内容发布更新时间 : 2024/5/20 0:26:36星期一 下面是文章的全部内容请认真阅读。

精品文档

Life insurance

From Kenneth Blake

Types of life insurance may be divided into two basic classes – temporary and permanent or following subclasses – term, universal, whole life and endowment life insurance.

Term Insurance Term assurance provides life insurance coverage for a specified term of years in exchange for a specified premium. The policy does not accumulate cash value. Term is generally considered \event of death and nothing else.

There are three key factors to be considered in term insurance: Face amount (protection or death benefit), Premium to be paid (cost to the insured), and Length of coverage (term).

Various insurance companies sell term insurance with many different combinations of these three parameters. The face amount can remain constant or decline. The term can be for one or more years. The premium can remain level or increase. Common types of term insurance include Level, Annual Renewable and Mortgage insurance.\

Level Term policy has the premium fixed for a period of time longer than a year. These terms are commonly 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and even 35 years. Level term is often used for long term planning and asset management because premiums remain consistent year to year and can be budgeted long term. At the end of the term, some policies contain a renewal or conversion option. Guaranteed Renewal, the insurance company guarantees it will issue a policy of equal or lesser amount without regard to the insurability of the insured and with a premium set for the insured's age at that time. Some companies however do not guarantee renewal, and require proof of insurability to mitigate their risk and decline renewing higher risk clients (for instance those that may be terminal). Renewal that requires proof of insurability often includes a conversion options that allows the insured to convert the term program to a permanent one that the insurance company makes available. This can force clients into a more expensive permanent program because of anti selection if they need to continue coverage. Renewal and conversion options can be very

精品文档

精品文档

important when selecting a program.

Annual renewable term is a one year policy but the insurance company guarantees it will issue a policy of equal or lesser amount without regard to the insurability of the insured and with a premium set for the insured's age at that time.

Another common type of term insurance is mortgage insurance, which is usually a level premium, declining face value policy. The face amount is intended to equal the amount of the mortgage on the policy owner’s residence so the mortgage will be paid if the insured dies.

A policy holder insures his life for a specified term. If he dies before that specified term is up (with the exception of suicide see below), his estate or named beneficiary receives a payout. If he does not die before the term is up, he receives nothing. However, in some European countries (notably Serbia), insurance policy is such that the policy holder receives the amount he has insured himself to, or the amount he has paid to the insurance company in the past years. Suicide used to be excluded from ALL insurance policies[when?], however, after a number of court judgments against the industry, payouts do occur on death by suicide (presumably except for in the unlikely case that it can be shown that the suicide was just to benefit from the policy). Generally, if an insured person commits suicide within the first two policy years, the insurer will return the premiums paid. However, a death benefit will usually be paid if the suicide occurs after the two year period.

Permanent Life InsurancePermanent life insurance is life insurance that remains in force (in-line) until the policy matures (pays out), unless the owner fails to pay the premium when due (the policy expires OR policies lapse). The policy cannot be canceled by the insurer for any reason except fraud in the application, and that cancellation must occur within a period of time defined by law (usually two years). Permanent insurance builds a cash value that reduces the amount at risk to the insurance company and thus the insurance expense over time. This means that a policy with a million dollar face value can be relatively expensive to a 70 year old. The owner can access the money in the cash value by withdrawing money, borrowing the cash value, or surrendering the policy and receiving the surrender value.

The four basic types of permanent insurance are whole life, universal life, limited pay

精品文档

精品文档

and endowment.

Whole life coverage whole life insurance provides for a level premium, and a cash value table included in the policy guaranteed by the company. The primary advantages of whole life are guaranteed death benefits, guaranteed cash values, fixed and known annual premiums, and mortality and expense charges will not reduce the cash value shown in the policy. The primary disadvantages of whole life are premium inflexibility, and the internal rate of return in the policy may not be competitive with other savings alternatives. Also, the cash values are generally kept by the insurance company at the time of death, the death benefit only to the beneficiaries. Riders are available that can allow one to increase the death benefit by paying additional premium. The death benefit can also be increased through the use of policy dividends. Dividends cannot be guaranteed and may be higher or lower than historical rates over time. Premiums are much higher than term insurance in the short term, but cumulative premiums are roughly equal if policies are kept in force until average life expectancy.

Cash value can be accessed at any time through policy \and are received \optional. Cash values support the death benefit so only the death benefit is paid out.

Dividends can be utilized in many ways. First, if Paid up additions is elected, dividend cash values will purchase additional death benefit which will increase the death benefit of the policy to the named beneficiary. Another alternative is to opt in for 'reduced premiums' on some policies. This reduces the owed premiums by the unguaranteed dividends amount. A third option allows the owner to take the dividends as they are paid out. (Although some policies provide other/different/less options than these - it depends on the company for some cases)

Universal life coverage universal life insurance (UL) is a relatively new insurance product intended to provide permanent insurance coverage with greater flexibility in premium payment and the potential for greater growth of cash values. There are several types of universal life insurance policies which include \\fixed universal life insurance\variable universal life (VUL), guaranteed death benefit, and equity indexed universal life insurance.

A universal life insurance policy includes a cash value. Premiums increase the cash

精品文档