Many business analyst think about life insurance to be the essential of sound financial planning. It can be a necessary engine in the following situations.

 

Replace source of revenue for dependents

If people depend upon an individual’s income, life insurance can replace that income if the person dies. The commonest example of this is parents with young children. Insurance to take over from income can be especially useful if the government- or employer sponsored benefits of the remaining spouse or domestic partner will be reduced after
their companion dies.

 Pay final damages

Life insurance can pay funeral and interment costs, probate and other estate administration costs, debts and pharmaceutical expenses not on the bottom health insurance.

 Create an heritage for heirs

Even those with no other resources to pass on, can create an inheritance by buying a life insurance plan and naming their heirs as beneficiaries.

Pay homogeneous “death” taxes and state “death” taxes

Life insurance benefits can pay for estate taxes so that heirs will not have to reimburse other assets or take a minor inheritance. Changes in the homogeneous “death” tax rules between now and January 1, 2011 will most probably narrow the impact on this subject tax on some people, but some states are offsetting those homogeneous decreases with increases in their state-level estate taxes.

 Make consequential charitable contributions

By making a donation the beneficiary of one’sir life insurance policies, individuals can perform a much larger contribution than if they donated the cash equivalent of the policy’s premiums.

 Create a source of savings

Some types of life insurance start a cash value that, if not paid out as a death benefit, can be rented or withdrawn on the owner’s appeal. Since most people perform paying their life insurance plan premiums a high priority, buying a cash-value type plan can create a kind of “forced” savings plan. Furthermore, the interest credited is tax deferred and tax exempt if the money is paid as a death claim.

Types of Life Insurance

There are two principal types of life insurance—phrase and whole life.

Term Life

Term insurance is the most effective form of life insurance. It will pay provided that death occurs in the course of the term of the plan, which is generally from one to 30 years. Most term policies have no other receive advantages provisions.
There are two primitive types of term life insurance policies—level term and decreasing term. Level term means that the death benefit stays the same during the duration of the policy. Decreasing term means that the death benefit drops, normally in one-year increments, over the course of the plan’s term.

Whole Life/Permanent Life

Whole life or permanent insurance can pay a death benefit on every occasion the policyholder dies. There are three principal types of whole life or permanent life insurance—conventional whole life, universal life, and variable universal life, and there are variations within each type.

In the case of conventional whole life, both the death benefit and the premium are designed to stay the same (level) throughout the life of the policy. The cost per $1,000 of benefit increases as the insured person ages, and it needless to say gets very high when the insured lives to 80 and beyond. The insurance company assists in keeping the premium level by charging a premium that, in the early years, is higher than what is needed to pay claims, investing that money, and then using it to supplement the level premium to help pay the cost of life insurance for older people.

By law, when these “over-payments” reach a specific amount, they need to be available to the policyholder as a cash value if he or she comes to a decision not to continue with the original plan. The cash value is an opportunity, not an additional, benefit under the policy.

 Universal Life

Universal life, also known as adjustable life, permits more flexibility than conventional whole life policies. The savings vehicle (called a cash value account) normally earns a money market rate of interest. After money has accumulated in the account, the policyholder will also have the opportunity of altering premium payments—providing there’s enough money within the account to cover the costs.

Variable Life

Variable life policies incorporate death security with a savings account that can be invested in stocks, bonds and money market mutual funds. The value of the policy may multiply more rapidly, but comes to more risk. If investments do not carry out well, the cash value and death benefit may decrease. Some policies, then again, guarantee that the death benefit will not fall below a minimum level. Another variant, universal variable life, combines the features of variable and universal life policies. It has the investment risks and rewards temperament of variable life insurance, coupled with the ability to adjust premiums and death benefits that is temperament of universal life insurance.