Universal Life
Permanent coverage that bends. If your income isn't the same every month or every year, this product gives you room to adjust the premium and the benefit to the stage of life you're in.
What universal life is
Universal life is permanent insurance with one key difference from whole life: it separates the protection part from the accumulation part. Within the limits of the contract, that lets you pay more in the good years and less in the tight ones, or raise and lower the benefit as your life changes.
That flexibility has a flip side: the policy needs tending. The insurance charges rise with age and come out of the accumulated value, so paying less than it needs for a long stretch can put the policy at risk. That's why I review it with you every year instead of leaving it on autopilot.
How it works, no fine print
We start from what your family would actually need, worked out with the DIME method, not from a round number.
I show you what happens to the policy if you pay the minimum, something in between, or the level that keeps it solid over the long run.
A health questionnaire and, depending on the benefit amount, a medical exam. The risk class and the approval are the company's call.
Each year we check the accumulated value and the charges, so we adjust before there's a problem rather than after.
- Self-employed professionals whose income varies year to year.
- Anyone who wants permanent coverage but needs room to adjust the premium.
- Anyone who expects how much coverage they need to change over time.
- Anyone willing to go over the policy with their representative every year.
- This is not a product to leave on autopilot. It needs a yearly review of the accumulated value and the charges.
- Paying only the minimum premium for long stretches can leave the policy at risk of lapsing in later life.
- The insurance charges rise with age and are taken out of the accumulated value.
- The values are not guaranteed the way they are in a whole life policy; they depend on performance and on each company's charges.
Let's talk about whether universal life is right for you
I walk you through your options openly, compare the insurance companies I work with, and tell you plainly if a different coverage suits you better. No obligation and no pressure — the decision is always yours.
About universal life, specifically
There's a minimum that keeps the policy in force and a maximum above which it loses certain tax advantages. Inside that range, you decide. The thing to understand is that the minimum isn't the recommended number, it's the floor: sitting on it for years usually ends badly.
Generally yes, but an increase usually calls for new underwriting and depends on your age and health at that moment. If you already expect to need more, it's worth building that in from the start.
No. The indexed version ties the growth of the value to stock market indexes, with a floor and a cap written into the contract. Traditional universal life credits interest at whatever rate the company declares. They are two different profiles of expectation and risk.