Comprehensive Medical Packaging

Term life insurance offers the most coverage for a fraction of the price of traditional whole life insurance or universal life insurance. The downside is that the coverage is not designed to last a lifetime, but a set amount of years instead. The purpose of term life insurance should be to protect a major life event, or events, like providing income replacement for your family until retirement age, ensuring the cost of your children’s education, or paying off the mortgage.

Universal life insurance, also commonly referred to as a “UL” policy, is a form of life insurance that offers flexible premiums, a level or increasing death benefit, and a tax-deferred investment opportunity to the insured. With universal life insurance, the insured pays the premium of their life insurance as well as some additional money to “overfund the policy” and build a cash value. This cash value gains interest overtime and may be borrowed from or used to subsidize the cost of the life insurance policy in the future.

A whole life policy covers you for your entire lifetime. The premiums you pay are guaranteed for the lifetime of a policy. Although the premiums appear more expensive than a term policy, you don’t have to worry about the premiums increasing as it may if you have a term policy, the initial term expires, and you try to renew or purchase a new term policy. Whole life insurance covers you not only for death benefits, but also comes with an additional feature, which is known as a cash value accumulation component. Essentially, a part of the premium you pay goes toward the cash value accumulation portion.

As you read earlier, some health conditions can prevent you from qualifying for traditional life insurance. This is when a guaranteed acceptance policy can help.  What’s different about it?  These policies do not require a medical exam and there are no health questions asked.  Guaranteed acceptance life insurance (or Guaranteed Issue Life Insurance) was specifically designed for people with serious medical conditions that prevent them from qualifying for other types of coverage. It’s intended to provide your loved ones with money to help cover your end of life expenses and burial costs.

(You should however know, this type of insurance does not typically offer full and immediate coverage. Most policies have a waiting period or graded death benefit clause.  However you will need to compare plans as each one is different.)

Final expense insurance is a type of whole life insurance designed to cover medical bills and funeral expenses when you pass. A final expense policy is also known as burial or funeral insurance and is popular with seniors  because of its affordable price, smaller benefit amounts, and emphasis on covering funeral costs. Traditional life insurance policies such as term insurance are primarily intended to replace any income lost when a loved one dies. 

Term Life policies are most important to families during the earlier years when we’re working, paying a mortgage, making car payments, and raising our kids. 

Life insurance riders are like à la carte add-ons for a life insurance policy.  They can add a lot of bells and whistles to your coverage, but in many situations you need to determine if they are worth the additional cost. However, for a few dollars more, you can add more to your policy.

 1. Accelerated Death Benefit Rider or ADB Rider The most common life insurance rider is an accelerated death benefit or ADB rider. With an accelerated death benefit rider, if the insured is diagnosed with a terminal illness, like cancer, they can collect a portion of their policy’s death benefit while they are still alive.

2. Child Rider or Child Protection Rider

Many parents who buy life insurance policies on themselves purchase this.

If something were to happen to your child, a child rider would serve as a small life insurance policy for them in order to cover unforeseen medical bills or burial costs.

 3. Return of Premium Rider or ROP Rider A return of premium rider states that if you outlive the term of your life insurance policy, you’ll be refunded for all of the money you’ve paid.  This is beneficial because if you are healthy, a ROP rider can provide free life insurance.

4. Waiver of Premium Rider 

If you become disabled for more than 6 months, a waiver of premium rider will cover the monthly payments of your life insurance policy to make sure your coverage stays active. While this benefit can be invaluable, it is important to review the fine print before signing up.