Life insurance can benefit your family in different ways. Not only does life insurance protect your family when you die, but it also can help build assets for future needs.

Term Life Insurance:
Offers protection for a specified period of time:
• The policyholder only pays for the protection against death
• The death benefit is only paid if the insured dies during the specified period
• Does not build cash value
• Can cost less than permanent insurance

Whole Life Insurance:
• You pay a guaranteed fixed premium for the life of the contract
• Premiums are invested in the insurance company’s general account
• Regardless of the general account’s performance, you’re guaranteed to receive the policy’s cash value and your beneficiary is guaranteed to receive a death benefit
• Used in funding buy-sell agreements

Universal Life Insurance:
• Premium payments are flexible
• Your cash value earns interest at a rate that is set periodically by the insurance company and is generally guaranteed not to drop below a certain level
• Choose one of two death benefits:
1. A level benefit equal to the policy’s original face amount
2. An increasing benefit equal to the original face amount plus any existing cash value
• Tax-free withdrawals or loans
• Used in funding buy-sell agreements

Disability Insurance:
Disability Insurance provides a monthly income if you are unable to work because of accident or illness. Insure against loss of income.

Annuities:

An annuity is an insurance product that provides long-term income through a stream of future payments. Annuities are a popular choice for investors who want to receive a steady income for their retirement. While investment annuities save money for retirement and beneficiaries, structured settlement annuities stem from personal-injury legal cases, wrongful-death claims or lottery payouts.

Here’s how an annuity works: you make an investment in the annuity, and it then makes payments to you on a future date or series of dates. The income you receive from an annuity can be paid out monthly, quarterly, annually or even in a lump sum payment.

The amounts of your payments are determined by a variety of factors, including the length of your payment period.

You can opt to receive payments for the rest of your life, or for a set number of years. How much you receive depends on whether you opt for a guaranteed payout (fixed annuity) or a payout stream determined by the performance of your annuity’s underlying investments (variable annuity) with a greater potential payout with the added risk of reduced payments.