Basic Life Insurance

Basic life insurance is a very simple type of insurance policy that will run for a pre-determined period of time and will pay out a pre-determined figure should the life assured/s on the policy die. It is relatively inexpensive and is much needed protection for you and your family. These types of life insurance policies can also be taken out solely as security on a mortgage or debt too. Basic life insurance is most commonly term life insurance and there are various types of life insurance policy under this heading, please see our Types of Term Life Insurance Policies page for further details.

For example Mr and Mrs Smith take out a 20 year life assurance policy which will pay out $50,000 on the death of either of the lives assured to the survivor. The policy will have an agreed commencement date of 1 July 2010 and the policy will expire on 31 July 2030. In this scenario the policy is against the life of Mr and Mrs Smith, they are both the policy owners/holders and the lives assured.

A monthly, quarterly or annual premium is paid throughout the term in order to keep the policy in force and valid.

It may be that the policy length or term as it is better known is only available in increments of 5 years with some insurers and the term limit is quite often 30 years.

How long you take the policy out for is completely up to you, for instance a younger couple with a new mortgage and who are yet to have children may take out a longer policy so that the mortgage is covered and should they later decide to have children they are covered for many years of the child's life while they are depended upon.

The amount of cover taken out is also up to you but the insurer can ask for this to be justified. Things needed to be taken into consideration are for example the outstanding value of your mortgage or the living costs of your family.

Variations could be that Mr and Mrs Smith both take out a life assurance policy but the life assured is only Mr Smith, or they take out two with one of them being a life assured on each. These policies will only pay out on the death of the life assured on that policy to the surviving policy holder. Mr Smith could also take a policy out and be the policy holder with Mrs Smith as the life assured and visa versa. The policy holder is always the owner of the policy and the benefactor, the lives assured are simply the people who's live the insurance is taken out against. It can however be possible for the policy to pay out to named beneficiaries, these must be proven to be dependent upon the lives assured.

Life insurance types - Permanent Life Insurance

Permanent life insurance is the umbrella term used for types of life insurance that do no expire. They combine a death benefit with a savings portion and are deemed as profit policies. The savings element builds to provide the policy with a case value against which the policy holder can borrow money or take an income in way of regular withdrawals. A withdrawal will be made to cover a future financial implication such as paying off a loan or paying college fees for a child.
br> There are two main types of permanent life insurance which are universal life insurance and whole of life insurance. Below we will talk more about both of these.

In order to borrow against the savings element of a permanent life insurance policy, there is usually some sort of waiting period after the purchase of the policy in order for a cash value to accumulate. Furthermore, if the amount of the unpaid interest on the loan plus the outstanding loan balance exceeds the amount of the policy's cash value, the policy and all coverage will automatically terminate.

Permanent life insurance policies enjoy favourable tax treatment. The growth of cash value is generally on a tax-deferred basis, meaning that you pay no taxes on any earnings in the policy so long as the policy remains in force. Provided you follow guidelines to certain premium limits, money can be taken out of the policy without being subject to taxes since policy loans generally are not considered as taxable income. In addition to this any withdrawals up to the amount of premiums paid can be taken without being taxed.