A Life Assurance Policy That Also Provides An Investment Opportunity-Its Pros And Cons

The sale of life assurance policies may have increased manifold, but it is a fact that very few people buy it for the purpose of insurance. Most buy it with the intension of building their assets under expert guidance and that too under easy terms. Of course, there is no harm in it; but before you do that, you should know about its pros and cons. Let us go into that.

What is a life insurance policy? Let us first understand this. Technically a life insurance policy is a life assurance policy. It can be defined from two different perspectives:
According to legal perspective, a life insurance policy is a contact between the policyholder and the insurer; whereby, the policyholder is required to pay certain sum as premium at regular interval and in return, the insurer is required to pay certain sum as benefit on the occurrence of the insured event.
From the financial perspective, life assurance is an intimidation, which brings together individuals exposed to some specific contingency to form a common pool of fund; if that contingency does occur, claims are paid from that fund for its mitigation.

It is a fact that very few people actually benefit from the claim event because it doesnt take place quite that often. Since the pure life insurance policies rarely pay, people prefer the cash value policies, which along with providing the usual life insurance benefit also build up assets for you. They pay benefit if the insured event takes place and if you outgrow the need of insurance, you can cash out the policy and get the accumulated cash value plus interest in return.

However, because only the money above the cost of insurance can be utilized for growing the cash value, these policies are always overpriced. If you have any reservation, avail instant life insurance quotes from online brokers and compare them side by side. A glance through them will corroborate the fact without a doubt. Indeed, if you want the coverage at an affordable rate, you should always opt for a pure life insurance policy such as a term life. If you want, you can build up your asset by investing separately in suitable investment funds.

The term life policies are most reasonably priced. It is mainly because of two important reasons. Firstly, they consider only the cost of insurance; funds need not be diverted to grow any investment opportunity. Secondly, because the policy is sold for specified term, in more than 99% cases, it expires without having to make any pay out. It is a fact that, this policy gives us peace of mind, not in the actual claim event; such events rarely take place.

Since a term life policy is affordably priced, the cost of insurance needs to be established more accurately than in many other life policies. Consequently, these policies have a long underwriting process. The underwriting process is not short in whole or universal life either. If you want instant life insurance coverage, may be the life insurance no exam policy is the only option. These too are mostly term life policies, but they have been designed for speedy and simplified purchase.

Let us go back to our original discussion, i.e. the pros and cons of buying a cash value policy. The pros have already been discussed. Whether you live or die, the policy will compulsorily provide some return. In case you die while the policy is in force, your beneficiary will receive the death benefit and if you outlive the need for insurance, you can cash out the policy and use the proceeds as is necessary. One of its main disadvantages is that the policy is sometimes much too expensive. Comparing different categories of life insurance quote substantiates the facts.

However, that is only the visible side of the story. If you go deeper, you will see that the amount above the cost of insurance is deposited in a separate fund to grow the cash value of the policy. Yet, if the insured dies while the policy is still valid, the carriers retain this amount and release only the death benefit. Alternately, when you cash out the policy, the carriers are going to retain the amount deposited in the insurance account. Therefore, why should you waste your money on insurance that you do not need? If you are buying the policy only for capital building, go straight for investment funds; for insurance buy term life. That is much smarter.

Article by David Livingston of EQuote, who is a specialist in everything life insurance. For more information on quotes life insurance and low cost life insurance, visit his site today.