Most Life Insurance Buyers Still Don't Get It. Permanent life insurance can be so valuable to most insurance buyers.

About 20 or 25 years ago most people started thinking about buying term insurance rather than permanent life insurance. The common beliefs were that you could get so much more insurance for your dollar so that was the way to go. Was it? I sincerely believe that term insurance is the best type of policy for many people but serious consideration should be given to permanent plans like universal life, variable universal life, variable life and whole life insurance. There also is nothing wrong with starting out with term insurance and at a later date converting to a permanent insurance plan...

The arguments of buying term have a lot of validity. You can get much more for you dollar. You can use the difference and invest it in stocks, bonds, money market funds, mutual funds or real estate. There is a lot of truth to these ideas. But ask yourself how viable is that suggestion? Will the money be invested? For those who put forth this argument was the extra money really invested over the last 20 or 25 years? The fact is the extra money, more often than not was not invested. In many a case these funds were wasted on trivialities that were considered important at that time but looking back the errors made became quite evident.

If you are a very disciplined person buying term and investing the difference can be a good idea for a while but as you get older you become more aware that you will always need some type of life insurance. Permanent life insurance becomes a necessity. In your later years you may not be able to qualify for it so it should be purchased as soon as possible...whether you are converting a term policy or you are buying it from the outset...

Bear in mind as you go forward with your life that your family has to be protected in the event of your premature death. Even though the estate tax law has been repealed the amount you pay decreases over the years until the year 2010. So if you died with a sizable estate you will likely have to pay some estate taxes. The least expensive way to fund the payment of these taxes is through a tax free, upon death, term or permanent life insurance policy.

If you are a business whether a sole proprietorship, a partnership or a corporation you will always have a need for life insurance. In the embryonic years of your business you may use a term policy but you should always plan to convert as you progress.

Each individual buyer of life insurance should, therefore, take the time to look at term life insurance as well as permanent insurance. If you can only handle term premiums at this time, great. You can start with that but plan to convert some time in the future.