Whole life insurance is a type of life insurance meant to last for the entire life of the insured person of the policy.  It does not expire as term life insurance does.  If the whole life policy is purchased from a mutual company, it is also an ownership stake in the company itself.  In return for the ownership stake, whole life insurance pays dividends payments.  Whole life insurance is the original form of life insurance, dating to the year 1706 in its modern form.

An important feature of whole life and a way that it differs from term life insurance is that it has a cash value.  In other words, the policy can actually be surrendered for the cash value of the policy, or a loan can be taken from it.  If you apply for a loan or need to produce a personal balance sheet for any reason, a whole life policy is listed as an asset.  The value of the policy grows over time as the cash-value account grows with age.  When the policy is mature (usually at age 105 or 115), the cash value will equal the death benefit and the policy pays out the full benefit.

How to Get Whole Life Insurance

Whole life insurance is a bit more complex than term life insurance so you will need to spend some extra time understanding your illustration (quote) and the policy. If you want to buy whole life insurance you can speak to an agent who can run you various illustrations based upon the amount of life insurance that you need. These can show different funding options, different dividend options, and even planned withdrawals. These are the best steps to take to buy a whole life policy.

  • Contact an agent and talk about total insurance needs.
  • Get whole life insurance illustrations and choose your policy structure and plan.
  • Fill out the whole life insurance application, and apply for coverage. You can make payment at the time of application in order to bind coverage.
  • Get your medical exam if needed and go through underwriting.
  • After your policy is issued, ask for an updated illustration each year from the life insurance company or agent. This is because dividend rates will differ from projected rates a bit.

Features of Whole Life Insurance

Whole life insurance has some very specific features and nuances that are very different than a term life insurance policy, or other forms of permanent life insurance.  In other ways, whole life insurance is exactly the same as other forms of life insurance.  We can help you buy a whole life policy.  Here is a look at whole life insurance.

Permanent

As the name implies, whole life insurance is meant to last for the entire life of the insured person, no matter how long that person may live.  As long as the owner is making the premium payments required by the contract, the company is warrantying that they will pay out the death claim upon death or policy maturity, whichever comes first.  Since whole life insurance is guaranteed to cover the life of the insured for their entire life, whole life insurance is often used to pass money on to the next generation with tax advantages or to fund trusts, or to help keep an estate liquid.

Because the cash value is meant to equal the face amount upon maturity, the earlier a whole life insurance policy is purchased the lower the premium payments will be.  People are also generally healthier when they are younger, so the cost of insurance is also lower.

Level Premium Payments For Whole LifeWhole Life Insurance

Premium payments to a whole life insurance policy are level (will never rise during the life of a policy), but an owner may have the option of paying an additional premium into the policy in order to build cash value faster.  Contractually, the owner only needs to make the minimum premium payments in order to keep the coverage.

Making additional payments may even enable the owner to stop making premium payments into the policy altogether at some point, and the policy will continue to remain in-force.  Some policies can even be designed to be “paid up” after a set period of years, ie 5, 10, or 20 years.   This will ensure an owner can stop making payments after the paid-up period ends, and the policy will remain in force, and continue to accumulate additional cash value, until the insured dies.

Because premium payments are always level, it means that premium payments can be relatively inexpensive late in an insured’s life.  This makes whole life insurance attractive for people who want to provide life insurance benefits to their beneficiaries no matter what age they may pass away.  While term life insurance will not pay a benefit if the insured outlives the guaranteed period, with a whole life insurance policy an insured can not outlive the policy.

Premiums Can Even Decline

We discuss dividends further below, but one important feature of whole life insurance is that it pays dividends.  These cash payments can be applied against premium, and with most policies, the dividend will eventually become larger than the premium due.  In almost every case the dividend will grow slowly over time.  While in the first few years the dividend may do very little to offset the premium, as the years go by the dividends will become a significant portion of the premium.  If this is how the owner of the policy chooses to use dividends, they can count on the policy becoming less and less expensive.

Whole Life Builds Cash Value

Whole life insurance policies also have a cash surrender value, meaning the policy itself builds value over time.  If the policy is surrendered during the life of the contract the owner will receive the sum of the cash surrender value, even though the insured is not deceased.

Loans can also be taken by the owner for any reason from the cash surrender value tax-free, and the value can be used to pay premiums if an owner misses payments.  This feature can make whole life insurance an attractive savings and investment tool for many people.  People can take loans to pay for a car, a home, an education, or even a vacation.  The cash value of a whole life insurance policy will eventually rise to a point where it outpaces the amount of money paid into the policy.  Because whole life insurance actually has a positive expected return as an investment, it is actually considered an investment-grade product.  It can take many years for the cash value to exceed the amount of money paid into the policy, but in almost every case it will happen.  This can make it a very conservative and secure way to invest money over a long period of time.

