Editor's Note: This article is part of a Financial Advisor series "How I Solved It." Advisors describe a problem client and what they did to help.

In 2005, a couple in their late 30s who owned a hair salon were concerned about their future. Let's call them Tina and Jim, to protect their anonymity.

Their accountant referred them to Craig Schubert of Prudential Financial Planning Services in Annapolis, Md. Schubert helped Tina and Jim set up a retirement plan, among other things. Perhaps most importantly, he recommended Variable Universal Life insurance.

VUL builds cash value on an income-tax-deferred basis, providing both a death benefit and potential growth for supplemental retirement income or any other income needs that might arise. The coverage for both spouses cost a total of $2,800 a month for a face value of $1.925 million for Tina and $1.4 million for Jim.

That proved prescient, as their salon fell on hard times. Among other hardships, an employee embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars. But thanks to the VUL, Schubert was able to steer them through.

"The life insurance was a savior," he recalls, "as we were able to borrow funds [against it] to keep the business active."

Even when the clients had to declare bankruptcy and the salon closed, the VUL helped keep the family afloat. Funds were used for expenses such as their two kids' college tuition.

A few years later, Tina was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer. "Treatments were going to be very expensive," says Schubert. They told him they wanted to cash in their policies. He had a better idea.

Schubert pointed out that Tina's policy contained a Living Needs Benefit, so she might be able to get a sort of advance on her death benefit to help with medical costs. "We filed a claim," he says—and it was approved. "She received a check for 98.5% of the death benefit." The final payout was in excess of $1.76 million.

Schubert helped them manage those funds. The money was promptly invested through PruChoice, a unit of Prudential Financial, and distributions were used for not just medical treatments but vacations, tax bills and other expenses.

"Life insurance for the living," declares Schubert.

From then on, he met with Tina and Jim monthly to review their investments "and her well-being," he says. "She went through countless radiation and chemotherapy treatments over the years."

Beyond that, Schubert referred them to an attorney to draw up a Living Trust so any leftover funds could be used to support Jim and their kids after she was gone.

When in remission, Tina was active in the National Brain Tumor Society, an advocacy group dedicated to finding new and better treatments. She met with members of Congress to urge approval of cutting-edge therapies.

In her final months, she withdrew $100,000 from her investment account to pay off student loans and take one final trip. When she finally died, at age 50, all of her finances were in order. "Needless to say, her last two years were greatly enhanced by her life insurance," says Schubert.

And that's not the end of the story: Her trust account still has more than $1.1 million left to help the family in the coming years.