Have You Considered Single Premium Life?

by Brad Kline on February 23, 2010

Would you like to be able to take a lump sum of money, and then turn it into a larger sum of money so you could pass it on to the next generation? If you have spoken to a financial advisor or insurance agent, they may have mentioned SPLI (Single Premium Life). This product can work well for some people.

Single premium whole life insurance is not much different than the regular policies you are used to. But instead of making multiple payments every month, quarterly, or annually, you simply fund it with one large upfront payment.

This sound simple, but it does make this product a little different than other types of coverage you may have purchased before. It is whole life insurance and that one payment can guarantee lifetime coverage. In addition, the amount of the face value you can buy will usually be much larger than the actual cash you put into it. So this may be a great option if you want to turn a smaller lump sum of money into a much larger inheritance.

Let us say that a retired school teacher is comfortable with her pension and savings. In this example, she just inherited $22,000 from an uncle, and is certain that she will not need to use this money to enjoy her life. She may be able to take this amount of money and buy a $100,000 SPLI policy so she can have a very nice estate to pass on to her son.

The paragraph above is only meant to illustrate how this works. The amount of cash you would have, and the death benefit you could buy, depend upon different things. As with any other life insurance, your premium and coverage amount will depend upon age, health, etc.

What types of people are happy with a product like SPLI? Well, it seems to work out very well for those with a few thousand dollars that they do not expect to need in the near future. And of course, it is an option for those who would like to take that money and turn it into more money for their estate.

If you do have to cash out your policy early, you could lose some of the value to surrender charges and fees. There is usually some sort of term for these, and policies are different.

Another advantage to the owner is a SPL policy’s ability to grow a cash value quickly. If you can leave the money alone for the few years you will need to get past surrender charges, you can have a nice place to borrow money from. You can also cash the policy in. The cash value should grow quickly since the insurance is already funded by the initial payment!

Many policies also have accelerated death benefit provisions. If the insured person is terminally ill, some of the death benefit can be used to provide care while that person is alive. Some also have nursing home provisions, so this can be a good way of planning for that possible need without another long term care insurance policy.

There could be some disadvantages to single premium life insurance. Remember that early cash outs can incur surrender fees. You lose some of the tax advantages of regular life policies too. And of course, you do need to have a lump sum of cash to fund it.

Would you like to learn more? ? Look here to get Single Premium Whole Life Explained.