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A definition of whole life insurance:
* It is a life insurance policy that offers death protection for the insured person's whole lifetime.
* An insurance payout is made to the contract's beneficiaries when the contract holder dies.
* It includes an investment part which may gather a cash value that the policyholder can borrow against.
* It presents a withdrawal clause which allows the contract holder to terminate her coverage and collect the cash surrender value.
* The policyholder typically pays a level premium which does not rise as the person ages.
* The earnings on the cash value of the policy gathers tax-deferred.
* The insured person may borrow money against the policy's cash value in the form of a policy loan.
Different types of whole life insurance policy:
* Single premium whole life insurance.
A limited payment whole life insurance policy with one relatively large premium payment due at issue. The policy is fully paid up and no further premiums are required. Due to the single premium payment the policy will have an immediate cash and loan value.
* Indeterminate premium whole life insurance.
An indeterminate premium whole life policy is similar to ordinary whole life plan of insurance except that it provides for adjustable premiums.
* Level premium whole life insurance.
Level premium whole life insurance features premium payments that are level and are required to be paid as long as the insured is living.
* Limited payment whole life insurance.
If you want to pay premiums for a limited time, the limited payment whole life policy gives you lifetime protection but requires only a limited number of premium payments. Limited payment plans can provide for the payment of premiums for a set number of years.
* Non-Participating whole life insurance.
A non-participating whole life policy has a level premium and face amount during your entire life. Since the policy is non-participating it does not pay you any dividends.
* Participating Whole Life Insurance
A participating whole life policy pays dividends. Dividends may be paid out in cash.
* Child whole life insurance.
Parents or grandparents may consider buying child life insurance. Child life insurance premiums are substantially less expensive. Child life insurance guarantees your child life insurance protection for the rest of their lives. However, you may want to be careful about using whole life insurance to support a college tuition.
Wealthy people may sometimes use whole life insurance policies as an estate-planning medium. They may set up an insurance trust to apply the earnings of the policy to their estate taxes when they die. That may save their inheritors the sizeable cost of settling the estate.
That was a closer look at the definition of whole life insurance and the whole life insurance policy. You may still want to find more specific answers about life insurance. I suggest you to look for the answers to your questions either online or feel free to ask your local life insurance company lawyer.
The Two Approaches to Setting Life Insurance Policy Amounts
You can use one of two approaches to estimate how much life insurance you should buy: the needs approach or the replacement-income approach. Using the needs approach, you calculate the amount of life insurance necessary to cover your family's financial needs if you die. Using the replacement-income approach, you calculate the amount of life insurance you need to equal the income your family will lose. Let's look briefly at each approach.
You need how much?
Using the needs approach, you add up the amounts that represent all the needs your family will have after your death, including funeral and burial costs, uninsured medical expenses, and estate taxes. However, your family depends on you to pay for other needs, such as your child's college tuition, business or personal debts, and food and housing expenses over time.
The needs approach is somewhat limiting. The task of identifying and tallying family needs is difficult, and separating the true needs of your family from what you want for them is often impossible.
Replacing Income
Using the replacement-income approach for estimating life insurance requirements, you calculate the life insurance proceeds that would replace your earnings over a specified number of years after your death.
Life insurance companies sometimes approximate your replacement income at four or five times your annual income. A more precise estimation considers the actual amount your family members need annually, the number of years for which they will need this amount, and the interest rate your family will earn on the life insurance proceeds, as well as inflation over the years during which your family draws on the life insurance proceeds.
Note: Do remember as you quantify the income you want to replace that Social Security provides generous survivors benefits if you've qualified. These benefits can easily total $2,000 a month or more.
Calculating Replacement-Income Amounts with Excel
If you've got access to a computer running Microsoft Excel, the popular spreadsheet program, you can use your computer to calculate the amount of insurance you need to replace a specified number of years of income. Suppose, for example, that you want to buy enough life insurance to replace the income from a $50,000-a-year job for 15 years. If you figure your family will earn 5% on the life insurance proceeds should the worst case scenario occur, you enter the following formula into a cell in an Excel workbook to calculate the replacement income life insurance amount:
=-PV(5%,15,50000)
Excel returns the formula result 518,982.90 indicating that you would need roughly $520,000 of life insurance, invested at 5%, to payout $50,000 a year for 15 years.
Two Calculation Tips
If you want to factor in inflation because you're trying to replace income over a long period of time, you should use a real rate of return rather a regular, or nominal, rate of return.
To calculate a real rate of return, subtract the inflation rate from the interest rate in the formula. For example, if you expect 2% inflation, you could replace the formula shown earlier with this formula:
=-PV(5%-2%,15,50000)
Here's a final calculation tip: You probably want to round up your number. For example, if the formula provided earlier returns the value 518982.90, you might want to round up this value to $600,000. Or $750,000.