Life Insurance - Term Life Versus Whole Life

Life insurance is a tool that may help provide financial security for your loved ones in the event something should happen to you. You are probably familiar with the terms "term life" and "whole life," but may not necessarily understand the differences between these two types of insurance.

Also called temporary insurance, term life insurance covers a person against death for a limited time. As an example, the term may cover the person until children reach the age of 18, until college tuition is paid for, or until retirement. This is the ideal coverage for those whose insurance needs may decrease over time.

With a renewal provision, term life policies can be renewed at the end of the term without providing additional proof of good health. Although initially affordable, the premiums may increase with each renewal.

At the end of the term, you pay for the policy period or the policy expires. This is similar to auto insurance in that you don't receive any benefits unless a claim is made against the policy during the term.

Also called permanent insurance, whole life insurance is permanent and does not expire as long as you continue to pay the premiums. The premiums do not increase - they are locked in for life the day you sign the contract. The coverage is similar to term life, but whole life acts as an investment vehicle as well with a portion of the premium going towards it and the rest going into an investment account. The investment account can be an interest bearing account or a variable investment account (like stocks or bonds).

Term life insurance is generally better for young families with large financial obligations since this policy offers substantially lower premiums and provides sufficient coverage to protect against loss of income. Whole life insurance is generally purchased by people for tax and estate planning purposes. Consider consulting a financial advisor for advice in selecting the best policy for your family.

Ultimately, the type of life insurance you choose depends on the amount of insurance you need, your budget and your estimated length of commitment.

Life Insurance

Life insurance is the policy you take out to protect your family and loved ones when you are gone.

How would you feel if the provision you made for your family is not able to keep them after your demise? You have to know what to expect when you are gone. To get the rest of mind that a good life insurance gives, you need to get information on all the fine details of life insurance. Here are a few tips to help you out.

· There are two types of life insurance. Term insurance and Cash value. Term insurance is the policy that gives you coverage for a specified period of time while the cash value is the policy that gives you a combination of death benefit and cash value. There is also a policy known as the convertible term insurance. This is a policy that can be converted from term to whole life policy. The term policy is best for people who want something that is temporary for example those who want a policy till when their children leave home. For someone on a tight budget and not very many dependents, you may want to take out a term policy. The cash value policy gives you lifetime protection.

· To determine how much life insurance coverage you need, you have to estimate how much income your family would when you are gone. If you are married and have children, your life insurance needs would definitely be different from that of a single person or one who does not have dependents. Your assets and liabilities (what you have and what you owe) is also a strong indicator of how much coverage you need.

· You need to know that the income your life insurance would bring would help replace the income your family would lose after your death. Unless you are single and have no plans of getting married, or you do not have any dependents, you really need life insurance. Your life insurance can also help to pay off your debts and final expenses.

· Before you buy life insurance, verify that you are dealing with a company that is licensed to sell insurance in your state. You can use resources like your State's department of insurance website, and institutes that rate insurance companies. (Standard and Poor's, AM Best and others). You do not want to deal with a company that would come through for you.