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They are Term Life with a Savings or Investment account feature
· Old Policy Names - Whole, Ordinary, Paid-Up, Endowment Life
· New Policy Names - Universal, Flex, Deposit Term (Life)
· Stock Companies (non-participating) or Mutual Companies (participating)
Life insurance comes in many different forms. Policies that combine
cash build-up value (savings) with death protection (term insurance)
have a variety of names such as Whole, Paid-up, Endowment, Universal
and others. Basically the policy has a death benefit payable to beneficiaries
if insured dies during life of the policy (or) pays a cash surrender
amount to insured if death does not occur.
A Cash Value policy is a Term policy with a Savings feature attached
to it. Ordinary Life, also known as Whole Life, is a declining term
policy to typically the age of 96 at which time the policy is said
to endow or be worth in cash the face amount of the policy. At inception
date the term insurance is equal to the face amount of the policy
and begins decreasing in coverage as the savings increases correspondingly.
The combination of Insurance and Savings is always equal to face amount
of policy and if insured dies the face amount is paid to the beneficiary.
Paid-up Life is a Ordinary Life policy with accelerated premium payments
to end at a certain age such as Paid-up at 60. By pre-paying a higher
premium than what would be charged for Ordinary Life, the death benefit
is always equal to policy face amount yet one stops paying premium
at an earlier age usually ending while still actively working.
Endowment Life is a further acceleration or pre-payment of Ordinary
life and Paid-up Life premium payments. Besides shortening the time
to pay premiums, an Endowment policy will endow at date of final premium
payment. Example is a 20-year Endowment policy means one pays a premium
for 20 years and at end of the 20th year cash surrender value will
be guaranteed to be the amount of policy face value. Deposit Term,
Universal Life and Flex Life (etc) all have Term Life with a savings
feature. All offer an ability to pay more or less amounts into the
savings portion by optional choice so long as you pay the minimum
term Life premium to keep the policy in effect. Some do invest the
savings portion and then share results earned over the guaranteed
rate of return on cash values if they are able to earn more on the
investments. This is similar (not the same) to a "Participating Policy"
concept of a mutual insurance company whereas the policyholders participate
in any net earnings of the firm when profitable through payment of
dividends. Many UK and Europe-based insurance companies are investing
into securities with the cash values thus taking more risk for policyholders
for hopes of higher returns for them to share.
Most cash value policies are designed around the study of various
country's tax laws. This helps create more effective marketing to
those prospective customers having tax considerations being an important
factor in a policy purchase. For Individuals, Families and Businesses
financial planning strategies are very important. Life insurance,
especially the right kind of life insurance, does often play a valuable
part of the financial plan.
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