Whole life insurance, also known as cash-value insurance is a basic and consistent type of permanent life insurance which remains in effect your entire life at a level premium. This life insurance is a good choice got you if you do not expect your life insurance needs to diminish over time. A portion of your premium goes into a reserve fund called cash value that builds up over the years your policy is in affect. Your reserve fund is tax-deferred and you can borrow against it, until you withdraw it.

The premiums must generally remain constant over the life of the policy and must be paid periodically according to the amount indicated in the policy. You may also have the option of a single premium —– paying all of the premiums at once with a single lump sum. Your cash values will grow to equal the amount of the death benefit when you turn to age 100.

Although, whole life insurance is very expensive, and if you’re on a limited budget, you may not be able to afford all the insurance coverage you actually need. But the plus point is that the death benefit is guaranteed as long as premiums are met. Also death benefit will never decrease if you don’t borrow against it.

Whole life insurance policy’s returns will fluctuate with the markets and will usually follow returns available from other investments like equity mutual funds. However, if you decide to quit your policy, your cash value can be paid in cash or paid-up insurance.

Whole life insurance is most suitable for you, if you want to:
use it as a tax and estate planning vehicle,
accumulate cash value for a child’s education or retirement,
pay final expenses,
provide money for a favorite charity,
fund a business buy/sell agreement,
provide key person protection.

Before buying the whole life insurance, you need to think carefully about choosing your level of coverage. Too often people make the mistake of insufficiently covering or even worse, financially overextending themselves. This would be a tragic error with whole life insurance policy because defaulting on premium payments can mean policy cancellation and the loss of your entire investment. So be careful and make sure you:

pick a life insurance policy that has a guaranteed cash value starting at the very first year,
choose the one with the highest cash value in the very first year,
consider “participating” insurance policies which can pay dividends, increasing your policy’s value by boosting both the total cash value and the death benefits,
beware of any insurance policy that levies “surrender charges” when you cancel.
if you ever need to stop paying premiums, your policy lets you use the accumulated cash value of the life insurance policy to pay the premiums, thus keeping your coverage current.

Term life insurance is the easiest type of life insurance to understand. To put it simply, the insured person pays a minimal premium per thousand pounds of coverage on an annual, semi annual, quarterly or monthly basis. If he or she dies within the term of the policy, the life insurance company will pay the beneficiary the face value of the policy.

Distinctive Features of Term Life Insurance

To better understand some of the distinctive features of term life insurance consider the following points:

First, term life insurance is “pure insurance” because when you purchase a term insurance policy you are only buying a “death benefit”. Unlike with other types of “permanent insurance” such as whole life, universal life, and variable universal life, there is no additional cash value built up with this kind of policy. Term insurance only gives you a specific death benefit.

Second, the coverage is for a defined period of time (the “term”) such as 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, and so on. Once the policy is in force, it only remains in force until the end of the term — assuming you pay the premiums, of course.

Third, most term insurance policies are renewable at the end of the term. With what is known as “Level Term Life Insurance”, the death benefit remains the same throughout the term of the policy, but since the insured person is getting older, the premium will gradually increase. As time goes by the cost of a level term insurance policy may become greater than you are willing to pay for a simple death benefit. An alternative is the “Decreasing Term Life Insurance” policy in which the premium remains the same, but the death benefit goes down as time goes by.

Fourth, most term policies can be converted to permanent policies within a specific number of years. If you decide it is important to retain the insurance coverage, converting may be something you should plan for. You can anticipate the accelerating cost of term insurance premiums and convert your policy before the premiums become prohibitively high. It is true that in the short term the premium will usually be higher than if you stayed with the term policy. But over the long term this difference will decrease because of the rapid acceleration of the term insurance premium as you get older. A permanent policy also accumulates cash value which increases the total death benefit paid to your beneficiary.

Popular Uses of Term Life Insurance

Term life insurance is most appropriate whenever you want to protect your beneficiaries from a sudden financial burden as the result of your death. Here are some of the most common uses of term life insurance.

Personal Costs Due to Death – When a spouse or family member dies there will be immediate costs. Many people purchase a relatively small term life insurance policy to cover these costs.

Mortgage Insurance – Banks and financial institutions often insist that mortgage holders retain a term life insurance policy sufficient to pay out their mortgage. Such policies make the bank the beneficiary of the policy. If the mortgage holder should happen to die before the mortgage is paid off, the insurance policy will pay it out. This is also a great benefit to a spouse whose earning power will likely be decreased due to the death of his or her partner.

