Life Insurance

Determining how much life insurance you need requires an examination of your current and future financial obligations, along with the resources your family could tap. Your future obligations are a combination of what it would cost to help your surviving family members meet immediate and ongoing needs like funeral costs, taxes, food, clothing, utilities, mortgage payments, and your future obligations like college and retirement funding.

There are four main types. Whole life insurance is the most traditional form of permanent life insurance. With it, the face amount (the death benefit) and the premium (the amount you pay for protection each year) are fixed at the time you buy your policy and stay the same even as you age. You also get a guaranteed rate of return on your cash values. Of course, any guarantee relies on the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. For more information on other kinds of life insurance give us a call.

If you miss a premium payment, you typically have up to a 31-day grace period during which you can pay the premium with no interest charged. If you own a term policy and fail to pay your premium within the grace period, your insurance company will typically terminate the policy. If you own a permanent policy and fail to pay your premium within the grace period, your insurance company, with your authorization, can draw from your policy’s cash value to keep the policy in force. In some flexible-premium policies, premiums may be reduced or skipped as long as sufficient cash values remain in the policy. However, this will result in lower cash values and a shortened coverage period.