Term vs. Whole Life Insurance – Which Is Best For You?
If you are looking into purchasing life insurance, you have probably heard about both term life insurance and whole life insurance. Before you decide on one or the other based on what you have heard or what your insurance agent tells you, you need to understand the meanings of term and whole, and familiarize yourself pros and cons of each one (and how these pros and cons will affect you).
First, we have term life insurance. It covers its policyholders for a certain amount of time, and that time can be up to 30 years. It costs much less than whole life insurance and policyholders can be covered by level-term premiums and annual renewable premiums. With level-term premiums, the premiums stay the same throughout the duration of the policy, whereas with annual renewable premiums, the premiums increase as the policyholder ages.
Next, we have whole life insurance, which combines term life insurance with an investment component. There are two elements involved with whole life insurancethe mortality charge, which pays for the insurance coverage, and the investment component, which earns interest and...