The basis of deciding the appropriate life cover is not only the cost of the insurance policy. One should also assess if a cheaper policy can provide you with the right amount and type of protection coverage. Thus, the proper way of evaluating the insurance policy being offered by the insurance agent or the insurance company is to determine if the life cover can provide the protection you want to give your loved ones.
To be able to accomplish the above, you need to understand the life insurance policies pretty well. Many people plan their finances, but give very little consideration to their life insurance plan. In fact, the life insurance policy is the first thing you must consider when doing financial planning. You could take up the whole life insurance policy and be able to withdraw the amount upon maturity. Your entire amount along with the interest lies in safe hands with the company. The amount is however paid to the beneficiaries, in case you die before the maturity of the policy.
The life cover that we are getting can be classified as either a term or a life insurance policy. If you are searching for protection cover for just a specified time frame, then you are looking for a term insurance. This type of cover shall provide protection for just a specified period of time. The term starts from a short period of 12 months and can reach up to ten years. The protection shall be within the specified time frame and the beneficiary of a term insurance will get the full proceeds of the life cover with the death of the policyholder as long as it is within that specified time period.
While you are seriously considering a term insurance, it is imperative that you look into the special type of this kind of life cover where the death benefit decreases for every anniversary that passes. This being the case, the death benefit that will accrue to the beneficiary shall be at maximum when the policyholder dies within the first year of the life cover. Thereafter, the cash proceeds will slowly decrease until it reaches minimum during the last twelve months of the policy.
A life insurance policy provides cover while at the same time generates cash value as you increase the number of premium payments made. You can look at the cash value as tax exempt form of savings that you retain as cash reserve of your policy. This cash reserve can be claimed as the cash surrender value if you decide to discontinue with your insurance cover starting from your policy?s first anniversary. In case the policyholder dies while the life insurance is in force, the named beneficiary or beneficiaries are entitled to the death benefit as stipulated in the policy contract. There are two types of life insurance cover; the universal insurance policy and the whole life insurance policy.
Further, you have to choose between the universal and the whole life insurance policy if you decide to have this type of cover. When you decide on the whole life insurance cover, this would mean that your premium payments will remain the same for the entire duration of the policy. Once you decide to get this type of life insurance cover, you will not have any control on how your premium contributions will be invested by the insurance company.
If flexibility is essential to you then the universal life insurance is the better option. The accrued savings can be used to reduce your premium payments. The policyholder is also given the option to submit a request for an upward adjustment of the life cover.
Susan Reynolds is the content coordinator for a leading South African Insurance Provider who specialises in Life Insurance Policies.