Midland
Texas life

i have like " Something" through NRA Life
term. not much

We have had Thrivent for a long time. Always wanted to be sure my wife and children were set if something happened. Now debt-free, we carry a small policy for incidentals. Also, want the wife to be able to afford my replacement. He should be happy with what I left him.

I stated a whole life policy in '67 when I went into service. I pay $236.68 a year. It is now well worth it to pay that and get 20 times the value back in benefits. I wish I started it at a higher amount but I have a good safety net of cash available built up now for some kind of emergency......jk

Alot depends upon one situation.

Whole life costs more but its for the rest of your life,

It builds value every year, can be cashed out and if you want the dividends can pay the premiums after a while.

As Charles said its very useful for business planning (my situation).

Used in a business environment the business pays for it in pre-tax dollars so the price is much less effectively.

It also can be used to take value out of a business without tax penalties.

I'm very glad I have several policies, all are building value while the dividends pay for the premiums. It gives me piece of mind that when I die my wife and children will not have to worry about money and its all tax free or if I need a large chunk of money I can cash them in at any time..

This reminds me of a similar situation.
When i was about 5 years old my parents bought a whole life policy on me with a face value of 10,000. Of course the premiums were extremely low by today's standards.

When I went into the army the company sent a letter cancelling my policy. From a strictly cynical business point of view I could understand that decision on their part.
But then, in 1969 when I got out of the army the same agent called and wanted to reinstate my policy.........as long as I made up the back payments ..........that were not made after they cancelled..............and at a higher rate of course.

I rather impolitely declined.

I have had several whole life policies since my early 20's. I followed my parents example. Now in my mid 70's.

My parents passed on years ago and Northwestern Mutual paid benefits on all their policies plus accrued interest. It has been a great company for them and for my family.

In my early years with them I borrowed against my cash value to buy a couple trucks over the years since their interest rates were much better then any local banks could offer. I saved interest $$ and paid back my life insurance value in the process.

I could cash out now if I wished but there is need too. The death benefit is growing quickly now, every year it grows in the thousands due to the paid up policies value and age of the policies.

Term insurance is like renting a house or apartment all the time. Once you stop paying for it you have no death benefit or cash value to use. Term insurance premiums increase as does your age in most cases.

If you don't keep your premiums paid up with most term plans you can't get it after a certain age when you may need it the most.

I have two variable policies and both are on disability waiver, so the premiums are being deposited by the insurance company. I just got an anniversary statement for one of them. The death benefit grew by $100,000 and the cash value by about $75,000 in the last year. My internal rate of return for the last 12 months was 32%, tax free. The death benefit of both policies is now 2.5 times the face amount of the original policy death benefit. Over the life of the policies the rate of return has been just under 10%. There were several negative years when the stock market went down. I haven’t paid a premium since 2002. I can borrow my funds at a net 1.5% interest fee if needed, and I did once.

My wife has a policy that we executed a 1031 exchange from three older policies into one much larger policy, and she pays no premium with a guarantee against lapse.

The security these policies provide to us allow us allow us to do many things we would not do if we had to “save for an unexpected hardship, or death of a spouse”. We also took single life employee pension options since our life insurance provides financial security for the survivor. The single life option pays each of us a much greater amount than a joint and survivor option.

Get your insurance when you are young and in good health. Term is a great option but I suggest you always select a term product with a guaranteed conversion option.

I suggest you pick a large insurance company with great ratings. A mutual company is a good option as well. When a mutual company goes public, policy holders are given free shares of stock in the restructured company.