Whole Life Insurance Dividends

Whole life insurance policies are also eligible to receive dividend payments from the company.  The size of these payments is determined based on the age of the contract, the size of the death benefit, and cash surrender value of the policy.  They are also determined by the insurance companies’ profits and experience with rates of death of policyholders, and prevailing interest rates in the market at the time.  Because the calculation of what a dividend will be can be quite complex, if you need to forecast the expected dividends into the future you should ask your life insurance company for an illustration.  All else being equal, the more cash value a whole life insurance contract contains, the higher the dividend payment received by the owner in the future.

A whole life insurance policy will guarantee a minimum cash value each policy year if all premium payments are made.  Dividends are not always guaranteed (since they depend in part on company performance) but many major insurance providers have paid dividend payments consecutively for over 100 years, even though the financial crisis of 2008 and the great depression.

There are different options for how policy owners can use their dividends.  Dividends can either be used to buy additional paid-up insurance, so the death benefit rises over the lifetime of the contract, be used to build cash value faster in the policy, or can be taken as a cash payment by the owner.  If dividends are taken as a cash payment, they are a tax-free payment until the total of dividends paid out is greater than the total of the premiums paid into the policy.  In other words, the gain is taxed last.  This tax-preferred dividend treatment helps increase the value of a whole life insurance policy as an investment over a taxable bond.  Dividends can also be used to pay back an outstanding loan if there is one.

It is important to remember that with dividend payments, whole life insurance will provide a positive internal rate of return for contract owners over time.  While whole life insurance is not for everyone, financial planners do recommend it to high net worth clients.  Even without the payout upon death, it can be a valuable financial investment while the insured person is living.

If dividends are going to buy paid-up life insurance, the death benefit increases over time.  It also increases the future premiums that are paid.  It can be a bit of a projection to decide when to take dividends as cash and when to compound future payments by purchasing more life insurance with them.  This is why it is so important to have an experienced advisor who can compare different options by illustrating different outcomes.

Tax-Free Death Benefit

As with all forms of life insurance, the death benefit of a whole life insurance policy can be received tax-free by the beneficiaries.  For this reason, combined with it’s safe and permanent nature, whole life insurance is often used for estate planning purposes.  It is also used to guarantee income for beneficiaries after the insured passes away, so the policy can not be outlived.  Keep in mind that life insurance can be subject to taxation under certain circumstances so it is always prudent to look for advice from a CPA or financial planner.

Buy Whole Life For Long-Term Security

Whole life insurance will always be there for your family, no matter how old you may become.  You know exactly what your premium payments will be, and exactly what your family will receive if you pass away.  You will be able to take loans from the policy value, and will usually receive increasing dividend payments over time for owning the policy.  For these reasons, whole life insurance provides maximum security for you and your family.

To get a free whole life insurance quote from Life Ant, please scroll to the top of the page and enter your zip code to find agents in your area. Alternatively, you can click on the banner below.

Best Whole Life Insurance Companies

The best whole life insurance companies have been in business for a long time.  Since people may regularly live to over 100 years old in the not too distant future, you want a company with a long track record that you know will be around to pay out the death benefit on your policy.  You also want a company with strong financials, with a proven record of dividend payments.  Usually, mutual companies pay the highest amount out in dividends but stock companies can also pay out well.  The whole life insurance companies that we most recommend include:

  • Northwestern Mutual.  Northwestern Mutual was founded in 1857.  It has paid a dividend every year since 1872, even during the great depression.  In our experience, Northwestern Mutual pays a very solid dividend and provides good customer service to policyholders.  Agents of Northwestern Mutual are usually career life insurance professionals who are highly qualified.  Owners of policies where the insured is a premier health rating can expect an excellent rate of return on most policies.  Northwestern Mutual has local offices countrywide and internationally.
  • New York Life Insurance.  New York Life insurance was founded in 1841.  They have paid dividends every year since 1854, also including the great depression.  New York life does not have quite as good customer service as Northwestern Mutual, but it is still a very solid company that provides an overall positive experience for policy owners.  Most New York Life agents are professional advisors who specialize in life insurance.  New York life also has a large investment advisory service with many agents specializing in personal wealth management.
  • Mass Mutual Life Insurance. Mass Mutual was founded in 1851.  While it has not paid a dividend every year since then, they have a strong record.  In recent decades, they consistently rank at or near the top in terms of payouts.  Mass Mutual has excellent customer service and employes agents across the United States and the world.  They are a Fortune 1oo company and have excellent financial ratings.  Many people choose Mass Mutual for the high dividend payout.

Whole Life Insurance Prices

Whole life insurance is a complex product, and premiums can vary widely between companies.  While it generally makes sense to choose the lowest cost provider for term life insurance, this is not necessarily the case when it comes to whole life.  One company may have a larger premium than another, but the cash value may build more quickly with the higher premium company.  Depending upon the purpose of the policy, some people may even choose to pay extra money in premium on purpose in order to build cash value more quickly.

