Whole Life Coverage Policies

By Author: Marcus Stalder
Total Articles: 491
Comment this article

What does whole life coverage assume?

As you can guess from the name, whole life coverage is designed to keep you protected for your entire life in contrast to term insurance where there's a specific period of time for this. With most whole life policies the death benefit and premiums are usually constant. Moreover, such policies allow you to accumulate cash value as a portion of the premiums you pay that can be later used as an investment tool. In addition, the cash value is not tax-deductible before withdrawal so you can use it for securing your loans.

What are there any options with such policies?

Yes there are. The most popular options with whole life policies are single-premium, traditional and interest-wise policies. With single-premium policies you can pay for the entire policy in bulk. It is a very convenient option for those who have a large sum of money they want to secure their insurance with. Traditional whole life policies provide a specified minimum rate of return on the accumulated cash value portion of the policy. With interest-wise whole life policies the interest rate is variable just like ...
... in adjustable rate mortgage loans. Interest-wise policies also provide you with a greater extent of freedom, allowing you to adjust your death benefit regardless of the premium if the conditions are favorable and you have enough cash value accumulated with your policy. And all the three types of whole life insurance policies allow you to accumulate cash value which is tax-free before withdrawal.

What are the benefits of this type of life insurance?

In contrast to term life insurance policies, with whole life policies a part of the premium you pay is contributed to the cash value that can pay off your entire policy in a couple of years. With whole life policies the premiums you pay are usually constant and do not fluctuate, of course, unless you choose a variable premium plan. Not to mention the fact that you will be covered for your entire life no matter how early you purchase the policy, without being required to go through additional medical exams. And remember about tax savings on this one.

Is there a point in whole life policies as investment tools?

In contrast to many advertisings of whole life policies being very effective investment tools, in reality the rate of return on investment with such policies is quite low if compare to other investment options, even with the use of preferential tax benefits carried with them. The majority of insurance and investment experts recommend evaluating whole life policies by their coverage and protection they bring rather the rate of return and investment possibilities. There are far more effective investment tools out there, while whole life policies have investment possibilities only as an added bonus. However, such a bonus is really useful if you really need to insure your life and want to get benefit of tax savings and security options a whole life policy offers.