Most insurance companies offer whole of life policies. These are policies which give you a guarantee that the sum assured on the death of an insured person will be paid in full to your beneficiaries.
As whole of life cover is designed to carry through to the end of the insured person s life, rather than the limited cover of term insurance, premiums are more expensive. Also it s common that once a person reaches a certain age, premiums may be stopped so that the company will receive no more money, but the cover will continue.
These policies are investment based. Monthly premiums are received from policyholders and these are used to buy units in an investment fund. The fund is then used to pay for guaranteed life cover, and the number of units cashed depends of the level of cover needed for each insured person.
Cover is graded to different levels and at a minimum cover; for example, the deduction from the fund will be low, leaving more of your premium to build up an investment fund. With a higher level of cover, a relatively smaller part of your premium will be left to invest. Premiums will rise over time and cover should be maintained, or cover will be reduced in order that the premium remains level.
Assuming the underlying investments fund shows a reasonable performance hopefully the premiums should remain constant, with standard cover. Performance can vary from time to time, but these variations level out over time.
With profits whole of life policies are another option. These guarantee a minimum amount payable on the policy holder s death, but are increased each year due to the addition of annual bonuses. These bonuses increase the sum assured each year, thus increasing the sum assured. It s common to find a further terminal bonus is applied upon death, making the total life insurance pay out higher.
Universal policies work in the same way as unit linked whole of life policies. Again, units are cashed in order to fund the life cover but with a range of benefits not included in the basic policies. Because of the wide range of benefits, premiums tend to be high, making it a less suitable savings vehicle.
Balancing this, there are certainly a wide range of benefits, covering lots of insurance needs. One such benefit is waiver of premium, which means that if you are unable to work, the premium will be covered. If you are permanently disabled, then the sum assured would be paid out. Other benefits include that of fatal accident (this benefit pays an amount in excess of the sum assured) and critical illness cover. If diagnosed with a critical illness, then a lump sum would be paid out. This would be to spend as the insured person wishes, but could be invaluable to cover treatments and alterations to lifestyle that illnesses can cause.
There are lots of options when it comes to life insurance and it s particularly important to get some unbiased advice. Just go on line to find an independent broker, they will have all the information you need to make the right decision and will find you the best product at the right price.
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