Business Partner Insurance – Term insurance is also used by business people to cover outstanding loans with their bank, or to purchase a deceased partner’s shares on death, if they had an agreement to do so. Most partnerships have an agreement of this sort, and the policy premiums are paid by the business.

Key Person Insurance – When a company loses key individuals due to death, this can often result in hardship to the company. Key person insurance is purchased by the company for any individual it deems to be “key”. The company itself is made the beneficiary of the policy. So when a “key” person dies, the company receives a cash injection to handle the problems associated with replacing that person.

Getting a Term Life Insurance Quote

Here are some things to look for when getting a quote for term life insurance:

1. The cheapest rate today will not be the cheapest rate tomorrow. For instance, the cheapest premium today will likely be for a Yearly Renewable Term policy. This policy is renewed every year at which time your premium is also adjusted upwards. This is fine if you intend to convert to a longer term solution (permanent insurance) in a year or two, or if you have a very short term requirement for insurance. But if you think you will need this insurance for a longer period, you would be better to commit to something like a Ten Year Term Policy. This locks your premium and death benefit in for ten years. Your rates will not increase until you renew.

2. Compare coverage and premium projections for different policies. Think about the long term and get the coverage that saves you money in the long run.

3. Make sure you completely understand the conversion options built into the different policies you are considering. Most policies will let you convert part or all of your term insurance into permanent insurance within a specific period of time, and without the need of a medical examination.

4. For some situations you should consider options such as Decreasing Term Life Insurance in which the death benefit decreases as time goes by. This makes sense if the policy is being used to cover a mortgage or business loan.

Term life insurance is not the answer to all life insurance requirements, but it should be part of a sound plan for every person’s financial future.

Term life insurance is basically a no frills type of life insurance. It is a life insurance for a specified duration limit, or time. You buy a specific amount of coverage for a specific time period by signing a contract. You pay for that coverage period and at the end of the term the policy expires. For example, the term might be until retirement, or until children are grown, or until college is paid for.

Term life insurance is the least expensive available insurance policy and allows you to spend a lot less and use the extra money in a better investment. It does not build up cash value and the premium normally increases as the policy owner gets older. Usually term life insurance covers a specific term such as term of 1year, term of 20 years or term of 30 years.

If you die while the policy is active, term life insurance provides a stated benefit for it; and your survivors will be paid the agreed upon amount. However, the policy does not provide any returns beyond the stated benefit and once the policy expires, the insurance coverage ceases and the insurance company keeps the money. Some term insurance policies give you the right to renew at the same rate for multiple years, while others do not. The former are generally a bit more expensive.

Term life insurance is most suitable for you, if you are:
in need of coverage for a limited period of time,
young and looking for lower premiums,
buying a home or car, where the financial burden of a loan will disappear in time.

Term life insurance policies must be renewed when each term ends. Before buying a term life insurance policy, you should ask about the renewal provisions for the protection of your future insurability. There are some typical choices:
Annual Renewable—–the premium go up each year.
Level Term—–the premium stays the same for specific period like 5, 10, 15, or 20 years, then increases sharply.
Automatic Renewable—–you’ll have to pay more for this feature.

Some other options on term life insurance policies may include:
Re-Entry——it requires a lower premium than an automatically renewable policy. You can renew at the same low rate offers to new customer; but you’ll have to pass a physical examination. If you’ve developed any health problems, your premium could go up and cost more than an automatic-renewable policy.
Convert-able term——youll have the option to convert to a whole life insurance policy in later years.

So, youve decided to purchase life insurance. Well then, you have made a good decision! If you have dependents, you know that you must provide for them long after you are gone. Buying life insurance shouldnt be a budget buster either. Take a look at the following options which can help you save big time!

Shop Online: There are several companies that will give you free life insurance quotes right online. By entering your personal information, the amount of insurance coverage desired, and policy terms, you will receive within moments sufficient quote information. Naturally, you will want to talk to an agent at some point, but at least you will get a very good ballpark figure to consider. Some good sites for you to visit include: Insure.com; SelectQuote.com; ReliaQuote.com, IntelliQuote.com; and InsWeb.com. There are many others, so do some comparison shopping.

Types of Life Insurance: There are four types of life insurance plans from which you can choose: Term Life, Whole Life, Universal Life, and Variable Universal Life.

Term Life is the most affordable as it lets you lock in a fixed rate for the length of the policy [typically 10 or 20 years], but it does not have any cash accumulation. So, the only way it pays is if you die!