Term life insurance is a temporary life insurance policy lasting between 10 and 30 years, depending on the policy you choose. Your loved ones will get a death benefit if you pass away while the policy is still active. However, the moment your policy ends, your loved ones will not get a death benefit, and you won’t be reimbursed the premiums you paid (exception being a return-of-premium term life policy). If you’re in a situation where your policy is about to expire, there are a few options worth exploring.
Look For A New Term Life Policy
Do this at least six months before your current term life policy expires so that you don’t have a coverage gap. You can expect higher premiums for the next plan you enroll in because you’re automatically at a higher insurability risk because of being older.
If you decide to get a new policy, you can choose between types of term life policies like:
- Level term (same premiums, same death benefit)
- Return-of-premium (get reimbursed for premium payments if you outlive your policy)
- Decreasing term (same premium, but death benefit decreases over time)
- Annual renewable (renew each year until you decide to stop coverage)
- Convertible term (convert to a whole life policy)
Convert To A Whole Life Policy
With a convertible term policy, you can convert your policy into a permanent one. Whole life insurance never expires but costs more. However, whole life insurance features a savings component where part of your premiums goes into a cash-value account. It grows tax-free with interest. After it accumulates a certain amount, you can borrow against it and even pay your premiums with it.
Renew For Another Year
If you’re enrolled in an annual renewable term life policy, you can renew the term at the end of the year. You can essentially make it last as long as you want, but you need to consider the increasing premiums. Premium increases may not be significant enough initially, but as years pass, you may find that it is too expensive to continue holding. If you decide your annual renewable term policy is no longer worthwhile, you can opt for the next course of action, which is…
Let Your Policy Lapse
Do you no longer have dependents to provide for? Have premiums become too expensive? Is your mortgage paid off?
If you answered “yes,” you may decide to move on from term life insurance. Some investments don’t yield returns, and that’s okay. Priorities and needs change. Term life may have made better sense at the time when you first purchased it because then you were in an entirely different situation.
Let’s Work Together
At Game Changing Benefits, we will give you the guidance you need to help you get the life insurance plan you deserve. Call us today at 972-331-1060 for more information!