Wednesday, May 7, 2008

The Fundamentals of Life Insurance – A Caring and Smart Financial Decision

Life insurance is unique among financial instruments. It is one of, if not the only financial instrument that is based on caring and love. Even though there can be personal advantages to having life insurance, the real impetus is love for those one cares most about – to make sure they are taken care of. So, applaud yourself for taking the time to learn about this subject (and please follow up with action whether through us or the organization of your choice.)

Interestingly, while one is taking care of the financial needs and wants of a spouse or the next generations, life insurance can also develop and build one’s personal financial goals while living. For example, because you have sufficient life insurance, you might be able to use more of your assets to enjoy life in retirement. Why is that? Because if you know you have sufficient life insurance you won’t feel that you are lowering the inheritance by spending some of your principal. You may actually “pay down principal” to some degree to yourself, especially if you have lifetime permanent life insurance as a backup.

There are various types of life insurance but they all have some common attributes. You pay an insurance company what are called premiums. At your death, the life insurance company pays an amount to the people you named in your policy, called beneficiaries. Also it’s interesting that if you named a beneficiary(ies) they’d receive the insurance amount free of income tax.

Some types of life insurance have cash benefits available while you’re living. In these types, a portion of your premium goes into a cash reserve and builds on a tax deferred basis. You can access this money, called cash value. Some people use it to help education costs, enhance retirement cash flow or for any reason. Two of the most common types of “permanent life insurance” are called whole life insurance and universal life insurance.

The different kinds of life insurance are described on the Lifeinsure.com site. To learn more about each type you can go to the navigation panel you click the type of life insurance to learn about. You can also visit the Education Center. Combined with investments, retirement and estate planning, a life insurance policy is a cornerstone of a sound financial plan. By looking into this area, you are making an intelligent and caring financial decision for your family. It is important that you have life insurance and have enough to protect those you care about. Get the insurance you should have.

1 comments:

Neetu said...

Awesome post. Its good to know all about life insurance policy features in advance because it helps in choosing the most appropriate options according to the needs. Out of both these options I am planning to buy a whole life policy as it has much more benefits than the term policy.
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