Life insurance creates financial security for you to Protect Your Finances. It also protects your business and family when you are gone. Life insurance is broken down into two components. Term & permanent.
Term insurance provides protection for a fix period of time (5, 10, 20) years, after which it ‘renews’. Term generally expires at age 75 or 85, pending on the insurer. Some features of term insurance allow you to convert to a permanent plan, or different term plans within limitations.
Every insurance company is different in the conversion ability, as some companies impose significant restrictions or have limited permanent options available when you convert down the road. This is why it’s important to understand the features and benefits of your term plan, for today and down the road!
Permanent insurance is ‘permanent’ protection for people who look for a permanent need. Permanent insurance when properly structured, allows you to build a tax-advantage cash value within the insurance, provided it is within the government limits. If you need to, you can withdraw cash or borrow against its value. Withdrawals may be subject to tax, so it’s important to understand your specific situation your professionals before you make the decision to move forward.
Depending on how your plan is structured, you could have your death benefit grow within your permanent plan as well. When a beneficiary is named, in Canada life insurance is tax free. Using an analogy, Term insurance can be viewed as “renting” whereas permanent insurance can be viewed as “owning”.