The Ins and Outs of Whole Life Insurance

A breakdown of the pros and cons of whole life insurance

Whole life insurance, otherwise known as permanent life insurance, is designed for people who want coverage their entire life with very few strings attached and zero-risk. Getting whole life insurance quotes is a simple process, but it’s important you understand a little more about how the policy works before shopping around.

Whole life insurance guarantees a payout for the entire term of your life and you pay a monthly or yearly premium for the entire term of your life as well. It’s a very simple policy in its structure since typically the payments do not change (up or down) and the benefit does not change. However, this may not be best suited for everyone, and when you get your whole life insurance quotes you need to make sure you understand exactly what you are buying.

A Quick Breakdown of How Whole Life Insurance Works

Higher Premium – You will notice that whole life insurance quotes tend to be higher than term life insurance and other variable types as well. The reason whole policies tend to be more expensive is that the money you pay into the policy is put into a “savings” program. The longer you pay into the policy, the larger the tax-deferred earnings are that you earn from the money saved up inside the whole life policy. These interest and dividends should be discussed with your insurance agent when you receive you whole life insurance quotes. Also, while you do have the ability to get a loan against your policy, again that is a major financial decision that should be discussed with an agent as well.

Fixed Policy – Whole life insurance policies are fixed in a couple different ways. The first of which is that your payments are fixed at a certain set amount for the entire duration of the policy. Regardless of economic troubles, increases in mortality, etc… your premium always stays exactly the same. So whatever you receive in whole life insurance quotes, that will be the rate you pay forever.

The second aspect of the policy being fixed is that the death benefit always stays exactly the same. The death benefit is agreed upon from day one and even 50 years later it will be the same amount, so plan carefully when you are deciding on how large a death benefit to request in your whole life insurance quotes.

Financial Benefits – Aside from the death benefit, whole life insurance policies allow you to earn tax-deferred earnings from the money you have invested into the policy over the years. However, it takes many years, sometimes decades, to see the full benefit of that, which means whole life insurance policies are a poor vehicle for short term investment.

If you plan to have the policy for decades the benefits of a whole life insurance policy can be quite significant and you stand to earn quite a bit through the “savings” program offered. When you are comparing whole life insurance quotes, ask your agent to show you some calculations of how the tax benefits and earnings potential can offset the cost of the policy over a long enough timeline.

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