All Life Insurance Is Not Created Equal... 

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Universal Life Insurance ... get quote

Whole Life Insurance ... get quote

Child Whole Life Insurance ... get quote

Term Life Insurance ... get quote

Final Expense Life Insurance ... get quote

Senior Life Plans (Everyone Accepted) ... get quote

Universal Life (UL), also called "Flexible Premium Adjustable Life Insurance," entered the life insurance market in the early 1980s as a more flexible version of Whole Life Insurance. Like Whole Life, UL features a savings element that grows on a tax-deferred basis. A portion of your premiums are invested by the insurance company in bonds, mortgages and money market funds. The return on the investments is credited to your policy tax-deferred. A guaranteed minimum interest rate applied to the policy (usually around 4%) means that, no matter how the investments perform, the insurance company guarantees a certain minimum return on your money. If the insurance company does well with its investments, the interest rate return on the accumulated cash value will increase. Universal Life allows you to choose from two death benefit options. Option A pays the death benefit out of the policy's cash value; the more cash value you build up means the company is on the hook for less insurance (and therefore costs less). Option B pays the face amount stated in the contract, plus any cash values you accumulated over the years (costs more). Many UL policies today offer a no-lapse guarantee: as long as you pay the minimum designated premium, the policy will stay in force to age 100 (or even to age 120). However, paying the minimum guaranteed premium is rarely sufficient to build up significant cash values.

Pros:

Universal Life gives you the flexibility to adjust the death benefit as your needs change, as well as the flexibility to pay smaller or larger premiums - depending on your financial circumstances. This is often an important feature for families who may have fluctuations in their ability to pay.

Cons:

If your premium payments are too small for too long, the policy could lapse, leaving you without insurance protection. Also, if the insurance company does poorly with its investments, the interest return on the cash portion of the policy will decrease (but never below the minimum interest rate guaranteed in the contract). In this case, cash values will probably fall, forcing you to pay more premium in the later years.

Whole Life Insurance is permanent life insurance protection for your entire life, usually to age 100. A Whole Life policy is contractually guaranteed not to lapse, provided that you pay sufficient premiums each year to keep the policy in force. Besides permanent lifetime insurance protection, Whole Life Insurance features a savings element that allows you to build cash value on a tax-deferred basis. A portion of the premiums you pay build up the savings element of the policy and are invested by the company. The interest rate return on your investment is added to the savings portion of the policy. This is how the policy builds cash value. In addition to crediting your policy with interest, "participating" policies issued by mutual insurance companies may also give you the opportunity to earn dividends. Dividends are a NON-guaranteed return of part of the premium intended to reflect a company's favorable operating experience.

Pros:

Whole Life Insurance has a savings element (cash value) which grows tax-deferred. If the contract is set up properly in advance, you might build up enough cash value to stop paying premiums by a certain age, or to borrow from the cash value (take a policy loan) during your lifetime on a tax-advantaged basis. Unlike Term Life Insurance, whose premiums eventually rise after the initial guarantee period, Whole Life Insurance premiums will not increase during your lifetime (as long as you pay the planned amount and repay any policy loans).

Cons:

You are not allowed to choose separate investment accounts, i.e., money market, stock or bond funds; the insurance company controls how and where your premium dollars are invested. Whole Life Insurance offers no premium flexibility or face amount flexibility; the plan you buy today remains fixed for life. It is therefore important to plan carefully, because Whole Life Insurance is not very good at adapting to insurance and/or retirement plans that change significantly.

Term Life Insurance is temporary life insurance protection for a specific period of time. Think of it as "plain vanilla" life insurance. The premium on a Term policy is low compared to other types of life insurance because it builds no cash value; you pay only for the cost of insurance (C.O.I.). The C.O.I. is the amount of money the insurance company charges to keep your life insurance policy in force, depending on your age. Term Insurance pays a specific lump sum to your designated beneficiary if you die within the period covered by the policy. The policy protects your family by providing money they can invest to replace your salary, and to cover immediate expenses incurred by your death. Term Insurance is best for young, growing families, whose financial needs are especially high but whose resources are often insufficient to cover those needs.

Pros:

Affordable coverage that pays only a death benefit, Term Insurance initially costs less than other insurance policies mainly due to the fact that, unlike other policies, it builds no cash value.

Cons:

Term Insurance premiums increase with age because the risk of death increases as people get older. Some Term Insurance premiums may rise each year (e.g., "Yearly Renewable Term), or after the initial guarantee period of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years. Over the age of 65, the cost of Term Insurance becomes very expensive, often unaffordable.