What are my options of getting out of a variable universal life ins. policy?

Question

I have a domestic partner, we are both in out 40s and we invested in this variable univ. life policy as a way to diversify and to provide life insurance for one another. We think we have made a mistake based on our research about var life ins policies as investment vehicles. What are our options of getting out of it?

Answer 1

No life insurance policy of any type should be considered as an investment. If the money grows well it is an added bonus but should never be the main objective.

You can cancel your policy at any time. You will receive the cash value minus any surrender charges. The surrender charges will eventually go away so if you've had the policy long enough there may not be any charges.

Answer 2

Hi Jane. First, never use the words life insurance and investment(ed) in the same sentence. A Life insurance policy is a terrible way to accumulate money. They pay a large portion of your early premiums out as commission to the agent who sold you the policy. Other amounts go towards acquistion and underwriting costs. By contrast for example, every dollar handed over to a no-load mutual fund company goes directly into your cash balance. As stated earlier, you can cancel any type of insurance policy (auto, home, life, disability, etc)  any time you want. There are surrender charges on life policies which makes it likely you will not recover much if anything from the policy. If the agent who sold you this pitched it as primarily an "investment", you might complain to the company and your state insurance department.  In this way, you might get back a full refund of all premiums paid.  They will investigate this through discussions with your agent. I made  refunds on numerous occasions if we found our sales person misrepresented the product.  Buy a term insurance policy for your insurance needs and put the rest into an investment vehicle (not sold by any insurance salesman).  I wish you well.  (If you need more information, feel free to email me).  Ken

Answer 3

Variable Life policies are horrible. They should really be outlawed. That being said, You can opt out of the policy and take whatever cash value there is. But knowing what I know, there's not going to be much left in it...if any. If there is cash value, take it and run. If not, go get a term life 10 or 20 year policy and start up a retirement plan such as a Roth IRA.