Life Insurance

Life Insurance for Parents!  It's a snazzy tagline used by a certain insurance industry periodical that I won't publicly shame for such a terrible grab at attention.  The idea is straight forward and lacks any real creativity or nuance.

Here's the basic premise…

Your parents are older than you, you likely haven't saved enough money, so why not buy a life insurance policy on them and wait for your parents to die.  When that day comes, your weak retirement savings will benefit from the windfall death benefit (insert raising eyebrows emoji…if we had emoji's back then…).

This was an idea actually published in an industry publication years ago and the idea came back around to me recently.  I thought, surely this horrible idea met an appropriate death years ago and long since disappeared from the face of the earth.  Nope.

Turns out some people are still talking about it like it's a newly minted idea.  To be fair, I'm certain the first time I read about it wasn't the first iteration of the idea either.

But let's get serious for a minute.  Can you really buy life insurance on your parents to guarantee a stronger retirement account position for yourself in the future?

Maybe.  Should you?

Probably not.  Let's talk about why.

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Paid-up life insurance is a term that confuses a lot of people.  The idea seems straight forward, but what makes a life insurance policy paid-up?  Also, how does paid-up life insurance differ from other types of life insurance?  We hope to help you understand all of this today

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We don't often talk about the endowment life insurance policy.  This is largely due to the fact that they are no longer a thing in the United States.  But just because you won't find them for sale doesn't mean there aren't still endowment policies in existence.  So let's take the day to explain these special life insurance contracts as we weep softly over the fact that you can no longer buy them.

Oh a really quick note, I do not mean Modified Endowment Contract, which is an entirely different thing that is certainly available “for sale” in the United States today.

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Can you borrow against life insurance and how do life insurance policy loans actually work?  For a lot of life insurance policies out there, the answer is yes.

However, there are some types of life insurance that do not permit loans because they do not build cash value.  There are also types of life insurance that technically build cash value and technically permit loans, but I'd strongly caution against using this feature because it forfeits certain other benefits that are likely much more important to the policyholder.

If you are in search of information on borrowing against life insurance, you've come to the right place.  Today I'll detail all the ins and outs of life insurance policy loans.

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Whole life insurance dividend options are one of the ways a whole life policy provides the policyholder robust versatility.  Understanding these different options is crucial for the proper use of a dividend-paying whole life policy.

The evolution of dividend options brought about by insurance company creativity creates even more flexibility and versatility of whole life insurance.  Today I'll detail the four options found with just about every dividend-paying whole life policy available.  I'll also spend some time detailing some more unique dividend options available at just a few insurers.

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