Whole life insurance is the most common type of permanent insurance. The policy provides a guaranteed death benefit along with guaranteed cash values. Part of each premium payment is applied to the policy's cash value account, which grows on a tax-deferred basis.

In some cases, whole life policies may also be entitled to policy dividends, declared from the insurer's surplus, and an excess-interest whole life policy may earn an additional amount of interest after a specified period of time. Policy dividends and excess interest payments are NOT guaranteed.  Whole life insurance is virtually never a good investment.

In general, whole life insurance policies are several times more expensive than term life insurance policies.  For most people whole life does not make much sense.  Only people with specific needs such as (but not limited to), tax planning, business considerations or pension income maximization ought to consider whole life insurance. 

In our experience, about 80% of the population should be using term life insurance, with most of the rest using universal life insurance policies with guaranteed premiums and death benefits (see article).  Only a few percent of people are legitimate candiates for whole life.  For those who are candidates, whole life can be a tremendous tool for sheltering and transfering wealth.  Contact us and we can guide you to the best whole life policies available, as the policies are complicated and vary in quality greatly.