Universal Life Insurance

Unlike Whole Life and Variable Life where you pay fixed premiums, Universal Life offers adjustable premiums that give you the option to make higher premium payments when you have extra cash on hand or lower ones when money is tight.

Universal Life allows you, after your initial payment, to pay premiums at any time, in virtually any amount, subject to certain minimums and maximums. You also can reduce or increase the death benefit more easily than under a traditional Whole Life policy.

Most Universal Life policies will also provide a guaranteed rate of return on your cash values, with one important exception. It is possible that you will not accumulate any cash value if any, or all, of the following circumstances occur: administrative expenses increase, mortality assumptions are changed, the insurance company’s investment portfolio underperforms, premium payments are insufficient.

In recent years, there’s been considerable interest in what’s commonly referred to as Universal Life with Secondary Guarantees (also known as a “No-Lapse Guarantee”). With an ordinary Universal Life product, the policy could lapse under certain circumstances (e.g., interest rates fall below projections, insurance costs or administrative expenses rise, etc). When you buy a policy with a “secondary guarantee,” you’re guaranteed that the policy won’t lapse even if the above factors come to pass.

One of the most attractive things about Universal Life policies with Secondary Guarantees is that they provide lifelong coverage at rates that can be considerably lower than other forms of permanent insurance. That’s one of the main reasons why these policies have become so popular for estate planning purposes. If you have a federal estate tax liability (in 2008, estates valued at over $2 million are taxed), your main concern is liquidity at death. When you die, you don’t want your heirs to have to hastily sell off assets in order to pay estate taxes. With a Universal Life policy with Secondary Guarantees, the death benefit is guaranteed for life and you have the flexibility of adjusting your premiums, a valuable feature since estate tax rates and exclusion amounts keep changing from year to year.

Variable Universal Life Insurance

Variable Universal Life insurance is a flexible premium, permanent life insurance policy that allows you to have premium dollars allocated to a variety of investment options, offering varying degrees of risk and reward. These policies are a good choice for people seeking maximum flexibility. Should your insurance needs change over time, Variable Universal Life usually provides the flexibility to increase or decrease your amount of coverage. You can also make a lump-sum payment to increase the policy’s cash value. (The maximum lump-sum payment is subject to IRS limitations.) And, should an emergency arise and you are short on cash, you may be able to skip a scheduled payment and let the accumulated cash value cover the policy’s expenses. Keep in mind that the cost of insurance and administrative expenses are still incurred. As your insurance needs change, it is quite probable so will your long-term investment goals and risk-tolerance levels. With Variable Universal Life, you have flexibility to transfer funds between the investment divisions, tax free. So, you have the freedom to make decisions based on your needs and not on the tax ramifications.