ING Financial Services | Universal Life Insurance

Universal Life Insurance

Universal life insurance is a more permanent type of insurance offering for people looking for long term insurance coverage. Universal Life, also called UL, offers a great deal of flexibility over term insurance.

You can pay premiums at any time, in virtually any amount, subject to certain minimums and maximums. You can also pay premiums in advance and even skip payments in certain circumstances. Plus, UL can better meet your changing needs over time because you can increase or reduce the death benefit.

Many of today’s universal life policies also offer guaranteed lifetime protection to help you protect your loved ones against financial hardship if you die. As long as your premiums are paid, your policy will remain in force no matter how long you live. Some life insurance policies without this feature only pay a death benefit until a certain age, like age 100.

Universal life insurance also has a “savings” feature, called cash value. Each payment you make to the contract pays for your insurance coverage and then the excess is invested to build cash value that you can use in the future. The insurance company invests this cash value and credits interest to this account. Most UL contracts also offer a guaranteed minimum interest rate so you always know that your money will earn a minimum amount. The cash value in your account also grows income tax-deferred allowing it to accumulate faster.

If you need to access your cash value, you have a couple of options. You can “borrow” your own cash value by taking a policy loans. These loans are generally not taxed as long as your policy stays in force. You can even withdraw money from this cash value without taxes as long as the total amount of money you withdraw is not greater than the total premiums you have paid. Be aware that any loans and withdrawals may generate an income tax liability, reduce available cash value, reduce the death benefit or cause the policy to lapse.

Universal Life Offers:

Flexible premium payments
Guaranteed death benefit protection on some policies
Potential “savings” feature from which loans and/or withdrawals can be taken
Tax-advantaged cash value accumulation potential
Income tax-free death benefit

ING’s life insurance companies offer a broad spectrum of universal and survivorship universal life insurance policies that are designed to help you meet your financial goals, whether they are as simple as providing an income for your family to additional retirement income and even more complex needs like estate planning. Contact your financial professional for more information.

If the flexibility and cash values of UL intrigue you, but you’d rather be in control of where that money is invested, then variable universal life insurance may be for you.

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