Individual life insurance can play an important role in your financial planning. It can help provide financial security for your loved ones and also provide estate planning and tax-deferred savings benefits.
Death benefits paid on individual life insurance policies are generally federal tax-free and can be used by your beneficiaries for any purpose. Life insurance can be used to create a legacy for your loved ones or important causes you want to support.
Basic Types of Individual Life Insurance
Individual life insurance falls into two basic categories of term or permanent policies.
Individual Term Life Insurance
This type of policy lasts for a certain number of years, typically 5 to 30. A term life insurance policy only pays death benefits if the person dies within the policy period. It is a means to ensure that funds for specific purposes, such as college tuition, debts owed, or the mortgage on your home, are covered in case you die during a finite time frame.
Permanent Life Insurance
As long as you stay current on your premiums, permanent life insurance provides coverage for your entire lifetime. This type of policy is often used for tax and estate planning purposes and for funding trusts for dependents with special needs. Most of these policies have a savings component that allows for the accumulation of cash value on a tax-deferred basis. Typically, the premium of a permanent life policy stays the same for the lifetime of the policy and does not increase as you age.
Individual Life Insurance Costs
The cost of individual life insurance varies from person to person and depends on the type of policy, the amount of coverage, and factors such as overall health and age. Our agent at The Ballard Agency in Hillsborough, North Carolina, can help you find the right life insurance policy to suit your needs.