Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Term Life Insurance - Term Policies May Be Ideal For These Times

Since term life insurance cost so little it could be the perfect policy for today. I believe that everyone needs some life insurance at some time during their lifetime. The reason I feel so strongly is that I have seen families who had a breadwinner die without adequate coverage. I have known businesses that had no protection for their partners or shareholders when one of the owners died.

I, on the other hand, have known adequately covered families, corporations or partnerships. I have seen the faces of the heirs who were overcome by fear but on learning of the term life insurance policy that was on the life of the deceased spouse, partner or shareholder had a complete reversal of countenance.

In America today the economy is stressed to say the least. The uncertainty is getting to even those who up until now paid little or no attention to these matters. People know they just have to continue on until the problem turns around. They depend on their elected officials to take care of the problem. They still need to protect the family in the event of death. Term life is ideal for today, even if it is only for a temporary period.

There are several term policies to choose from. For the married couple with young children the longer term policies may be best. The 15 year, 20 year, 25 year or 30 year term policies would work very well. These policies may also be applied to married people with no children at all or those whose children are grown and now live on their own. the amounts would just be different, likely less.

For shorter term needs like covering college costs or may be guaranteeing that a loan is repaid one could use a 5 year or 10 year level term policy. In some cases the yearly renewable term, or increasing premium term policy, may fit.

If you own a house with a mortgage you may choose to take out a decreasing term policy that will last until your mortgage is paid off. The death benefit decreases as the balance owed decreases. If you have a large estate you may want to use your policy to offset Federal Estate Taxes. These taxes have been repealed but it will take until 2011 I believe for you not to pay any Estate Taxes at all.

As these term life insurance policies are quite inexpensive you will find that they can be quite useful. You may decide to keep these policies mentioned for the duration or you may choose to convert to permanent life insurance. As time goes by you may want to consider the combination policies like universal life or variable universal life or , on the other hand you may prefer a whole life policy combined with term insurance.

These permanent policies have cash values and may earn dividends which serve to offset the cost of the policies themselves. Dividends are not guaranteed but the larger and more established carriers tend to always pay a dividend.

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