Term life insurance clearly has its place in the life insurance product lineup as it is a useful and cost effective solution for
many life insurance owners.
Also, perhaps more importantly, there is a concept known as buying term and investing the difference which refutes the idea that term owners end up losing money while
permanent life insurance owners do not.
As you can see, just over half of
surveyed life insurance owners cite that covering the costs of their funeral / burial and other final expenses is a major reason as to why they purchased life insurance, replacing income is the second most common reason.
However, most existing permanent life insurance was issued under «old» mortality tables with a maximum age of 100 (or even age 96), which means most permanent
life insurance owners still have to contend with the possibility that they can actually outlive their life insurance... and face the tax consequences that come with it!
According to Lincoln Financial Group's recent 2015 M.O.O.D. of America survey, 84 percent of
life insurance owners said they felt optimistic and more in control of their finances, compared to 76 percent of non-owners.
The legal basis for life settlements as a legitimate option
for life insurance owners may be found in the Grigsby v. Russell decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in 1911, where it ruled that life insurance is just like any other private property you own and can therefore be sold.
That's not to say that financial soundness is not important for someone in the market for term insurance, it just becomes even more valuable for a
whole life insurance owner.
Being considered a MEC changes the order of taxation within the contract for money withdrawn, and may penalize
the life insurance owner for withdrawals before age 59.5.
Life insurance owners are given a great feature with their policies, the ability to take loans.
A life insurance owner can typically designate any percentage of the total payout they wish to an unlimited number of beneficiaries.
The free look period allows a «cool off time» away from the pressure of a financial adviser, where
the life insurance owner can consider the product from their own prospective.
Some life insurance owners fund life insurance policies with the intent that the policy will provide them payments to supplement their retirement income.
The LIMRA Life Insurance Trends 2016 survey found, for the first time in the history of the study, that
life insurance owners are more likely to town term life than whole life (68 percent to 62 percent).