Life insurance is something you may consider adding to your financial plan if you’re interested in providing a measure of security for your loved ones. Proceeds from a life insurance plan can be used to pay final expenses, end outstanding debts, or cover day to day expenses. If life insurance is a smart investment may depend on what you need and what you want a policy to do for you.

Types Of Life Insurance:

When choosing whether life insurance is a good investment, it’s prominent to understand the types of policies you can purchase. There are several variations of life insurance plans, but they generally fall into 2 categories: permanent and term.

Term life insurance is built to cover you for a set term. For instance, you may purchase a 20-year or 30-year term life policy. These policies function likewise to other types of insurance policies you may carry, such as  car insurance; you pay a premium every month, and if something awful happens in this situation, your early death benefit is paid out.

Permanent life insurance, on the other hand, covers you for life as long as your premiums are paid. Certain types of permanent life insurance can also have an investment component that enables policy holders to accumulate a cash value. 

When you discover financial advisers and, more often, life insurance agents advocating for life insurance as an investment, they are referring to the cash value component of permanent life insurance and the methods you can invest and borrow this cash.

Pros and Cons Of Permanent Life Insurance:

There are many arguments in favor of using permanent life insurance as an investment. Nevertheless, many of these benefits aren’t unique to permanent life insurance. You can often get them in various ways without paying the high management expenses and agent commissions that fall with permanent life insurance. Here are few of the most widely advocated advantages of permanent life insurance.

Advantages:

1. Tax Deferred Growth: Permanent life insurance policies that have an investment component allow you to grow wealth on a tax-deferred basis. This states that you don’t pay taxes on any interest, dividends, or capital gains on the cash-value component of your life insurance policy till you withdraw the proceeds.

This is similar to the tax advantages you get with certain retirement accounts. If you’re maxing out your benefaction to these accounts year after year, investing in permanent life insurance for tax reasons might make sense.

2. Lifetime Coverage: Another touted benefit of permanent life insurance is that you don’t lose your coverage after a set number of years. A term policy closes when you reach the end of your term, which for many policyholders is in their 70 s, while permanent policies can cover you for life.

3. You Can Borrow Against The Cash Value: If you need money to buy a home or pay for college, you can borrow against the cash value of a permanent life insurance policy. Conversely, if you put money in a tax-advantaged retirement plan and want to take it out for a purpose other than retirement, you might have to pay penalties. Further, a few retirement plans make it hard or even impossible to take out cash for such purposes.

4. Accelerated Benefits: You may be able to receive anywhere from 25% to 100% of your permanent life insurance policy’s death benefit before you die if you develop a specified condition such as heart attack, stroke, cancer, or end-stage renal failure. The upside of quickened benefits, as they are called, is you can use them to pay your medical bills and possibly relish a better quality of life in your last months. Overall accelerated benefits aren’t unique to permanent life insurance; some term policies offer them too.

Disadvantages:

While permanent life insurance can yield many benefits, there are few potential downsides to keep in mind. Cost is one of the most important. Contrasting to term life insurance policies, permanent life insurance can require you to pay higher premiums. If it turns out that you do not need insurance coverage for your whole life, you may be paying premiums unnecessarily.

Permanent life-insurance could also have tax implications for yourself if your beneficiaries decide to surrender a policy or you pass away with a loan outstanding. And taking loans or quicked benefits could reduce the death benefit that’s paid out to your beneficiaries when you die.

Pros and Cons Of Term Life Insurance:

Term life insurance could be a better investment if you don’t want to leave your loved ones with the load of paying off debt or other expensive expenses. Here are few of the most important benefits of purchasing a term life policy.

Advantages:

1. Lower Premium: Term life is generally less expensive to purchase compared to permanent life insurance. That’s because of the reason that the insurance company assumes less risk since you’re only insured for a set time period. The younger and healthier you are when you purchase a term life policy, the lower your premiums are possibly to be.

2. Flexibility: One advantage of term life-insurance is that you can choose how long you want to be covered. So whether you think you’ll only need life-insurance for 10 years or 30 years, you can select a term that matches up with your needs. That means you have the quality of being predictable in estimating how much you’ll pay in premiums over the entire term. A permanent life policy, on the other side, would be more of a guessing game since there’s no stable or fixed end date.

3. You Can Convert To Permanent Insurance: If you decide you want to extend your term life policy indefinitely, you could convert it to permanent life insurance coverage. Doing so might increase your premiums but it may be a valuable investment if you want to have coverage for life. Converting could also give you the opportunity to collect the cash value.

