What if you were to die before your mortgage was paid off?  Would your family be able to keep up with the remaining mortgage payments?

Life insurance can provide your family with the funds to pay off their debts, as well as replace a portion of your income. While many employers offer some level of life insurance coverage to their employees, this amount of coverage may not be enough to provide financial security to your family.  Not only that, but if you were to loose your job or move to a new job, most likely you can not take the life insurance with you. 

Life insurance is an essential part of the financial planning process. This is especially true if dependents rely on you financially. The main reason people buy life insurance is to replace the income that would be lost with the death of a wage earner. The life insurance proceeds can also help ensure that your dependents are not burdened with significant debt upon an insured person's death. These proceeds could mean your dependents will not have to sell  their  assets to

pay outstanding bills or taxes. An important feature of life insurance is that death benefits are not subject to federal income taxes.

                          Types of Life Insurance 

Level Term Insurance

Level term insurance offers term life insurance with premiums that remain level for a certain number of years. Commonly, level term is offered with guaranteed level premiums of 5, 10, 15, 20 & 30 years:

Level term policies are usually renewable after the initial term (5, 10, 15, 20  or 30 years). This means you can renew the coverage at the end of the term if you are willing to pay more premiums. Keep in mind that at the end of your initial term the premiums will mostly likely be based on the age you are now and not when you took it out. Some level term policies are not automatically renewable at the end of their term. These policies should generally be avoided.

Unless it is vastly more expensive, consider purchasing a level term policy with a conversion option. This option will allow you to convert to cash value life insurance without evidence of insurability (no medical exam or questions need be completed). This option becomes very important if you decide to keep your life insurance beyond the initial term of the policy, and your health has deteriorated. But also keep in mind that it will be based on the age you are at the time of the conversion.

You can also add a few riders to this type of policy as well like "Waiver or Premium",  "Return of Premium" and "Accident Death".  Ask us about these valuable coverages.

Universal Life

Universal life is a combination of a term life insurance policy and a savings account that is earning interest. Every month, the insurance company adds any premiums that you pay to your existing account's balance, and credits interest on that money. That same month the company subtracts expenses and the cost of insurance (COI). The COI is very similar to Yearly Renewable Term premiums. Universal life premiums are very flexible and can be changed frequently at the insured person's election.