Knowing the advantages and
disadvantages of whole life insurance policies can help you decide if this is the right type of life insurance policy for your needs.
Not exact matches
So far we've looked at some
of the benefits
of whole life insurance policies, but
whole life insurance has some
disadvantages as well.
While it is something you buy hoping to never collect on, one
of few
disadvantages of term
life insurance is that you can only get a return on your investment if you die, unlike
whole life which gives a return at the end
of the
policy regardless if the party is
living or deceased.
Now it's easy to see how not being covered for «natural» causes
of death would be a HUGE
disadvantage, but when considered in light with the fact that these
policies will generally provide coverage up to $ 500,000 dollar for accidental causes
of death, and are typically quite affordable when compared to traditional term or
whole life insurance policies, in many situations, they may be a worthwhile
policy to consider.
There are some
disadvantages to these
whole life insurance policies that you should be aware
of as well.
The two biggest
disadvantages of various types
of whole life insurance policies are the cost and the lack
of flexibility.
The biggest
disadvantage is the cost
of maintaining premiums on two separate
whole life insurance policies.
The primary
disadvantages of whole life are premium inflexibility, the internal rate
of return in the
policy may not be competitive with other savings alternatives, and the cash values are generally kept by the
insurance company at the time
of death.
One
of the inherent
disadvantages of having a term
life insurance policy is that at the end
of the term your
policy will expire and you will have no cash value as you would with a
whole life policy.
Converting a term
life insurance to a universal
life insurance policy can make a huge impact on your financial security, but the opposite, converting
whole life insurance to a term
life policy, results in the loss
of much
of your paid premiums and has the added
disadvantage of possibly terminating without a settlement when the term expires.