The Benefits Of Whole Life Insurance

By Susan Reynolds

Life insurance can be categorized as either "whole life insurance" or "term life insurance". Essentially, the difference is that whole life insurance is designed to provide coverage for the duration of policyholder's life while term life insurance provides life for a specified period of the policyholder's life.

In addition to providing coverage for a lifetime (or until the policyholder reaches 100), whole life insurance also builds up cash value over time. Coverage remains in effect for the policyholder as long as premiums continue to be paid.

Certain benefits are available to whole life insurance policyholders including fixed premiums over the life of the policyholder versus increasing premiums resulting from term life insurance policies. In addition, whole life insurance carries a guaranteed cash value. However, policyholders must maintain current premiums for both whole life and term life insurance to obtain the respective benefits.

Whole-life insurance policies are well-suited towards long-term goals due to the permanence of their protection, the fixed premiums, and the building cash value. This cash value can be received in full at any time the policyholder chooses to cancel their whole life insurance policy.

With certain whole-life insurance policies, there is the possibility of gaining more cash value than what the company guarantees that you will receive. You are able to get loans to borrow from this amount. However, the guaranteed cash value depends on the life insurance market as a whole as well as your own interest rates. The company's future financial ups and downs may also affect the amount of guaranteed cash value. However, variable life insurance policies lack a guarantee at all, making whole-life policies generally safer. Advocates of whole-life policies suggest that you insure that your rates can compete well with your other investments.

A useful and profitable facet of being a whole life policy owner is the chance to acquire dividends. Insurance companies determines the earnings for their policies on a basis of the overall return they can get on their investments. Also, whole life insurance benefits from having its interest adjusted only on a yearly basis, whereas other kinds of insurance policies, such as universal life insurance, are frequently adjusted on a month to month basis, making them harder to keep up with and calculate their worth versus cost. As with all forms of insurance, whole life insurance benefits from a great many different options in policy.

Now, as a final caution... this may seem silly, but don't buy whole life insurance unless you can afford to pay it off for your whole life! Buying a long term policy and then letting it expire is a complete waste of everyone's time and money. Since life insurance prices are best in your youth, try to buy the policies you want to hold out through your lifetime when you're young. If you can't afford whole life insurance right away, you should at least get term to tide you over until you can afford whole. The premiums involved in whole life insurance policies may seem steep, but they're high because they are a one hundred percent promise of paying out in the end if you don't let it expire. You can never decrease your payments with whole life, but it's worth it for the unmatchable sense of security it provides.

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