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Term vs Permanent Life Insurance
Written by Aaron Wilkens   

What's The Difference between Term and Permanent Life Insurance?

Permanent InsuranceComparing term vs permanent life insurance is an important part of purchasing this type of insurance.  Term life insurance is a specific, time limited policy that works for many people, in many ways of life.   Permanent life insurance stays in place longer and provides lifetime benefits.  As someone considering life insurance, you should have a solid understanding of all products on the market.  This may include a number of unique options, and it often allows you to find the type of insurance that fits with your lifestyle.  What you need may be different from what works for someone else.  Keep an open mind when considering both of these options.

Term Life Insurance

Term life insurance policies provide you with a death benefit for a limited amount of time.  There are various terms available include one year, five year, ten year and more popular longer terms like twenty year and thirty year policy terms.  These policies will pay out a death benefit at the time that you die, if you die during the contract period.  For example, if you secure a term life insurance policy that is in effect for 20 years and die ten years into that policy, your family receives the payout.  On the other hand, if you die 21 years after the policy has been put in place, and have no renewed or used convertible life insurance products to change your terms, they would not get anything from the policy.

Permanent Life Insurance

On the opposite side is permanent life insurance.  Permanent life insurance is purchased and paid on throughout your life.  This policy will provide you with a death payout at any time that you die, assuming the policy is in good standing.  It does not have a specific term in place but rather provides you with necessary protection for your life time.  This may seem like the better choice, and sometimes it is, but you should not write off the benefits of term life insurance policies either.

There are other differences in these types of insurance as well.  One important thing to look at is what is paid out.  Term life insurance is paid out at death only.  This is a good policy for those that will do nothing with it but use it to pay out a payment if they should die.  It will help families, for example, insure that if you die and your spouse has to pay a mortgage has the money or that your kids have money for college even if you can not be there to pay the bill.  Term life insurance has no cash value to it.  This often means that you will pay less for term insurance than you would for other types of insurance.

If you were to use whole life insurance or permanent life insurance, as they are both the same, you would also have the benefit of a cash value.  In short, part of your premium payment is put towards a cash value account which grows over time.  You can even borrow funds from this account down the road.  More so, many people will convert the cash value of their policy at the time of retirement to help them pay for retirement years.  This offers an ideal option for those that are looking to do more with their insurance.

When you consider term vs whole life or term vs permanent life insurance, always take into account the amount you wish to have and the amount you wish to pay for the product on a yearly policy.  In short, this allows you to have the policy that works for your life.
 
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