Life Insurance

It’s not like thinking about South Carolina life insurance is a favorite topic for anyone but life insurance agents!  With so many types, and forms and versions and the language of the policies themselves don’t make it any easier to understand.  Life insurance is a plan under which large groups of individuals may equalize the burden of loss from death by distributing funds to the beneficiaries of those who die. Life insurance, for an individual, is a way an estate may be created immediately for one’s heirs and dependents.

Throughout the country, life insurance is big business!  There’s over $21 trillion dollars of life insurance in force within the United States. The total assets of more than nine hundred United States life insurance companies were close to $3.1 trillion dollars, making life insurance one of the largest institutions of savings in the United States.

The three major types of South Carolina life policies available are: term, whole life, and universal life. You may purchase either individual or combinations of these policies.

The majority of these contracts is term life insurance. It is a policy that  is designed to be issued for a set period. The protection under these policies expires at the end of a specified period and no cash value remains upon expiration of the contract.  When choosing a South Carolina life insurance policy, this is the simplest and often cheapest method of getting life insurance.

South Carolina whole life insurance contracts run for the entirety of the insured’s life with the gradual accumulation of a cash value. The cash value of the contract is paid to a policy holder when the contract reaches maturity or is surrendered.

Since 1979, a relatively new life insurance called universal life policies have become a major player in life insurance. With a South Carolina universal life insurance policy, the insured has the flexibility to decide the size of the premium and amount of benefits within the policy. The insurer charges the insured each month for general expenses and mortality costs, crediting the amount of interest earned on the policy to the insured. There are two types of universal life contracts: Type A and Type B. Type A policies have a set death benefit while Type B has a set amount plus any cash value that has accumulated within the policy.

Life insurance may be classified in accordance with type of customer: ordinary, group, industrial and credit.

The ordinary life insurance market includes customers of whole life products, term life policies, and universal contracts. The market is made up primarily of individual purchasers of annual based premium insurance. The group insurance market is mainly comprised of employers who set up group contracts with  covering their employees. The industrial insurance market is made up of individual contracts sold in small amounts. Premiums are collected on a weekly or monthly basis from the insured at their home.  Credit life insurance is normally sold on an individual basis, generally as part of an installment contract where the seller is protected for the balance of any unpaid debt if the insured dies before the completion of the installment payments.

Insurance may be issued with premium payment made where it remains the same throughout the premium paying period or has a periodic increase in premium relative to the age of the insured individual.

The majority of ordinary life policies are issued with a premium that is the same throughout the payment history of the policy. Higher payments in the earlier periods are offset in the later years where costs go up but the payment remaining the same.  The necessity of charging more than true cost is to make up for higher costs down the road.  This is based on mortality rates, which are what premiums are based on, increasing with age. An interesting point of life insurance policies is that the policyholder at his or her discretion may borrow against the cash value of the policy or totally recapture the value by allowing the contract to lapse.

When looking for South Carolina life insurance, know that an insurer is able to provide many different types of policies by combining term life insurance and whole life insurance. One example is the family income policy. There is a primary policy type which is generally whole life is then combined with term insurance and calculated in such a way that the amount of protection continues to decline during the duration of the policy.  The family income policy provides decreasing term insurance within the package in order to provide a specified income to the beneficiary over a period equivalent to the period of time when the dependent children are young.

Some South Carolina whole life insurance policies allow the policyholder to place a limit on the period during which the premiums are to be paid. Buyers are able to purchase policies that include: 20 life policies; 30 life contracts, and life policies paid to age sixty five. The insured initially pays a higher premium in order to compensate for the limited premium paid in the future. At the end of the stated paying period, the policy is declared to be paid up and  remains in effect until death or the policy is surrendered.

Which should you get?  Term life policies are adequate when the need for protection is for a specified period of time. Whole life policies make the most sense when the need for protection is permanent.

The universal life plan earns interest at a rate approximately equal to rates available on long term bonds and thus can be used as a convenient savings plan. In addition, the insured may adjust the death benefits as needs change. The policy offers the owner cost savings in the way of commission expense providing flexibility for the insured by eliminating any necessity of canceling one policy and purchasing another when the insured’s requirements change.

In conclusion, South Carolina life insurance contracts offer many options for each individual. After you have found some South Carolina life insurance quotes, make sure to talk to the companies about the specifics of their policies and what they do and do not cover.

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