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What is variable universal life insurance?Variable universal life insurance combines the flexibility of a universal life insurance with the investment account features of a variable life insurance. Like variable life insurance, variable universal is considered a security. It can only be sold by agents who have passed the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) exam.For Insurance a free service that connects consumers with insurance agents and policies recommends that variable and variable-universal life insurance policies are most suitable suitable for long term obligations and those who are more active investors and for estate growth and death tax liquidity.
What is term life insurance? There are different types of term insurance: Annual renewable term, decreasing term, and level term. Level term usually is the best because the premiums and coverage are level for a specific period of time: 5,10,15,20,25,30 years. Buying level term and investing the difference in premium (had you bought a cash value policy such as whole life, universal life, or variable life) you'll most likely (99.99% of the time) have more coverage and more cash accumulated in the long run. By seperating insurance and savings, you are able to maximize each and get the best return and coverage available. The point of level term, is once the kids are gone, the debt is minimal, and retirement savings is there, why pay for life insurance? At this point you are self insured and you can cancel the life insurance. But when you NEEDED it, you had it, and it was cheap.
Is the cash value of life insurance taxable? * It depends on the type of "cash out" you applied for and which state you live in. You should be able to obtain some form of written verification regardless, so contact your life company. * No, it is not. * (1) If you surrender (cash-in) a life insurance policy and the total cash value amount returned to you is less than the total amount of premiums paid, the cash value is not taxable. (2) If the cash value returned to you is greater than the total amount of premiums paid, the amount in excess of premiums paid is considered a "gain" and is taxable. (3) If the policy you surrender (cash-in) is considered a Modified Endowment (your company can inform you whether it is or not), cashing-in or borrowing against the cash value may be fully taxable. (Consult a tax advisor if this is the case). Are life insurance benefits taxable? The "interest build-up" portion of the annual increase in the policy's cash value is not taxed. Dividends generally are considered to be a "return of premium" and are not taxable. Although life insurance death proceeds will not typically be subject to income taxation, they may be subject to federal estate taxation. If you own part or all of the policy when you die, those can be included in your gross estate for federal estate tax purposes. State inheritance taxes and federal gift taxes may also apply to life insurance policies/proceeds under specific circumstances. Contact your tax adviser regarding questions about possible income, estate and gift tax consequences surrounding any life insurance you own or are contemplating buying. Death benefits are usually not subject to federal income tax. There are exceptions, though, if the IRS deems your insurance policy to be an investment in disguise. Your insurance agent should be able to tell you if your policy benefits will be taxable. How do you collect on a life insurance policy? What if you know someone was insured, but you can't find the policy, and don't even know what company he or she had it with? This is not an unusual problem, and there are no easy solutions. Of course, it is best to find out about life policies while the insured is still alive. Places to look: If the house and car were insured, start with the local agents who sold those policies. Insurance companies usually keep track of customer names and Social Security numbers. If the policy was active, a premium notice eventually will come in the mail. Look for cancelled insurance checks. Private firms specialize in finding lost life insurance for a fee. What is decreasing term life insurance? Decreasing term life insurance is one of the three major types of term life insurance. Decreasing term life provides a death benefit that decreases in a specified manner. For example, the benefit during the first year of a 5-year decreasing policy may be $10,000, and decrease by $2,000 every year. At the end of the fifth year, the face value is zero and coverage expires. Premiums for a decreasing policy usually remain level throughout the term. For-Insurance recommends decreasing term life insurance policies as a way to insurance financial obligations which reduce with time, such as mortgages or other amortized loans. What is a life cycle policy? Systems, processes and procedures are all used by the staff responsible for policy processing. Here, new policy processing includes all functions from new policy data capture, through underwriting and rating to policy issue. Policy maintenance wraps the policy change and endorsement steps and extends to renewal, cancellation, reinstatement etc. Management, statistical and regulatory reporting are components too. What is adjustable whole life insurance? Adjustable whole life insurance allows you to vary your coverage as your insurance needs change. You normally choose the face amount you need and the premium you want to pay, and the company calculates a plan that provides coverage for your request. The result could be any plan from a term policy with a short period to a limited-payment whole life policy. You can also choose the type of plan and face value you want, leaving it to the company to calculate the premium rate needed. What is mortgage life insurance? Mortgage life insurance is a form of decreasing term life insurance. It pays off your mortgage if you die. According to For Insurance, a site that connects consumers with insurance agents, mortgage life insurance policies are generally available to cover a range of mortgage repayment periods, e.g., 15, 20, 25 or 30 years, and the premium payment period may be shorter than the period of insurance coverage. Mortgage life insurance is often confused with Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). You buy mortgage life voluntarily to protect your survivors from having to make