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Posts Tagged ‘whole life insurance’

Over Age 50 Life Insurance Choices

March 10th, 2010 Bobbie Jordan No comments

Can a person in their middle years or senior years still buy life insurance? If you are over 50, or if you are caring for an older person, you can find a wide choice of products. Since statistics show that Americans are living longer and healthier lives, insurers are willing to extend affordable coverage to older people. Most middle aged and older people can still find life insurance policies.

Why are baby boomers and seniors looking for policies? At thirty or forty, a lot of us bought a twenty or thirty year term life insurance policy. That seemed like plenty of time to save money, get our kids educated, and pay off our mortgage. We figured that by the time we were fifty or sixty, we would have everything in order, and we would not need coverage any more.

But these days, many of us found that the theory did not prove out for us. Our kids did not manage to become totally self supporting as fast as we thought they would. Sometimes those kids come home with our own kids, and they still need our help. And we did plan to pay off that mortgage. But many of us got delayed because we moved or needed to take out a second loan. Years passed, but we did not outgrow our need for a life insurance policy.

You may also think that we should already have coverage by the time we get to middle age. Most of us did have some sort of policy in our lives. But our term policies may have expired after 20 or 30 years. Thankfully we outlived them! Or we may have had coverage from a group policy at work. But we left that job long ago because we quit or retired. So now we find ourself older, but without any coverage.

What life insurance should older people look for? Before you buy anything, you should think about why you want to buy a policy. Do you just want coverage to make sure your kids or spouse have money? Or do you want to build an asset that may help you in the future? Finaly, you may want to use your policy to help transfer wealth to your family?

If a person is sure they just want coverage, they may consider another term policy. It will probably be much cheaper than whole life. A middle aged person, or even a younger senior, may still find affordable term life. These lower premiums are important to consider.

Some term policies can be converted to permanent policies later. This allows you to get the cheaper one now, and then decide if you need lifetime coverage later. Since you are not sure what you will need in ten or twenty years, this may be a good option. These policies should not require you to prove you are healthy either.

If you want to use your policy to build an asset for yourself, or for your family, you probably want to consider whole life. After time, it can build a cash value which can be handy. You could use it to borrow against, cash in, or in a life settlement transaction. In any case, you will have lifetime coverage.

How much will this cost you. Premiums will vary by many factors. These include the size of the death benefit, the type of insurance, your age, and your general health. An experienced insurance agent should be able to help you explore your options. Just be careful if they seem too concentrated on one type of policy.

You may want to compare Single Premium Life vs Annuities for estate planning. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

Single Premium Life Insurance Advantages and Disadvantages

February 23rd, 2010 Brad Kline No comments

Lots of us are looking at our retirement planning, and we just wish we could be sure that we could leave more money to our kids or grand kids. We may have a lump sum of cash we could set aside, but wonder how it could grow so we can leave a nice cash estate behind us. A product called Single Premium Life Insurace may be a good option to consider.

SPLI differs from the type of life that you are used to in a couple of ways. The most obvious difference is that you fund it with a large payment at the beginning for the policy. With regular coverage, you make monthly, quarterly, or yearly payments over a period of years.

So you see that you have given the insurer a certain amount of money. In return, they issue you a policy for a sum that is probably a few multiples of the original amount. Many people are using this product to fund their estate.

Consider a retired widow who can live well on her company retirement plan and some savings. Let us say she was a teacher, and she is healthy and plans to tutor in the afternoons to keep herself busy and earn some extra cash too. When her husband died, she got a $30,000 life insurance settlement. Now these amounts will vary, but let us say she could use that money to fund $150,000 in SPLI for her own kids.

Now understand that the price you would pay for a particular policy will depend upon many different things like your age, health, the insurance company, etc.

Who should consider single premium life (SPL)? It is something to consider if you have a lump sum of cash that you would like to leave to your heirs. Your children, grandchildren, or a favorite charity could be the beneficiaries.

Be sure you will not have to use the money for a few years. In the first few years, policies can impose fees and surrender charges. So it is probably not the right life insurance if you are not sure if you will need the money to live on.

One possible future use of an SPLI is its ability have a cash value very quickly copared to regular life insurance. Once that happens, you can have a place to borrow from. You may also cash out the policy.

Accelerated death benefits and nursing home confinement provisions are another feature. In some cases, the insured person can actually use part of the face value while they alive!

There could be some disadvantages to single premium life insurance. Remember that early cash outs can incur surrender fees. You lose some of the tax advantages of regular life policies too. And of course, you do need to have a lump sum of cash to fund it.

Are you interested? Look here to get Single Premium Life Insurance Explained.