Life insurance serves as a crucial safety net for many, promising financial security for loved ones in the unfortunate event of death. But its role as an investment tool is often disputed, with opinions often split into two factions: proponents arguing for its potential for returns and skeptics emphasizing the primary purpose of insurance.
Understanding the Primary Purpose of Life Insurance
As a starting point, it's essential to underline that life insurance is fundamentally designed to offer insurance coverage. Its purpose is to financially safeguard your family or dependents in your absence, rather than function as a traditional investment vehicle. A well-advised investor, backed by sound research and comprehensive advice, may seldom choose a permanent cash value life insurance policy for investment purposes.
The Appeal of Cash Value Policies
Nevertheless, the allure of cash value policies can't be entirely dismissed. Whole life, universal life, and indexed universal life policies occasionally offer competitive rates of return, especially when juxtaposed against other conservative alternatives like Treasury Bonds and blue-chip dividend stocks. Of course, the attractiveness of these rates depends on the individual policyholder's age and health conditions.
In some cases, substituting the traditional 'bond' portion of a portfolio with a cash value life policy could potentially yield higher returns. For instance, someone in less-than-optimal health might find a permanent life product to be a reliable way of securing a guaranteed rate of return and delivering a tax-free amount to heirs. Variable life policies that offer market exposure alongside a death benefit could be an appealing option in such scenarios.
Weighing Costs and Efficiency
Despite the potential upsides, life insurance as an investment strategy is often overshadowed by its cost implications and inefficiencies. The associated costs and fees, even when considering the advantages of tax-deferred growth and tax-free withdrawals, often render it less attractive than alternative investment options. It's generally a rare occurrence to identify scenarios where life insurance proves to be the superior investment choice.
The Exceptions to the Rule
Exceptions to this rule exist, albeit in limited scenarios. Consider a young, healthy business professional with a high income but limited options for tax-deferred investing. Alternatively, imagine a youthful business owner deciding between funding matching contributions and profit-sharing for employees versus investing in a variable life policy. In such scenarios, variable life policies may outshine taxable alternatives, providing a higher tax-equivalent income upon retirement.
Treating life insurance as an investment is a complex affair, filled with variables and exceptions. While its primary role is to serve as insurance, the right circumstances and policy choices could potentially offer investment benefits. However, these benefits often come with high costs and may not be as efficient as other available alternatives. As with any financial decision, a thorough understanding, professional advice, and a tailored approach are essential when considering life insurance as an investment.
Summary
As a rule of thumb, life insurance should not be considered an investment at all, since it’s primary purpose is to provide insurance coverage.
That said, some cash value policies have attractive features that can be appealing in certain circumstances.
We will say that a smart investor who has done research and gotten good advice will generally not end up with a permanent cash value life insurance policy.
There are conservative whole life, universal life, and indexed universal life options that may offer competitive rates of return when compared with other very conservative options, such as Treasury Bonds and blue-chip dividend stocks. This will depend, of course, on the age and health of the person acquiring the insurance.
Using a cash value life policy instead of conservative alternatives for the “bond” portion of a portfolio asset allocation could prove beneficial in some cases. It could be, of course, that for a relatively unhealthy person, a permanent life product may be a good way to get a guaranteed rate of return to transfer a tax-free amount to heirs, while the market might not offer such surety in a set amount of time. Then there are the variable life policies that invest in the market while also providing a death benefit.
Overall, life insurance is a costly way to invest in the market and there are much more efficient alternatives. Because of the other costs and fees associated with them, even with tax-deferred growth and tax-free withdrawals, it is a rare situation to find them to be the best option for investment.
There are such situations, however.
Take a healthy young businessman with a high income an few options for tax-deferred investing, for whatever reason; or a healthy young business owner with an option to fund matching contributions and profit-sharing for his employees or to fund a variable life policy.
When compared to taxable alternatives, or to the costs associated with funding retirement for employees as well, there are variable life policies that will provide the most tax-equivalent income to that person in retirement.
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