What is a Whole Life Insurance Policy? - Things to Understand

 For long-term protection, Whole Life Insurance in Toronto delivers definite coverage for the entirety of your life with premiums fixed from the date you get started. Whole life insurance characteristically offers a host of benefits not found on term life insurance. These can comprise a cash value that you can access at any time, to the ability to "pay up" to get lifetime coverage without lifetime cost.

Because of its responsive and supple nature, Whole Life Insurance in Ontario is an excellent consideration for those who have financial obligations that benefit from life insurance guard, but also want an option to profit from their policy during their own lifetimes.

What’s The Difference Amongst Whole and Permanent Life Insurance? 

Canadians have the choice amongst two comprehensive types of life insurance—term and permanent. Whole life insurance is a subset of enduring life insurance, meaning the coverage doesn’t expire, provided the premiums are paid.

Universal life insurance also falls under the class of permanent life insurance. The largest difference between Whole Life Insurance in Toronto and universal life insurance is that the death benefit and premiums can change with a universal life insurance policy. The latter also gives policyholders the capability to pick where the insurance company invests their money. 

Term versus Whole Life Insurance

Term life insurance runs for a set amount of time—says, 10 or 20 years—and the premium may change when you renew, since your danger of death increases as you age. Nevertheless, with whole life insurance, your premiums are locked in. 

This is a big benefit that Whole Life Insurance in Ontario has over term life insurance, for which the cost of your premiums is likely to change when you renew for another term. Another plus with whole life insurance is that you never have to re-qualify for coverage, so even if you develop a disorder, the cost of your premiums won’t surge. 

There’s another good thing about a whole life policy: it can generate a cash worth over time. This means you may opt to cash out your policy if you decide at some point that you no longer necessitate it. This is a marked modification with term life insurance, for which a policyholder receives no payout for a cancelled policy.

Whole life insurance policies may also proffer more widespread options for riders—additional benefits that can be added to a policy to address specific needs and concerns, characteristically for an additional premium. Certain whole life insurance riders, such as a child death benefit, may not be obtainable on a term policy. 

Special Considerations

The death benefit is characteristically a set amount of the policy contract. Some policies are eligible for dividend payments, and the policyholder may elect to have the dividends purchase additional death benefits, which will upsurge the amount paid at the time of death. Death proceeds are non-taxable to the beneficiary and are, consequently, not part of taxable gross income.

The death advantage can also be affected by certain policy provisions or events. For example, unpaid policy loans, comprising accrued interest, reduce the death benefit dollar for dollar. Alternatively, numerous insurers offer voluntary riders—for a fee—that secure or guarantee coverage, including the stated death benefit. For example, two of the most common are the accidental death benefit and waiver of premium riders, which protect the death advantage if the insured becomes disabled or critically or terminally ill and are incapable to remit premiums due.