Term Life Insurance

Term life insurance or term assurance is life insurance that provides coverage at a fixed rate of payments for a limited period of time, the relevant term. After that period expires, coverage at the previous rate of premiums is no longer guaranteed and the client must either forgo coverage or potentially obtain further coverage with different payments or conditions. If the life insured dies during the term, the death benefit will be paid to the beneficiary. Term insurance is typically the least expensive way to purchase a substantial death benefit on a coverage amount per premium dollar basis over a specific period of time.

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Universal Life Insurance

Universal life insurance (often shortened to UL) is a type of cash value life insurance, sold primarily in the United States of America. Under the terms of the policy, the excess of premium payments above the current cost of insurance is credited to the cash value of the policy. The cash value is credited each month with interest, and the policy is debited each month by a cost of insurance (COI) charge, as well as any other policy charges and fees drawn from the cash value, even if no premium payment is made that month. Interest credited to the account is determined by the insurer, but has a contractual minimum rate (often 2%). When an earnings rate is pegged to a financial index such as a stock, bond or other interest rate index, the policy is an "Indexed Universal Life" contract. These types of policies offer the advantage of guaranteed level premiums throughout the insured's lifetime at substantially lower premium cost than an equivalent whole life policy at first; the cost of insurance is always increasing as found on the cost index table (usually p. 3 of a contract). This not only allows for easy comparison of costs between carriers, but also works well in irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILIT's) since cash is of no consequence.

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Indexed Universal Life Insurance

​Indexed universal life is a type of fixed universal life insurance product, which is regulated and distributed in the same manner as fixed universal life. By contrast, indexed life usually provides a downside guarantee of 1% or less, but earns potentially higher upside interest crediting, based on the performance of an outside stock index (such as the Standard and Poors 500, a.k.a. S&P 500). Indexed life products have a floor of zero, so a consumer's money is always protected from downturns in the market. However, indexed life also has upside interest crediting potential of 13% or more (although still limited). Indexed life insurance is a moderately conservative interest-sensitive life insurance product​.

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Whole Life Insurance

Whole life insurance, sometimes called "straight life" or "ordinary life," is a life insurance policy that is guaranteed to remain in force for the insured's entire lifetime, provided required premiums are paid, or to the maturity date. As a life insurance policy it represents a contract between the insured and insurer that as long as the contract terms are met, the insurer will pay the death benefit of the policy to the policy's beneficiaries when the insured dies. Because whole life policies are guaranteed to remain in force as long as the required premiums are paid, the premiums are typically much higher than those of term life insurance where the premium is fixed only for a limited term. Whole life premiums are fixed, based on the age of issue, and usually do not increase with age. The insured party normally pays premiums until death, except for limited pay policies which may be paid-up in 10 years, 20 years, or at age 65. Whole life insurance belongs to the cash value category of life insurance, which also includes universal life, variable life, and endowment policies.

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