Chicago Life Insurance Advisors: Protecting Your Future

This is the most affordable type of life insurance and it provides coverage for a specific period, or "term", such as 10, 20, or 30 years. It's ideal for covering temporary needs, like protecting your family during your working years, paying off a mortgage, or funding your children's education. If you die within the policy term, your beneficiaries receive the death benefit. However, if you outlive the term, the coverage expires. Simply put, term life insurance offers pure death benefit protection without any cash value accumulation.

This type of policy provides lifelong coverage, as long as premiums are paid. In addition to a death benefit, whole life insurance builds cash value over time on a tax-deferred basis. This cash value can be borrowed against or withdrawn which offers a potential source of funds if they’re needed in the future, such as supplementing retirement income or covering unexpected expenses. Premiums for whole life insurance are typically higher than term life insurance because of the cash value component and lifelong coverage.

Universal life insurance offers more flexibility than whole life insurance. It provides lifelong coverage with a cash value component, but you can adjust premiums and death benefits within certain limits. In other words, you can customize the policy to your changing needs and financial circumstances. The cash value component grows at a variable rate which is often tied to market performance.

This type of policy offers both a death benefit and a cash value component, similar to whole life insurance. However, variable life insurance provides the opportunity to invest the cash value in a range of investment options, such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. This allows for greater potential growth but also introduces investment risk. The death benefit and cash value can fluctuate based on the performance of the chosen investments.

This policy combines the flexibility of universal life insurance with the investment options of variable life insurance. With variable universal life insurance, you have control over both the premiums and the investment of the cash value. This option offers the greatest potential for growth but also carries the highest risk.

This policy covers two people and pays a death benefit only after the second insured person dies. It's often used in estate planning to help cover estate taxes or other expenses that arise after the second spouse passes.