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Term vs Whole for Over 50 Life Insurance Policies

By Marilyn Katz

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 09Mar2010 Word count: 521 Viewed: 199 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Who needs life insurance over age 50? Well, a lot of middle and senior aged people are shopping for a policy these days. Their old plan of being self insured by this time did not work out the way they thought it would.

When we purchase a policy at a younger age, we tend to think about supporting our kids and spouse. We may also be concerned about making sure our home mortgage is paid off if something happens to us. In theory, these problems will be resolved by the time we hit a certain age.

That age may have come and gone. But a lot of us find that we still owe money on our mortgage. Our plan to self insure with savings did not exactly go the way we planned either. Maybe we had a job loss or other financial setback. And our kids did not get educated and out of our pocket book on schedule either. Maybe they even have their own kids now, and they need our help to raise them.

That 20 year term policy we purchased at 30 may have expired. Or maybe we had a group life insurance plan through a job that we left. For whatever reason, many older people have decided that they did not outlive their need for coverage.

So what type of policy should we buy at our age? Should we choose term or whole life? When we were younger, we probably chose term. Premiums are lower, and we thought that we would not need as much coverage in a couple of decades. Besides, when we are young, two or three decades seems like it is very far off.

Now we have lived through those years, and just extending our coverage for another twenty years does not seem quite as attractive. We do like the idea of cheaper premiums though. This is an important thought because we are more expensive to cover because we are older.

One option to consider might be a term policy with a clause that it can be converted to whole life later. These policies can be converted when we are older without having to prove with are healthy. This buys some time. We can purchase term now, and then make a decision later about lifetime coverage. If you are fifty, and buy 20 year term, you can make the switch before your policy expires. That way you will have a better idea of what your retirement situation will be like so you can make a good choice.

But that should not always mean whole life is out of the picture. A permanent policy can be used as an asset later. It builds cash value over time. It may also be used in a life settlement transaction if you need money from your policy. It is true that whole life insurance costs more, but it also has some uses over pure term coverage.

What should you do? You need to figure out why you want to purchase coverage in the first place. When you know what your goals are, you are closer to being able to make a good decision.

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