Life Insurance Policy
Term life insurance provides death protection for a stated time period, or term.
Term life insurance is perhaps the simplest form of life insurance. It was developed to provide temporary life insurance protection on a limited budget. Since term insurance can be purchased in large amounts for a relatively small initial premium, it is well suited for short-range goals such as life insurance coverage to pay off a loan or Mortgage, or providing extra life insurance protection during the child-raising years.
You can buy term insurance policy with level premiums from 5 years to 40 years based on your specific situation.
Term insurance policies providing level premiums for 5, 10, 20, and 30 year periods. These policies can be renewed or continued at higher premiums in most states to age 70 or in some cases up to 85.
Features of Term Life Insurance
Two main features of Term Life Policy is renew ability & convertibility.
Renew ability: Level term policies allow the policyholder to continue coverage past the original coverage period of the policy. Each time the policy is renewed the premium increases to the amount for the then attained age of the insured. This right is usually offered for a specific period, which varies depending on the type of policy.
Convertibility: Conversion allows the policyholder to exchange a term life insurance policy for any permanent life insurance policy offered by the Company at any time while the policy is in force (subject to established policy terms & conditions).
Whole Life Insurance
Permanent life insurance coverage for as long as you live and continue to make timely premium payments.
With level premiums and the accumulation of cash values, whole life insurance is a good choice for long-range goals. The guaranteed cash values can provide money later on to help with temporary needs or emergencies.
Permanent life insurance coverage for as long as you live and continue to make timely premium payments.
With level premiums and the accumulation of cash values, whole life insurance is a good choice for long-range goals. The guaranteed cash values can provide money later on to help with temporary needs or emergencies.
Features of Whole Life Insurance
Level Premiums: Since premiums are level, the younger you are when you purchase a whole life policy, the less expensive the annual premiums will be.
Dividends: Whole life insurance policies can earn dividends. Dividends result when our actual life insurance costs turn out to be less than we assumed in setting our premiums. When this happens, State Farm may return a portion of your life insurance premium to you as a dividend. Dividends are not guaranteed, since we don't know our actual costs in advance.
Guaranteed Cash Values: Unlike term life insurance, which does not accumulate any cash values, some of the money you pay into your whole life policy accumulates as guaranteed cash values. If you choose to surrender the policy, these guaranteed cash values would be available to you. Or, as long as the policy is in force, you may borrow against them as a policy loan at the current policy loan interest rate.
The amount of your guaranteed cash value depends on the kind of whole life policy you have, its size and how long you have had it. The growth in cash values is tax deferred under current federal income tax law. Borrowed amounts reduce the death benefit and cash surrender value.
Paid Up Option: Many Whole Life Insurance products now provide limited pay policy. For example you need to pay for the plan only for 10 years or till age 65 etc. Premiums are higher in such case and also will not provide any cash value if this option is exercised. It is a good solution for anyone who wants a permanent plan but doesn’t wants to pay the premiums for life or only wants to pay for the plan till retirement.
Universal Life Insurance
Universal life insurance is a form of life insurance that offers both an investment and an insurance component. In some cases, its special properties make it possible to minimize taxes and preserve wealth. With the traditional whole life policy, you pay level premiums for a specified number of years. In the early years of the policy, of course, the chances that you will die are low. Essentially, the premiums you pay in the early years exceed the actual cost of covering you. The insurance company invests these excess payments to cover the increasing cost of insuring you as you get older.
With universal life, you choose the size of premiums and the payment period based on an assumed rate of return. In addition, the policyholder owns the cash surrender value of the policy. You can choose from a wide range of investment options to invest in, including stocks, bonds, equities, GIC’s etc. If you keep paying only minimum premiums your UL policy may lapse (the death benefit will no longer be in force) if the cash value or premium payments are not enough to cover the cost of insurance. If you are not looking to put extra deposits for investments or If you like everything to be guaranteed, take a whole life insurance.
Main Benefits of Universal Life
Flexibility -- You decide how much life insurance you need -- and subject to certain requirements and limitations, you can adjust the death benefit and premium payments to fit your changing needs.
Tax-Deferred account value growth -- Deposits to a universal life policy are not tax-deductible, but the investment component grows tax-free. There are limitations applied on the investment portion however, depending on a formula set by the Income Tax Act. Universal life policies may be especially attractive to investors who want to enjoy tax deferred growth for their investments. Such policy is also perfect investment or retirement planning tool if you have used up the contribution room in your RRSP’s and are looking for another method of tax-deferred investment growth. Although withdrawals are not tax-exempt, the policyholder can choose how much to withdraw and when, deferring taxation until retirement when marginal rates will probably be lower, thus minimizing taxes.
If the investment component is not needed during the policy holder’s lifetime, it can be allowed to accumulate and be paid out tax-free to the policy beneficiaries in the Will. If the beneficiary is named in the insurance policy itself, probate and executor fees can be avoided.
This is a general description of all the coverage’s above. A complete statement of coverage is found only in the policy.
