Life Insurance Decisions
Benefit Amount - How much Life Insurance should you carry? The answer to this question varies on virtually every possible level. A lot of employers provide coverage in an amount equal to a 2 or 3x factor on your gross income. Some experts say to carry 10x your annual gross salary. The real answer lies within an individual by individual analysis of assets, liabilites, current life insurance in place, investment risk (if applicable) and your desired income requirements upon dispersion of benefits. Call, Click or Visit us today to have a Life Insurance expert work up your situation.
Type of Policy - Life Insurance can be purchased in many forms. Term, Permanent, Variable, Return of Premium, Whole Life, Universal Life, Annual Renewable, 10-Year Renewable, 20-Year, 25-Year and 30-Year Renewable...many, many different types are available. For conceptual purposes, there are essentially two types of insurance you should concern yourself at the initial stage of consideration; Term and Permanent.
Term insurance provides a life insurance benefit for a set duration limit, dependent on the amount of time you've requested or for which you qualify. At the end of the selected duration of time, the policy ends, or terminates. The policyholder must decide before termination (and in some cases, before aging past a pre-determined age limit) to convert the term insurance policy or let it terminate. In essence, a policy with your pre-selected benefit amount, for a pre-selected amount of time. Conversion of the term policy to a permanent plan or policy is a feature to most term protection. Let's discuss this next.
Permanent Insurance provides coverage for an extended period of time, much longer than most term insurance policy durations. A permanent plan can be secured by converting a term policy or by qualifying for a permanent plan itself. Permanent plan options such as Whole Life, Universal Life, Variable Life, etc all exist but remain similar in the amount of time protected. Generally, these policies provide both a death benefit and a cash savings portion to age 100 and above. Essentially, if you pay the required policy premiums to maturation your policy is "paid-up" and can be returned for the face amount of the policy limit you had purchased. Since the growth in the cash value element of the policy is tax-deferred, this type of plan can often be the right solution. Guaranteeing your long term insurability is another feature along with the tax-free proceeds of the life insurance death benefit (same as term) make Life Insurance the right decision for most of us.
Email an agent about Life Insurance