Is Gerber Whole Life Insurance A Worthwhile Investment?

Question

My son is 6 months old, and since he's been born, we keep getting sales materials from Gerber regarding their Whole Life insurance plan. It sounds great, but I am clueless about this kind of stuff and don't know if it is truly a good and worthwhile option for our son. My husband and I would like to do something for his future, but we don't have a lot of money. Is the Gerber WHole Life Insurance a good plan, or is there anything else that is better and affordable for us?

Answer 1

As far as child's life insurance policies, other companies have better policies.

BEFORE you buy life insurance on your child, make sure you have enough and the right kind of insurance on yourself and your husband.  Go talk with an agent or a financial planner.

Answer 2

do not buy it ....whole life sucks....a terrible way to spend money. they steal your time use of money . find a higher rate of return for your money,I put $500.00 in my 8 yr old's mutual fund and in 50 yrs it will grow to about $100000 give or take, and that is with a 500 investment.   just get a child rider on your (hopefully) term policy but do not purchase any cash value c**p c**p c**p congrats on the new addition...they grow up very fast.

Answer 3

We don't have Gerber, but we do have Globe for all 3 of our kids.(It's less than $50/yr per child for $10,000 coverage)  So far, we've not had any trouble.  Thankfully, we've not had to use any of them, but it's not as if we have a salesman showing up at our door every six months or so trying to sell us an upgrade and such.  Also, we've never gotten a nasty surprise where we start out paying a "promo" price for six months and then WHAM!! Our premium payments suddenly double.  We've had two of our policies for at least ten years and the premium amount has NEVER increased.   My opinion on this; it's a good idea.  If you can't afford to have a bigger plan right now, even just a little is better than nothing.  Should anything happen to your child, at least the funeral costs should be mostly covered, if not all of them.  You prob wouldn't have anything left, but you wouldn't have the whole burden of the funeral costs to deal with on top of your loss.  We have a plan for us and our three children with Country Companies as well as through Globe.  We consider Globe as the policy that will pay for the funeral and our larger plan will be in-pocket.  You might want to look into companies that offer plans with larger payouts.  Our Country Companies(Country Mutual Life) has my husband and I and three children and it's less than $80/mo.  Whole life is a good idea as it does pay cash dividends and increases the cash value of your policy.  Also, should you ever get into a financial crunch, many insurance companies will let you borrow however much you have increased in dividends.  For example, if you had a $25k policy and it's increased to $27k over the last couple of years, you can borrow the $2k that it's increased.

Answer 4

Congrats on your new baby.  It's great that you are thinking about doing something financially for his future.  Buying Gerber's whole life plan on him would not be a bad thing, but there are far better things you could do.  As far as it being an investment, it will never perform well, compared to your other options.  A 529 plan for college savings is not a bad thing, but what if he doesn't want to go to college?  I would recommend starting an automatic investment plan in his name, that way, when he reaches the legal age of majority, he can decide whether he wants to use the funds to go to school, start a business, parlay it for retirement, etc.  Any registered investment advisor can help you, or open a sharebuilder.com account.  You can fund it with as little as $50 a month on an automatic basis, or you can put in small or large lump sums in at any time and forego the automatic investing.

Answer 5

Gerber is overpriced.  Check with your local insurance agents.  They have "juvenile" policies for much less that will perform better.  I do think every parent should have insurance on their children, even if it is just a child rider on their own policy.  Individual policies on children will guarantee that, no matter what may happen to them, they will be able to have some life insurance throughout their entire life.  I've had a policy on my son since he was very young.  He is now 24 and uninsurable due to health conditions.  I'm very glad I took out the juvenile policy on him before his health began to deteriorate.

Answer 6

First off, never think of life insurance as an investment; any life insurance is the worst investment around no matter what they say. Get the policy for the policy itself.

Many people don't consider any child needs life insurance. However, it's good to have a policy in case he becomes uninsurable in the future.

Gerber is actually expensive for what you get. You can possibly get a child rider on your life insurance for a much cheaper rate. Also, check with the guy that does your auto insurance. Many auto insurance companies also offer life. You'll find you'll get a better "bang for the buck".

If you really want to do something for his future a 529 college plan is a much better investment.