Life Insurance

Background

A life insurance policy is a contract with an insurance company. Buying life insurance now provides a financial safety net for your dependents later if you’re not around to take care of them. After you’re gone, your family can use the proceeds to cover funeral costs, mortgage payments, college tuition and other expenses.

Key Differences between Whole and Term life insurance?

  1. The biggest difference between term and whole life insurance is the length of coverage. Whole life insurance policies have no expiration date. Term insurances are for a set time period.
  2. Whole life policies have a cash value component. Part of each monthly or annual premium goes to the insurance company and part of it goes toward building a pool of cash for the policyholder, which earns a small amount of interest.
  3. Because coverage eventually expires with term life, it’s more affordable and straightforward.

Whole Life Insurance

Like all permanent life insurance policies, whole life provides lifelong coverage and includes an investment component known as the policy’s cash value. The cash value grows slowly, tax-deferred, meaning you won’t pay taxes on its gains while they’re accumulating.

You can borrow money against the account or surrender the policy for the cash. But if you don’t repay policy loans with interest, you’ll reduce your death benefit, and if you surrender the policy, you’ll no longer have coverage.

Although it’s more complicated than term life insurance, whole life is the most straightforward form of permanent life insurance. Here’s why:

  • The premium remains the same for as long as you live
  • The death benefit is guaranteed
  • The cash value account grows at a guaranteed rate

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity."

– Amelia Earhart

Term Life Insurance 

Term life insurance provides coverage for a certain time period. It’s often called “pure life insurance” because it’s designed only to protect your dependents in case you die prematurely. If you have a term policy and die within the term, your beneficiaries receive the payout. The policy has no other value.

You choose the term when you buy the policy. Common terms are 10, 20 or 30 years. With most policies, the payout, called the death benefit, and the cost, or premium, stay the same throughout the term.

When you shop for term life:

  • Choose a term that coincides with the years you’ll be paying the bills and want life insurance coverage in case you die early.
  • Buy an amount your family would need if you were no longer there to provide for them. The payout could replace your income and help your family pay for services you perform now, such as child care.

Ideally, your family’s need for life insurance will end around the time the term expires: Your kids will be on their own, you’ll have paid off your house, and you’ll have plenty of money in savings to serve as a financial safety net.