Guaranteed vs. Non-Guaranteed Permanent Life Insurance Policies
Fifty years ago, most life insurance policies sold were guaranteed and offered by mutual fund companies. Choices were limited to term, endowment or whole life policies. It was simple, you paid a high, set premium and the insurance company guaranteed the death benefit. All of that changed in the 1980s. Interest rates soared, and policy owners surrendered their coverage to invest the cash value in higher interest paying non-insurance products. To compete, insurers began offering interest-sensitive non-guaranteed policies.
Term life insurance is guaranteed. The premium is set at issue and clearly stated right in the policy. An annual renewable term policy has a premium that goes up every year. A level term policy has an initially higher premium that does not change for a set period, usually 10, 20 or 30 years, and then becomes annual renewable term with a premium based on your attained age.
Permanent Policies
Permanent coverage: whole, universal and variable life is more confusing since the same policy, depending on how it is issued, can often be either guaranteed or non-guaranteed. All permanent life insurance policy illustrations are hypothetical and include ledgers that show how the policy could perform under both guaranteed and non-guaranteed assumptions.The rates of return and policy fees are usually shown at the top of each ledger column and some policies, such as variable or index life, are sometimes illustrated assuming very optimistic 7-8% annual returns.
Non-guaranteed policies are typically illustrated with a premium that is calculated based on a favorable assumed rate of return and policy fees that could change. The lower premium payment is great as long as the performance of the policy meets or exceeds the assumptions in the illustration. Click Here However, if the policy does not meet expectations then the owner would have to pay a higher premium and/or reduce the death benefit, or the coverage may lapse prematurely.
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