Syndicated Financial Columnist, Host of the weekly talk show Steve Savant's Money, the Name of the Game, Scottsdale Arizona
Video Transcript: What is permanent life insurance? Permanent life insurance could be universal life, it could be whole life, it could be variable life. Any of those 3 are permanent forms. Depending upon how far out you want to go in the maturity date, some of these contracts go to age 100, some even farther out. Even some guarantee permanent contracts, you can make it small enough in the timeline to actually terminate at age 85.
You want to make sure that if you're using permanent insurance, you're telling me that you have permanent financial indebtedness or future obligations that are not going to go away. That's why we're not looking at term, you're looking at permanent forms of insurance to cover indebtedness, future obligation, charitable intent, and to replace a person's income when they die.
Permanent Life Insurance is either Whole Life or Universal Life. There are variations of those, including Indexed and Variable policies. The label "permanent" does not necessarily mean the policy will never end. It means that if you buy Whole or Universal life insurance, you have the option to set them up policies so that they can last forever (until death at any age).
The opposite of Permanent life insurance is Term life insurance. This is coverage that is set up for temporary coverage. It may have the option to be converted to Permanent insurance with no medical underwriting.
You want to make sure that if you're using permanent insurance, you're telling me that you have permanent financial indebtedness or future obligations that are not going to go away. That's why we're not looking at term, you're looking at permanent forms of insurance to cover indebtedness, future obligation, charitable intent, and to replace a person's income when they die.
The opposite of Permanent life insurance is Term life insurance. This is coverage that is set up for temporary coverage. It may have the option to be converted to Permanent insurance with no medical underwriting.