Whole Life Insurance

Permanent life insurance can be referred to as a number of things, whole of life policy, cash value policy, life assurance. They all essentially mean the same thing. Historically, this was the only form of life insurance that was offered for a long time, but now companies have moved onto Term Life Insurance that does not have a cash value.

Whole of life insurance policies work as that the premiums that you pay over the term of the insurance, hold a cash value and if you were to surrender your insurance plan at any point of time, you would receive an amount of the premiums paid back. If you were to pass away whilst you had this whole of life policy, then the insurance company would pay out the amount insured like a normal life insurance policy.

The result is that permanent life policies are no longer offered in Australia and Term Life is the only option for cover. Term Life cover does not have a cash, or surrender value, i.e. the insurance cannot be cancelled for a cash payment. However the trade off is that the premiums are far lower than for permanent life contracts.

An option to consider as an alternative is level premium term life cover, this is where the premiums remain constant until you are age 65 (or 70 in some cases). Assuming you keep the cover amount the same this can provide you with a set insurance premium for many years to come. If you would like a quote on term life cover please go to the Comprehensive Quotes page.