Whole Life Insurance Explained - Eggstack (2024)

FAQs

What are 2 disadvantages of whole life insurance? ›

A more complex product than term life insurance. Higher premiums than term life insurance. Could be costly if coverage lapses early.

Whole life insurance guarantees payment of a death benefit to beneficiaries in exchange for level, regularly-due premium payments. The policy includes a savings portion, called the “cash value,” alongside the death benefit. In the savings component, interest may accumulate on a tax-deferred basis.

Generally, people seeking whole life insurance pay for it forever (i.e., until they die). But, you can choose to fund the entire cover in 10, 15, or 20 years. Although, doing so will extortionately raise your monthly premium for those years.

With a cash value life insurance policy, like whole life or universal life insurance, you can access the cash value. One of the ways to do that is to cash out or surrender the policy. If you choose to cash out your policy, you'll receive the cash value minus any surrender fees.

Cons of Whole Life Insurance

Whole life is more expensive than term life, and you will receive a lower death benefit than you could get with the same amount of money with a term policy.

The cash value is slow to grow

But this takes a while, so it can take 10 to 15 years (or even longer) for you to build up enough cash value to borrow against. If you'd prefer an investment that offers positive returns quickly, you'll want to look elsewhere.

The average cost of a $500,000 whole life insurance policy for a healthy 30-year-old is $451 per month as of May 2024. Your personal rates depend on your age, gender, health, and hobbies, as well as how much coverage you need.

The $10,000 refers to the face value of the policy, otherwise known as the death benefit, and does not represent the cash value of life insurance policy. A $10,000 term life insurance policy has no cash value.

A whole life insurance policy will begin building cash value as soon as you pay your first premium, and it will continue building throughout the life of the policy as long as there are funds in the account.

Life insurance is no longer needed for many people once they reach their 60s or 70s. At this point they retire, their kids have grown up, and they've paid off their mortgage and other debts. However, others prefer to keep life insurance later in life to leave an inheritance and to pay off final expenses.

When should you cash out a whole life insurance policy? ›

Ultimately, deciding whether to draw cash from a life insurance policy comes down to personal need. "In some instances it may make sense to borrow funds for short-term needs, such as a year of tuition, to tide over a business or for an item such as a wedding, if the client can repay the loan," Teitelbaum says.

Because whole life insurance never expires, you do not need to worry about outliving it. However, your policy may pay out before your death if you live to a certain age. Most whole life policies endow at age 100, while some recently issued policies now offer a maturation age of 121 years.

If you only need coverage for a few years while your children are growing up, for example, then term life insurance may be the right choice. But if you want lifetime coverage and the ability to build cash value, then consider whole life insurance.

Examples of Cash Value Life Insurance

An example is a cash value life insurance policy with a $25,000 death benefit. Assuming you don't take out a loan or withdraw, the cash value accumulates to $5,000. After the policyholder's death, the insurance company would pay out the full death benefit, which would be $25,000.

Your whole life premium stays the same for life.

The fixed premium of a term insurance policy typically ends after 10, 20, or 30 years. And with some other types of permanent coverage, the premium cost can go up later. But with whole life, the premium you pay when you take out your policy never increases.

Life insurance doesn't typically pay out in these circ*mstances: Murder: If your beneficiaries murder you or are closely tied to your murder, they won't receive the death benefit, per the slayer rule. Suicide: A payout won't apply if you commit suicide within the first two years of purchasing your policy.

The net cost of a whole life insurance policy is a simple calculation: Current year premium minus the cash value component. For example, in Year 1 you paid $5,000 in premiums — $600 in monthly premiums — to your whole life policy, and you have a cash value of $3,500 at the end of the first year.