Which Life Insurance Should I Get?

Question

I'm 35 years old. Have two small children under 5 years old. Household income is around $200,000, and my mortgage is about $350,000.

Some tell me to get whole life, others tell me to get term. What's the difference?

Answer 1

Quick and easy answer:

If the need is less than 20 years today (IE: paying off the mortgage, paying for your kids education, income replacement for a few years, etc), buy term.

If the need is longer than 20 year from today (IE: Funeral expenses, final taxes, charitable donations/legacy fund if you're into that kind of stuff), buy whole life.

It's not uncommon for a person to have a small whole life policy to cover the perminent needs that won't go away whether you die at age 25 or 95 and buy term for the temporary needs.

Best bet is to get in touch with a local broker who can offer both whole and term insurance and they can better assess your whole situation and do a needs analysis for you.

Answer 2

Whole life is recommended in very few cases. If you do need a permanent policy look at the universal and variable life policies. Do not look to any life policy as an investment because it is a very poor one. Most people do fine with a term policy which will see their kids through college because after that they don't need the policy.

Answer 3

With young children and a mortgage and income that size you will probably want to get a very large 20 or 30 year term policy.  Term insurance is much cheaper since it doesn't have the investment buildup and lifetime commitment that whole life insurance has.  In your situation you need as much death benefit for your money as you can get and then you can throw any extra money at your mortgage, debt, retirement, and college for your kids.  You don't really appear to be in a financial position to be building up wealth in a whole life or universal life policy.  

Answer 4

term mean maturity of your insurance plan after fixed time of period whole life means continue till your life is in my view term life insurance is better

Answer 5

Term expires after a certain time (5, 10, 20 years). Their is a provision to change it to whole life, but it has to be done within a certain time frame. Whole life is a permanent plan (most go to age 100 and then pay out), but will probably cost more at your age. Also whole life insurance has a savings aspect to it. You accrue cash value which you can borrow against the policy.  

Answer 6

I ditto Zarnev except to add to look at a return of premium term policy.  If you want a permanent policy you should only do it for a portion of the coverage because it's unlikely you need the 'whole' amount forever.  That's what makes the return of premium term a nice policy because at the end of the 20 or 30 years instead of opting to get all of your cash back you can opt for roughly twice the amount of the cash in death benefit that you can keep forever.  Makes a nice planning tool and even that could be cancelled later and the remaining cash could be kept.

Feel free to use the tool on my site to get quotes for any of the policiies...to age 100, return of premium and straight terrm.  It requires no personal information other than a date of birth to use...

http://insurancepickle.com/life-insuranc...

Answer 7

how to find low cost life insurance?

look at it.

Answer 8

Term insurance.  Cash SURRENDER value policies are a waste of money.  So is Return of Premium.

Based on this information, I would suggest a 30 years (35 if you can safly afford it) term policy with at least a 15 year rider to cover college for the kids.  Another rider to cover the cost of the mortgage and debt for the remaining years of it and have the base (the 30 or 35 year part) be there to cover final expenses and income replacement.

Also a child rider for your kids.  You can get this all on one policy and save money on the policy fees each year.  Pay it annual if you can to save even more money.

That's just my 2 cents.