What is Permanent Life Insurance? Should I Choose Permanent Life Insurance Or Term Life Insurance?
What is permanent life insurance? Is it better to purchase a permanent life insurance policy or a term life insurance policy? Is it possible to find low cost permanent life insurance? It is important for those searching for life insurance coverage to do a permanent life insurance comparison to decide if a whole life policy, a term life policy, a universal life policy, a variable life policy, or even a combination of the above may be a good choice for their needs.
Life insurance can be a term relatively unknown for the younger generations of this country. While the old and retired people of this great nations plan financially to leave their dependents with money so they can get through; the younger generations have not done much to protect themselves or their families in case of an accidental death. Life insurance in the United States is not as common as the other types of insurances (car, homeowners, health) because it is not required. Every state requires you to have car insurance, if you own a house you should have homeowners and the rule of thumb is for you to have health insurance if you want to pay lower premiums and stay healthy (which has now started to decrease because people don't have the money to buy independent policies). Life insurance on the other hand is the insurance of the wise! This is because the person with the policy is not only thinking about the present, but is thinking about the future and what it may hold to their dependents of family.
Permanent life insurance (also called universal and whole life insurance) is one of the main kinds of life insurance and one that can be the difference between burden and stability after a head of the household dies unexpectedly. The definition of a permanent life insurance policy is that it simply consists of a policy that is for the entire life of the person being insured, guarantees payout at the end of the policy, and most importantly accrues value. This is of supreme important because with these insurance policy you are guaranteed money at the end of the road and best of all your family will have the stability that many families lack after a person contributing some income dies unexpectedly.
Although permanent life insurance is a good way to save yourself and your family some trouble at the end of the road, many people simply decide to get term life insurance instead. When comparing term life insurance vs permanent life insurance many opt for term simply because of the cost. The reason for this is that premiums for term life insurance are cheaper based on the fact that the insured is not guaranteed money at the end of the policy. This policies are simply for ten or twenty years and if the insured does not decease in that certain amount of time, the family will not see a single penny. Since the burden of paying money at the end of the contract is gone from the policy when we speak about term life insurance, families save money because the premiums are cheaper.
It is important to mention that at first the amount of money received by the family will not be as much because they will be paying for the agent and all the fees, not to mention that they will be paying the life insurance company for their commitment to insure the person. With time however, the cash accumulates due to the amount of the premium you are paying. That extra cash is deposited into a saving's component, which is also known as the policy's "cash value". As the savings increase with the payments, the quantity that your family gets at the end of the road will increase. It is important to know that the policy is called permanent life insurance because as long as you pay your premiums and maintain the policy accurate, you will be allowed to have this kind of insurance for your entire life!
It is important to know that permanent life insurance is divided into three groups: whole life, variable life, and universal life. When we speak about a whole life policy we speak about a type of life insurance that offers both insurance and investment, with the advantage that premiums are leveled. Variable life insurance is the most expensive of all kinds of permanent life insurance because it allows the policy holder to allocate a portion of the savings accounts into other things such as stocks, bonds and investment funds. Last but not least the universal life type of permanent life insurance is a very common one as well. Universal life insurance separates the investment and death portions of your policy and it allows the insured to build his savings faster with the help of some sort of equity investments. As time goes by, universal life insurance can also allow you to change your premiums and death benefits to suit your current living situation.
As you can see permanent life insurance does not sound too bad compared to term life insurance. The policies are simply a little bit more expensive due to the fact that the beneficiary will in fact receive some money when all is said and done due to the savings part of the policies. Although many people just don't see the good thing of having life insurance through their whole lives because once a person is retired there is no need for such income, the truth is that permanent life insurance can help you out in the long run. It is not bad for you to protect yourself for life, especially if you are married or if you have a son or daughter that is not doing too well economically. Permanent life insurance policies can be a great help to some families and the truth is that if you search and shop around you can find a policy that is right for you!