Is the premium for universal life insurance tax deductible esp. when there os cash value ?

Question

Is this a good investment strategy?

Answer 1

Insurance is NEVER a good investment strategy.  If you wanted a tax deduction, a qualified retirement account would have been a better idea.

The cash surrender value (they always forget the surrender part) you may never get depending on if you have an option a or option b UL policy.  Even then, it only goes to the beneficiary.  Depending on your age, cash it out, get a term policy, and invest the rest in something that will get you better returns.

Answer 2

No, life insurance premiums are not deductible.

Answer 3

Universal and Whole Life policies are basically legal scams that prey on people who don't understand compounding by marketing them as a way to build "cash value".  Life insurance is a tool to provide for your family if you die, not a way to save money.

If you invested your monthly premiums in a mutual fund instead, they would grow at 8-12% a year long-term, and return you FAR more money than a "cash value" policy.

To protect your family, you can buy Term Life insurance for about 10% of the cost of "Whole Life"

Do the math: let's say you bought Whole Life for $300/month for the next thirty years; assuming you don't die, you will pay in (30 x 12  x $300)= $108,000, and get back maybe $120,000 at the end.  Woohoo! You made money, right?

But if you paid $30/month for a Term Life policy instead (and invested the other $270 in a growth mutual fund instead of in premiums), at the end of 30 years if you didn't die, you'd get NOTHING from the insurance (oh well!), and have about $450,000 in the mutual fund.  And your family would still have the death benefit lump sum in the event the unthinkable did happen.

Whole and Universal Life insurance just pay terrific commissions to those who SELL them, that's what makes them popular!

Answer 4

Life insurance premiums are not tax deductible to individuals.  It is possible that they are deductible if the premiums are paid to insure key members of a business.

Answer 5

Premiums are not tax deductible.

Life insurance is NEVER a good "investment" product.  It's for people who are bad at math.

Run the numbers.  You'll ALWAYS do better on your own.  Life insurance - any kind - is a good tool to plan for DEATH.   Mutual funds, stocks, bonds, etc, are the tools to plan for LIFE, aka, investing.

Answer 6

To those that answered buy Term and Invest the rest are clueless.  Insurance is a vital part of planning.  First of all they use poor examples (ie $300/month for the whole life and $30 for the Term).  You should not buy Insurance for the Cash Value it is mainly a Death Benefit.  OH by the way it is also paid to the beneficiary TAX FREE.