the monthly payments. But with Private Mortgage Insurance, lenders require you to buy a policy in order to protect them (the lenders) against the possibility that you will default on the debt. What is last survivor life insurance? Last survivor life insurance, or survivorship life insurance, is a type of joint whole life insurance designed mainly for married couples. Federal estate taxes are not collected on property left to a spouse, but when the surviving spouse dies, estate taxes are due and can be very high. A last survivor policy pays a benefit only after both spouses have died, providing funds for estate taxes. For Insurance, a free service that connects consumers with agents and policies, lists these three advantages of last survivor life insurance over individual coverage: Lower premiums more cost effective than two individual policies. Medical underwriting standards may be eased with respect to one of the insured's, due to second death payouts. Lower "economic benefit" reportable for income taxes in Split Dollar Plans. What happens to the cash value when you die? The cash value in any life insurance policy does not belong to the owner of the policy. The cash value is an asset belonging to the insurance company which they will use to pay the claim, which will surely come due, when the insured finally dies. Now if the owner of the policy would relieve the insurance company of the obligation of paying the claim, by cancelling the policy or lapsing the policy, the cash value in the policy is no longer needed by the insurance company, so they will give it to the owner of the policy under the terms of the policy's "non-forfeiture" clause. People often ask "If that's my cash value, why don't I get it when I die in addition to the insurance benefit?" There's two reasons. First, you're dead and can't cash a check. Second, it's NOT your cash value. It's just easier for the agent to pretend that it is. Don't worry, though. You can have it if you take the company off the hook. That's only fair. What is universal life insurance? Universal life is neither whole life or annual renewable term. It is a distict animal all it's own. The basic premise in universal life is that the cost of insurance for younger ages can (and should) be overfunded. This amount of overfunding is the cash value. The benefit of this strategy is that the cash value can grow at a modest market sensitive interest rate and can accumulate to a point where the internal cost of insurance can be subsidized by this cash value when the premiums are insufficient to pay for the COI. Based on the future experience of the crediting interest rates, a reasonable approach can be taken to increase or decrease premiums as required to keep the policy in force for a specified period of time. Who can you insure? There must be an insurable interest in order for one party (you) to take out life insurance on another party (your parents). Do they support you, or do you live with them and rely on them for any financial support or living situation? If so, you may be able to get a life policy on them. Either way you won't know until you get some quotes and find the coverage right for you at the best price you can afford. You can compare quotes online. To be certain, after you have your quotes, e-mail the insurance company you want to get coverage through and ask them to verify in writing (by e-mail) that you can take out a life insurance policy on your parents. Again, it usually comes down to a question of insurable interest. Can the IRS seize life insurance benefits? You should have your mother leave the insurance to a trust and then you or your family as trustee, then the IRS cannot get to the money since it will not be yours. Additionally you may recieve income from the trust. Your family could "spoon feed" you. You should consult an ESTATE PLANNING attorney to see how to set this up. rw The insurance company cannot be forced to make a check payable to the IRS or any creditor. But if the person who receives the proceeds owes money to someone like the IRS, it won't be long before they will be forking it over. The trust described above can protect the money from creditors until it's paid out, but once the money is doled out, it's fair game for creditors. What is variable life insurance? "Variable" means it is not a fixed account, but in subaccounts directed according to the policy owner's wishes. These subaccount include, but not always, popular funds like the ones offered by Fidelity Investment. They all have there field of investments. Some are Blue Chip stock funds, Over-seas funds and even more simple Government Bond funds. Money Market is a choice. The choices can be endless and the owner picks % of the net premium paid after expense to go to each Sub-Account. Your Death Benefit will stay the same if you choose the Level Death Benefit option. Your benfit will be payable as long as premiums are paid and there are funds in the accumulation account connected to the subaccounts. You can also choose an Increasing Death benefit that includes the Face ammoun, the amount of insurance on your life, plus the value of your funds. You have choices but get a good agent licensed to sell Variable Contracts. he will need his Series 6 and usually series 63 securties license. What are vanishing premiums? The type of policy that was commonly utilized was not a Universal Life policy, but actually a Traditional Whole Life policy. These insurance policies paid dividends whereas Universal Life policies only have an interest bearing account. The dividends were essentially used to pay the future premiums if and only if they were large enough to cover the required cost of the insurance. Because the dividend scale is not guaranteed, there was no way to guaranty that the premiums would "vanish". These whole life policies are still very popular, and the ability for the dividends to be used to pay for future premium is still available as long as the policy is provided by a mutual company that pays dividends and the policy is participating. What is participating life insurance? Some whole life insurance policies can return money to you in the form of dividends. These are called participating policies. If the company earns a surplus because of profitable operations, owners of participating policies could share in the surplus. Since earning such a surplus depends on many variables, dividends are never guaranteed. |