Archive

Posts Tagged ‘Mutual Funds’

Whole Life Insurance

March 6th, 2010 Administrator No comments

Whole life insurance, also known as ?cash-value? insurance is a basic and consistent type of permanent life insurance which remains in effect your entire life at a level premium. This life insurance is a good choice got you if you do not expect your life insurance needs to diminish over time. A portion of your premium goes into a reserve fund called ?cash value? that builds up over the years your policy is in affect. Your reserve fund is tax-deferred and you can borrow against it, until you withdraw it.

The premiums must generally remain constant over the life of the policy and must be paid periodically according to the amount indicated in the policy. You may also have the option of a single premium —– paying all of the premiums at once with a single lump sum. Your cash values will grow to equal the amount of the death benefit when you turn to age 100.

Although, whole life insurance is very expensive, and if you’re on a limited budget, you may not be able to afford all the insurance coverage you actually need. But the plus point is that the death benefit is guaranteed as long as premiums are met. Also death benefit will never decrease if you don’t borrow against it.

Whole life insurance policy’s returns will fluctuate with the markets and will usually follow returns available from other investments like equity mutual funds. However, if you decide to quit your policy, your cash value can be paid in cash or paid-up insurance.

Whole life insurance is most suitable for you, if you want to:

? use it as a tax and estate planning vehicle,
? accumulate cash value for a child’s education or retirement,
? pay final expenses,
? provide money for a favorite charity,
? fund a business buy/sell agreement,
? provide key person protection.

Before buying the whole life insurance, you need to think carefully about choosing your level of coverage. Too often people make the mistake of insufficiently covering or even worse, financially overextending themselves. This would be a tragic error with whole life insurance policy because defaulting on premium payments can mean policy cancellation and the loss of your entire investment. So be careful and make sure you:

? pick a life insurance policy that has a guaranteed cash value starting at the very first year,
? choose the one with the highest cash value in the very first year,
? consider “participating” insurance policies which can pay dividends, increasing your policy’s value by boosting both the total cash value and the death benefits,
? beware of any insurance policy that levies “surrender charges” when you cancel.
? if you ever need to stop paying premiums, your policy lets you use the accumulated cash value of the life insurance policy to pay the premiums, thus keeping your coverage current.

Discover How Easy Life Insurance Shopping Can Be:

http://www.SubmitYourNewArticle.com/netquote.php

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Definition of Whole Life Insurance

February 2nd, 2010 Administrator No comments

Whole life insurance, also known as ?cash-value? insurance is a basic and consistent type of permanent life insurance which remains in effect your entire life at a level premium. This life insurance is a good choice got you if you do not expect your life insurance needs to diminish over time. A portion of your premium goes into a reserve fund called ?cash value? that builds up over the years your policy is in affect. Your reserve fund is tax-deferred and you can borrow against it, until you withdraw it.

The premiums must generally remain constant over the life of the policy and must be paid periodically according to the amount indicated in the policy. You may also have the option of a single premium — paying all of the premiums at once with a single lump sum. Your cash values will grow to equal the amount of the death benefit when you turn to age 100.

Although, whole life insurance is very expensive, and if you’re on a limited budget, you may not be able to afford all the insurance coverage you actually need. But the plus point is that the death

benefit is guaranteed as long as premiums are met. Also death benefit will never decrease if you don’t borrow against it.

Whole life insurance policy’s returns will fluctuate with the markets and will usually follow returns

available from other investments like equity mutual funds. However, if you decide to quit your policy, your cash value can be paid in cash or paid-up insurance.

Whole life insurance is most suitable for you, if you want to:

? use it as a tax and estate planning vehicle,
? accumulate cash value for a child’s education or retirement,
? pay final expenses,
? provide money for a favorite charity,
? fund a business buy/sell agreement,
? provide key person protection.

Before buying the whole life insurance, you need to think carefully about choosing your level of

coverage. Too often people make the mistake of insufficiently covering or even worse, financially

overextending themselves. This would be a tragic error with whole life insurance policy because

defaulting on premium payments can mean policy cancellation and the loss of your entire investment. So be careful and make sure you:

? pick a life insurance policy that has a guaranteed cash value starting at the very first year,
? choose the one with the highest cash value in the very first year,
? consider “participating” insurance policies which can pay dividends, increasing your policy’s value by boosting both the total cash value and the death benefits,
? beware of any insurance policy that levies “surrender charges” when you cancel.
? if you ever need to stop paying premiums, your policy lets you use the accumulated cash value of the life insurance policy to pay the premiums, thus keeping your coverage current.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Term Life Insurance Policy And Permanent Life Insurance Policy: Basic Facts To Consider

December 8th, 2009 Blog Writer No comments

Most life insurance buyers still do not understand that the permanent life insurance could be valuable to them.

About 20 or 25 years ago people started considering buying the term life insurance instead of permanent one. The common belief was that you could get much more insurance coverage for your money that it was the way to go. Yes, the term life insurance is the best type of the insurance policy for many people but you should give the serious considerations to the permanent plans like variable universal life, universal life, whole life and variable life insurance. You could start with the term life insurance and at later date you always could convert it into the permanent insurance policy.

