Quick QuoteLife Insurance
Life Insurance: Care for Your Family, Now and Ever
While so many aspects of people's financial lives look bleak at the moment, life insurance continues to do exactly what it was designed to - serve as a foundation of your family's financial security. In the this tumultuous economy, you can take comfort in knowing that life insurance - whatever type you may own or intend to buy - can provide some certainty and stability at a time when both are in short supply.
What if you died tomorrow? Your life insurance is what your family members would rely on to maintain their quality of life. It will provide an anchor of stability to your family finances, ensuring that your loved ones will be financially secure when you die.
Term Life Insurance
Term insurance is a good basic type of life insurance. You can buy protection for the term of your choosing such as 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30 years.* If you should die before the term is up, your beneficiary gets the death benefit stated in your policy. If you live beyond the term, your beneficiaries get no payment. This type of insurance is usually the least expensive to have for yourself.
Here is a good table to go by when choosing if Term insurance is right for you:
| Consider term life insurance if: | Reason: |
| You can not pay the premium of a permanent policy | Term life insurance is usually less expensive than permanent |
| You are looking for mortgage or loan protection | Select a policy with decreasing coverage to match your decreasing mortgage and loan balances |
| You have or are having children | You can buy protection for the ideal time it will take for them to be financially independent |
| You want additional insurance to a current life insurance policy | Term life insurance offers affordable coverage for the amount of time you choose |
Permanent (Whole Life) Insurance
One main difference between term and permanent life insurance is that permanent doesn’t expire. As long as your premiums are paid by you, it stays with you permanently for your whole life. The other big difference is that with permanent life insurance, your premiums are invested to produce returns returns for you as time goes on. This gives your policy a cash value, which usually accumulates at a guaranteed minimum interest and is available to help fund retirement, emergencies and more. There are also tax benefits to permanent insurance. By law, your cash value is allowed to grow tax deferred. Because of this benefit, a permanent life insurance policy has become more than just life insurance but also a financial plan.
| Consider Permanent Insurance If: | Reason: |
| You want tax advantages | Money grows tax deferred |
| You may need access to your money | At any time you may take out a loan, withdraw or surrender the policy |
| You want to hedge against inflation | You can adjust the death benefit to keep pace with the changes in purchasing power |
| You are comfortable making financial decisions | You can choose how your payments are invested |