Common types
of universal life policies include flexible premium adjustable life, guaranteed universal life, equity indexed life and variable universal life.
Also, many business owners choose a
type of universal life insurance policy when planning for business succession.
However, a key
benefit of universal life insurance policies is that you can pay a greater amount into the cash value in years when you have the money on - hand.
Variable - universal life insurance: A type of permanent insurance that combines the premium
flexibility of universal life insurance with a death benefit that varies as in variable life insurance.
Variable - universal life combines the premium and benefit flexibility
of universal life with the investment potential and risk of variable life.
Additionally, the cash
value of a universal life insurance policy has an interest rate that's sensitive to current market interest rates.
At least eight of the top 20 universal life carriers have stopped selling a popular type
of universal life product, and those exits are impacting overall individual life sales this year.
Whole Life policies, and one of two
options of universal life policies — Option B — pay the cash value in addition to the face value upon death.
Below, we will discuss the pros and
cons of universal life so you can make an educated decision on the best insurance policy for your needs.
Additionally,
policyholders of universal life contracts have the option to select a fixed death benefit payout or an increasing death benefit payout for their beneficiaries.
As the name suggests, variable universal life insurance combines the flexible
premiums of universal life insurance with the investment choices of variable life insurance.
The
concept of the universal life insurance policy would be to have it for at least 10 - 15 years before you start to cash out or shift investments.
There are a few different
varieties of the universal life policies that you can purchase and that have very similar features to a regular term life policy.
So let's break this into four groups and four good reasons for women to consider at least carrying some term insurance and in some cases small
amounts of universal life and whole life.
It has the investment risks and rewards characteristic of variable life insurance, coupled with the ability to adjust premiums and death benefits that is
characteristic of universal life insurance.
Because of the way the investment
component of universal life insurance works, however, your policy may build more cash value some years than others.
Now let's cover the cash value
aspect of universal life insurance in more detail, because its flexibility is a big advantage.
The main
risk of universal life insurance is that your level of coverage may fall if either the cost of your insurance rises or if the interest rate credited to your account falls.
In many cases, the
price of universal life or whole life insurance is so expensive that the required amount of insurance can not be afforded.
Think
of universal life as «permanent term» where the monthly premiums are level, but availability goes beyond 30 years.
Remember that a dividend is based upon a return of premiums paid and in the
world of universal life, payments may be extremely inconsistent from policy owner to policy owner.
An
owner of a universal life insurance policy can generally take loans out against their policy, which will then be paid back with interest.
While current policies use more conservative interest rate models, the potential for decreases in coverage and rising payments still is a risk due to the general
structure of universal life policies.
Staying on
top of a universal life policy may not be everyone's cup of tea, but variable life policies are even more complex and require you to remain vigilant.
There are different
kinds of universal life insurance policies, so get different quotes and compare the benefits of each one.