It is also important to consider the dividend payment because payments can be used to offset premiums.  So even if a company has higher premiums, if they pay a higher dividend it may lower the effective amount that actually needs to be paid into the policy.

Age also plays an extremely important role in the price of whole life insurance.  Every whole life insurance policy has an age at which it is “paid-up”.  The older a person is, the less time there is to reach that age, necessitating a higher amount to be paid into the policy each year.

Health is also very important when it comes to the price of whole life.  Since it is meant to last permanently, there is no chance that someone will outlive the policy.  Since the life insurance company will definitely need to pay a death benefit on the policy (unless it is surrendered early) life expectancy is very important for the life insurance company to quantify correctly.  A lower life expectancy will cause a lower health rating to be assigned by the underwriting department, which will increase the price quite significantly over a higher health rating.

Whole Life Insurance Quotes

A “quote” for whole life insurance is not as simple as one number.  Whole life insurance quotes are viewed in a comprehensive illustration.  The illustration shows expectations for each year of the policy life.  It shows the premium required to be paid, the expected dividend, the expected cash value based upon the illustrated dividend and dividend option chosen, and the minimum cash value based upon worst-case projections.  It will also show the death benefit, which can change if the dividend is used to purchase more paid-up life insurance.  If the owner is expecting to pull money out of the policy in a loan or surrender, or perhaps pay more money in premiums than required, the illustration can show how the policy will be impacted in terms of the death benefit and cash value.

While this may sound complicated, an experienced agent can easily run quotes with different scenarios and talk a prospective client through the numbers.  Even after a policy is purchased, the owner can check-in and get updated projections with a new illustration as they own the policy.  The key to the illustration is that it shows projected numbers during each policy year.  If you are comparing illustrations across companies, it is important to use the same assumptions so that the comparison is apples to apples.

2 Comments

  1. My husband and I have been seeking an answer for close to two years – hope you can help. He has a $300,000 Whole Life policy (NOT a Universal Life Policy) that was established in 1990. The annual premium is $3226 (no current loans). The policy was written with a 5% Guaranteed Interest rate and has now accrued an Accumulation Account of $155,187.55 with interest for this year at over $7,000. Even with a growing COI of, now, $4,026.87 (increasing by roughly $140 annually) which, obviously is covered by the generous interest annually, we are told that this policy has not yet reached the point for Paid Up status which would allow the annual premium to “suspend”……..which has been a long awaited goal! The company continues to refer us to the policy Option C, which says we can request a Reduced Paid Up status (at this point $257,495) and stop annual premium payments. Or…….continue for 5 more years at which point “the point will be reached to carry the policy to the year 99 maturity point.” Due to “declining interest rates”, these added years ( we were previously told year 28 (2018) of policy) would qualify this policy for suspended annual premium status. So, we are about to make the 3rd of 7 more “added” years, taking us to year 34 of policy ( husband will be 78 at that time) and the Company continues to refer to this policy as an “interest sensitive” policy as a label requiring more years of premium payments. Really? The Guaranteed interest has been and continues to be 5% on our policy side – the Company is suffering from having to honor this outrageous amount. So, it appears, and has been agreed upon by insurance experts we have contacted that the Company is just trying to close their “loss gap” on this policy which they acquired in a merger in 2006 with Jefferson Pilot. Before we incur added costs of legal help – please reply. By the way, the agent that issued this policy died in 1993. He was experienced and recognized as a very competent agent. He had seen rises and fall in interest rates (at issue the rate was 8.25%) and projected this policy as qualifying for a vanishing premium point………….obviously, not as soon as he or we had hoped. That is why he added the Guaranteed 5% Interest rate for this policy, as well as a Maximum Premium of $6,018 annually, controlling a future out of control COI rate! We feel he would have been able to correct this situation if he had lived, we are certain of this! He would never have imagined us paying annual premiums for 34 years! Help, please!

    1. Andrew @ LifeAnt

      Hi Anne,
      First of all, you (and your husband) are the owners of this policy, so you can do with it whatever you like. It’s not for the insurance company to tell you what to do with the policy. Having said that, it’s difficult to give a complete answer without seeing your policy. If other insurance experts have looked at your policy and advised you, then you can take their advice. It’s difficult to know what the company’s situation is, but as you said, you have a 5% guarantee on your policy. It sounds like you should have reached the Paid Up status already, but it’s difficult to argue with the company without knowing your policy.

      Ultimately, you could seek legal advice to fight the company on it’s current states; you could withdraw the cash value of your policy and use that for whatever you want (the policy would surrender); you could take the reduced Paid Up offer; or you could keep making the payments for another 4 years.

Leave a Reply

Please fill all the fields below (your email won't be displaied on the site).

required