Whole life insurance policies have several benefits associated with it. The foremost advantage of the whole life insurance is that the death benefit is guaranteed. More over, the whole life insurance builds cash value, a portion of the premium payment you make goes to the cash value, which you can use for buying purposes, funding your child's education or any other financial use.
You know what premium you will have to pay throughout the life of the policy and you know that any expenses or mortality has no affect on the cash value. The whole life insurance policy requires only a single medical exam at the time of issuance and after that the premium stays the same and no further checkups are required. You also save on taxes with your whole life insurance. More benefits are discussed in detail.
Guarantees
The whole life insurance provides guarantees that during the life span of policy the cash value accumulated in it will increase without taking into account how the company performs in its investments. More over, the company also guarantees that the death benefit stays the same through out the policy life span and premiums stay the same. The
insurance company can not cancel the policy either.
Cash Value Accumulation
As discussed earlier the whole life policy builds cash value. You have the access to use it any time you need. You can use the cash value in two ways. Either by surrendering the policy and taking the cash value lump sum or you can borrow money against it like people do against the equity in their house while retaining their policy. When the cash is being accumulated as interest you don't pay any taxes on it too. The money you borrow against the cash value is also tax free.
Dividends
Whole life insurance policies provide you dividends as most of them are participating. When the company earns a dividend a portion of it is given to each owner. You can either take the dividend or use it or you can either buy more insurance.
Waiver of Premium Disability Rider
In this benefit of whole life insurance, if a person becomes disable and is unable to earn then after six months the company is liable to pay the premiums until the person either becomes healthy or they pay it through the life of the policy.
Accidental Death Benefit
This benefit can also be added to your insurance policy and it states that in case of an accident that involves your death, and then the insurance company pays your beneficiaries twice the amount of death benefit.
Which Whole Life Insurance Is better
Out of the types of whole life insurance discussed in the main article, the participating insurance policy can be much better then the universal or the interest sensitive whole life insurances. The reason is that the participating whole life insurance premium money from the insurance owners is invested in the stock market and real estate which has higher rate of return. The policy holders receive higher dividends as compared to the other types where the investment is made in bonds and money market.