Disadvantages:

When you purchase term policy, all of your premiums move toward securing a death advantage for your beneficiaries. Term life insurance, contrary permanent life insurance, does not have any money value and therefore does not have any investment component. If you are still alive when the term ends, the policy simply lapses and you and your beneficiaries do not get any money.

Even now, you can think of term life-insurance as an investment in the sense that you are paying proportionally less in premiums in exchange for the peace of mind knowing that in the occurrence of your death, your beneficiaries will receive a relatively high death benefit.

If you are interested in a policy for a fixed period with a built-in savings mechanism that rewards you for your payments later on, a return of premium  life insurance policy may be an attractive option. You’ll pay an even rate for the duration of your policy, but unlike traditional term life insurance coverage, you will get all your cash back at the end of the term.

Is Life Insurance a Smart Move?

Using permanent life insurance as an investment may make sense for certain high-net-worth, people looking to minimize estate taxes. But for the average individual, buying term insurance and investing the difference is normally the better option.

Even if you’re buying life-insurance primarily for investing purposes, it’s still prominent to research the best life insurance companies to make sure you are getting the most beneficial policy possible.

Best Life Insurance Companies:

The best life-insurance companies are those that are economically sound, provide strong customer service, make the application process easy and simple, and offer a wide range of features. Below are the best life insurance companies for 2022.

• Best Overall: Nationwide 
• Best for Term Life Insurance: Protective
• Best for Financial Stability: Mass Mutual
• Best for Living Benefits: Mutual of Omaha
• Fewest Complaints: Guardian
• Best for Military: USAA
• Best for Seniors: New York Life
• Best for Dividends: Penn Mutual
• Best for Policy Customization: Transamerica
• Most Universal Life Options: Lincoln Financial
• Tied for Cheapest Term: Banner

Who Needs Life Insurance?

The law of thumb is once you become a parent, any adult in your house making an income should have life-insurance coverage that will last until the youngest child completes university. If you have significant financial obligations such as high credit card debt or a mortgage, you could use life insurance to make sure that debt is covered. 

Because life insurance death advantages are generally exempt from federal taxation, a lot of financial planners often use clients’ life-insurance benefits to aid in paying for any applicable estate taxes generated over the death of a loved one.

To determine whether you qualify, most life-insurance policies require you to undergo a medical exam. Before issuing a policy, the insurance company also checks things like your medical history, hobbies, credit rating, and driving history. Factors such as age, smoking and previous health issues can also drive up the premiums on a policy.

Tips For Those Considering Life Insurance:

• Consider buying a “breakpoint” level of insurance coverage.
• Make sure you get an illustration of the policy that you have selected. If the insurer will not offer you with one, look for another insurance company.
• Always shop for a level-premium policy. No one likes a surprise increase in their premium payments. So, before you purchase a term or permanent insurance ensure your illustration shows that your premium payment is guaranteed not to increase above the duration of your coverage.
• Don’t be sold on permanent insurance for the investment or money value feature alone. For the first 2-to-10 years, your premiums are likely paying the agent’s commission anyway. Most policies do not start to create respectable cash value until their 12th year, so ask yourself if the feature is really worth it.
• Decide your desired duration of coverage so that you can buy the right type of policy and keep your premium payments affordable. If you only need insurance for ten years, then you’ll probably want to buy a term. Also, check out multiple quality insurance companies for their prices.
• Ensure that your insurance carrier has the economic stability to pay your claim in the occurrence of your death.
• For 24 hours prior to your medical exam, keep sugar and caffeine out of your line. It’s best to schedule your exam early in the morning and to avoid eating anything but water for at least 8 hours beforehand.
• If your premiums are much too high due to medical causes or you are denied coverage, check if a group policy is available through your company. These group plans require no medical exam or physical exams.

What is a Life Insurance Quote?

A life-insurance quote is an approximate of how much your premium will cost for a life-insurance plan. Your individual quote is based on factors like your height and your weight, age, and smoking status. Life insurance quotes are not always exact, especially if a medical exam is needed to confirm your health information, but they can help you collate your approximate costs across companies.

Conclusion:

When seeking insurance, don’t rush into buying expensive permanent life-insurance before considering if term life-insurance sufficiently meets your needs. Unfortunately, in many cases, the fees charged for policies with investment features far outweigh the benefits. As such, be sure to carefully consider all of your options and compare quotes in order to locate the best life insurance policy for your circumstances.

By purchasing life-insurance, you’re betting that you’ll live, but also securing peace of mind in case it doesn’t work out that way. Don’t leave your family unprotected in the sudden event of your death after all, they are your most important assets.

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