With all of the rave about term life insurance it’s easy to think that term life is your only option. It’s not! There are many permanent life insurance products available that are there to provide coverage for your entire life. So it’s safe to call it “life insurance for life.” Let’s discuss some of the different types of permanent life insurance out there, how they work, what companies offer them and which is the best fit for you.
Types of Permanent Life Insurance
Permanent life insurance is just a category that describes a few products available that will provide life insurance coverage for life. There are cash value plans like Whole Life and Universal Life and then there are pure protection permanent coverage types often called Guaranteed Universal Life or Permanent Term. What they all have in common is that its lifetime protection, so let’s dive into what makes them different.
Whole Life
Most people think of Whole Life when they think permanent life insurance. As the name suggests it is coverage for your “whole” life. Whole life insurance is a policy designed to offer life insurance with an investment aspect to it called cash value accumulation. The cash value part of a whole life policy is built up by using a portion of your premiums and allocated by the life insurance company towards investment. It is designed to “mature” at age 100 at which point you can have your entire death benefit amount and will no longer have to pay your premiums. You can also borrow from the built up cash value after it has time to grow over the years. Personally, I never recommend this policy because it tends to be really expensive because of its investment aspect and most people are better off just buying a pure protection policy and investing what they save on the premiums themselves. If you have estate planning need and are getting what you can out of the many investments that you have than this may be an option for you. However, if all you need is life insurance for a lifetime, then there are other options.
Universal Life
Universal Life is another life insurance product that provides lifetime protection along with an investment aspect. The biggest difference between universal life and whole life is the flexibility. With whole life insurance you pay your premiums and let the company do the work for you. With different universal life insurance plans you can decide what to do with your money and can use your built up cash value to pay for your own premiums. There are different Universal Life plans called Indexed Universal, Variable Universal Life and Guaranteed Universal Life. If you don’t need an investment in your life insurance policy and are seeking true, pure protection, permanent life insurance, then the GUL is for you.
Guaranteed Universal Life Insurance aka Permanent Term aka Life Insurance for Life
When clients call me and ask for a permanent life insurance policy that doesn’t comes with the investments and high costs associated with whole life then this is the product I offer. Guaranteed Universal Life Insurance is often called Permanent Term because of the simplicity it provides and because it technically comes with an expiration date. GUL policies are designed to stay in force till age 90 or 121 depending on the company and product. It is assumed that you won’t need life insurance beyond those years either because you won’t have dependents, will have assets to cover your funeral costs, or have already passed away. The GUL policy has very minimal cash value that it is used to keep the premiums level throughout the entire length of the policy. The GUL is truly life insurance for life, no bells, no whistles, just life insurance coverage.
Should I Get Coverage for Life?
Most of the time people get a term life insurance policy to protect themselves during the critical years. These include mortgage payments, college education and income replacement. The assumption is that passed 30 years your need for life insurance will drastically decrease. That, however, isn’t always the case. Most people want to leave behind a legacy and have enough coverage to be able to take care of any final expenses, especially if you lack assets during the time of your death.
Often times there are still people that depend on your income way beyond the “critical years” like a spouse or grandchildren. If this is the case, then getting a lifetime coverage in place makes sense. The other upside is that you get to lock in a low rate for permanent coverage while you are young and healthy. You don’t have to ever worry about the rate going up or you getting sick and not being unable to qualify.
What Companies Offer Lifetime Coverage
The short answer is just about all of them, all of the good ones anyway. Popular companies like MetLife, AIG, Banner Life, Prudential and many more all have array of products which include term life, permanent life and every variation of them you can think of. Even no exam life insurance carriers are starting to offer more permanent options without having to go through the entire underwriting process. For permanent life insurance quotes, you can visit our quote engine on this page and run quotes for GUL polices without providing your personal information.
Start Here
Life insurance can be difficult to try to figure out on your own and that’s why there are experts by your side to help you each step of the way. The good news for you is you’ve reached the right destination. We are an independent agency that works with over 60 A rated life insurance companies on the market and we do the shopping for you to get you the best rate, at no extra cost to you. If you have any questions or want to buy coverage, give us a call at 888-492-1967 or hit the chat button below. Welcome to InsureChance.
