea?" contest. Check back here Sept. 4 to find out who won!

Here are the three finalists, in no particular order:

FINALIST: Heidi Benjestorf, Lodi, Calif.

When I first joined a local networking group, I gave some good hard thought to how I was going to present life insurance. The stigma that sometimes follows "life insurance" is negative because people don't like to spend time thinking about death. Because I wanted to put a positive spin on it and to also remind people of the place it has in our lives, my tagline became "It's not life insurance, it's LOVE insurance." Somehow it caught with the group, just like I had hoped. I got a few chuckles and teases and it was all what I wanted. The focus on Love causes people to think about living and what is most important to them - their families. Instead of thinking about the negativity of what their family would do without their income, they were redirected to think about how they can continue to love and leave a legacy for their loved ones after they are gone. It has worked like a charm.

FINALIST: Brady Murray, Boise, Idaho

I am the father of a 5-year-old son with Down syndrome and a member of Allegis Financial Partners. Currently there are hundreds of children with Down syndrome living in orphanages and mental institutions. As an agency, we decided to come together to help. At our annual meeting, we introduced the Bonner family. The Bonners currently have a young daughter with Down syndrome and are adopting another daughter with Down syndrome from Eastern Europe. The cost of this international adoption is $40,000. We have committed that for every life insurance case sold by our agency in 2012, we will donate $5 towards the adoption of this special little girl. In 2011, we sold 1,462 life insurance cases. We hope to significantly surpass that number this year. The evening we introduced the Bonners and our cause was full of tears and a genuine sense of teaming, as each of our producers and their spouse listened and became committed to helping this family. Not only will we be blessing the lives of those who we meet with this year, but we will also be actively helping the Bonners save their daughter from the dire circumstances that she currently faces. This cause has allowed all of our agency's representatives to get caught up in a cause bigger than any one individual. It has allowed them to be bold in overcoming objections and helped them overcome any fears of approaching potential clients about their life insurance needs.

FINALIST: Ray Johns, Orem, Utah

I have created a unique "financial planning study group" comprised of the most successful attorneys and CPAs in our area. We get together four to five times a year to review and analyze hypothetical case studies. We rotate who makes the presentation and develops the case study. We discuss the scenario presented and collaborate on the best methods to accomplish the client's goals. End result: we come up with the most efficient and effective methods for our clients. I always have the meeting in my conference room and always supply a very nice lunch. I am the only insurance advisor in attendance. I now have attorneys and CPAs calling me to ask if they can participate in our group, because it has emerged as the area's most prestigious group to belong to. This study group has given me immediate recognition as an expert in life insurance, annuities and estate planning. It has also provided me a venue to meet and engage with every good attorney and CPA in my area. By the third meeting, I was getting calls for referrals from my study group and my first case involved over $5 million. This study group has put me in the exact place I wanted to be, because it gives me name recognition among my professional peers, instant credibility among the attorneys and CPAs, and they in turn refer me to their good clients.