There exists a large array of permanent life insurance coverages and many times, we have no idea which one we should pick. This is where this article’s usefulness comes in. Listed below are four factors listing the primary differences in coverage policy for different permanent life insurance. Once you’ve gone through this article, you’ll be much more knowledgeable about this kind of insurance, allowing you to make a well informed decision when the time comes for you to actually purchase it.
First, the basic details about permanent life insurance.
Basically, permanent life insurance is a death insurance. It continues to collect money from you at a very low rate while you’re a live, but once you’re dead, the permanent life insurance takes effect and pays out death benefits to beneficiaries. The good thing about permanent life insurance is the fact that the amount you pay throughout your life remains constant, though that amount could be very high due to the fact that on average, a single permanent life insurance coverage will pay out upwards of millions of dollars.
When you get down to it, permanent life insurance can be easily broken down into four broad categories.
1. Whole Life Insurance: This is by far the most widely available type of permanent life insurance. It works exactly like described above: when you’re alive, you put money into the insurance, building up a nest egg that will be cashed out to your children upon your death. Unlike other insurances, once you enroll in this form of permanent life insurance, the insurance companies are incapable of denying you coverage. This means regardless of your financial situation, once you have permanent life insurance, you will always have it. However, with Whole Life Insurance, both the death benefits as well as the premiums are unchangeable, making this the most inflexible type of insurance.
2. Variable Life Insurance: This type of permanent life insurance allows you to invest the money in your policy into stocks and other ventures. But if you lose too much money, then you may be hit with higher premiums and also reduced death benefits–defeating the purpose of the insurance if you’re not careful.
3. Universal Life Insurance: This is often times referred to as by far the most versatile form of permanent life insurance. Universal life insurance still operate very much like a Whole Life Insurance in that it will provide you with a means of depositing money to pass out to your beneficiaries (usually your family) when you die. The most important difference that universal life insurance has as compared to other forms of permanent life insurance is the fact that it offers flexible premiums in addition to flexible benefits. You are also able to withdraw funds from your insurance, making it resemble a bank account. However, the guarantees of payout is far lower than that of Whole Life Insurance and if you accidentally take out too much money from your account, the insurance company has the right to cancel your universal life insurance. This makes universal life insurance a double edged sword–letting you trade freedom to manage your money with reduced benefits.
4. Variable-Universal Life Insurance: Generally considered to be the best one out of the bunch in terms of freedom in that it combines many of the qualities attributed to Variable Life Insurance and Universal Life Insurance. Like in Universal Life Insurance, you are allowed to change your premiums and death benefits. And just like in Variable Life Insurance, you can invest the money in your account in other places.