The arguments of buying the term life insurance have a lot of legality. You can get much more from your money. You can use the difference for investing in money market funds, bonds, stocks, mutual funds or real estate. In these ideas there is a lot of truth. But how fruitful is that decision? But will you really invest your money into even one of proposed options? If fact this extra money does not invested in anything. Generally, these funds are wasted on trivialities that are considered in particular periods of time.

In the case you are a disciplined person purchasing the term life insurance policy and investing the difference could be a good decision for a while but as you are getting older you are becoming more aware that you will always need some type of the life insurance policy. In this moment of time the permanent life insurance policy becomes a necessity. In later years you may not be able to afford it for you, so it is better to buy it as soon as possible. Here there are two possible options – to purchase the permanent life insurance policy at the beginning or to buy the term life insurance and then to convert it into the permanent life insurance.

Always take in your mind that you have a family and what will be with them in the case of your untimely death? If you want to provide your family with the financial support it is a good idea to buy the permanent or term life insurance policy.

If you are in the business as a sole proprietorship, a corporation or a partnership you will always be needed in the life insurance. At the beginning of your own business your needs could be easily satisfied with the term life insurance policy, but with the development of your business you will have the need to convert it to the permanent life insurance.

Each people before buying the life insurance should examine all the advantages and disadvantages of both term and permanent life insurance policies to make the best choice for him or herself.

When you start choosing a good life insurance, you can get scared how many life insurance brokers are on the market. But number is not necessarily about quality. Please find out more about choosing good life insurance brokers on this blog which is majoring on the life insurance brokers topic only.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Life insurance as an investment

November 23rd, 2009 Administrator No comments

Term insurance provides coverage for a pre-specified period. For example, term insurance is designed to protect a mortgage or provide income for your family in case of your death. You pay the term insurance premium each month and as long as you pay the premium your policy will stay in force. Once the contract reaches maturity (usually in 10 years) you need to renew your policy at a higher price. If you die while you’re paying the premium your estate gets a large sum of money.

In contrast, permanent or whole life insurance remains in force until you die. You pay the premium on a monthly basis for a pre-specified term, which can range between 10 to 20 years. A portion of your monthly payment pays the insurance and the life insurance company that provided the insurance invests the remainder. Eventually you don’t pay any premiums but your estate still receives a large payment upon death.

Whole life polices have been criticized because their investment returns are low. Thus you were often advised to buy life insurance protection with a term policy and invest the difference between term and whole life payments in a separate investment vehicle, such as mutual funds, stocks, or bonds. Once you have built up a large pool of assets you don’t need the insurance because the assets will provide security and stability in the event of an unexpected death.

However, there is a new, more flexible product called universal life insurance. While the life insurance company controls the savings in a whole life policy, the savings in a universal life plan are owned and controlled by the policyholder. Insurance companies offer a large variety of investment options for this savings component, including mutual funds. Thus, you have the ability to meet your life insurance needs and increase your return on investment.

The major advantage of a universal life policy is tax-advantaged growth. When you pay the policy premium, a portion of the premium pays for the insurance and a portion is invested. However, when you are ready to withdraw the money from your investment, your cost basis ( the portion not subject to tax) is higher with a universal life policy. The cost base for a universal policy is equal to the sum of all your premiums – the amount of money you have invested plus the money you have used to buy life insurance. This is very useful because increasing your cost base will ensure you pay less tax once you sell your investments within the universal life policy.

Universal life insurance provides a powerful combination of life insurance and tax-advantaged investment opportunities. Investors should realize that universal life insurance premiums work twice as hard as other premiums. They should also know that choosing the right product is an important element in the overall success of this strategy. Finally, the benefits of this strategy are magnified if you are in a higher tax bracket.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Whole Life Insurance Or Term Life Insurance Which Is Right For You

November 18th, 2009 Administrator No comments

Knowing what kind of life insurance to get can be scary and threatening to the average person. Understanding the basic kinds of insurance products available out there can reduce some of that anxiety. How can you tell whether you should go with term life insurance or whole life insurance?

Term life insurance generally has the lower monthly premiums of the two. You can get higher coverage for a lower monthly payment. This kind of insurance is valid only for a certain period or term, hence the name. You purchase term life insurance to cover you until the kids grow up or until retirement or for another specified time range. If you don’t make any claims against the policy, you won’t receive any benefits from this type of insurance during the life of the policy. Other types of insurance are like that, examples include home insurance and auto insurance.

Whole life insurance on the other hand is viewed as a type of investment. A portion of the money you pay each month is invested into an interest bearing account or investment vehicle thereby increasing in value over the life of the individual who purchases this type of insurance. If you were to cancel a whole life insurance policy, the insurance company would return to you the value of the investment that has accrued since you began the policy minus any fees. Given enough time, the interest on this kind of policy can even grow large enough to cover the monthly premium that is due thereby potentially giving you insurance without a monthly cost.

How can you tell which type of life insurance is right for you? Know some of the basic advantages of each before deciding. Term life insurance generally results in lower monthly premiums with higher overall coverage. With the money you save on this type of life insurance versus whole life insurance, most people can still invest in other things like mutual funds, real estate or the stock market and get as good or better rate of return than the investment in a whole life policy. Many people will buy whole life insurance for specific tax or estate planning purposes.

While knowing these differences helps, I would suggest you find yourself an insurance agent you feel comfortable with and discuss which insurance plan is right for you. There is no substitute for a good adviser when navigating potentially complicated and difficult waters like life insurance.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,