You know that investing, risk, and liquidity are not your primary motivators for purchasing life insurance. The main reason is to protect your family with money for their living expenses if you die. The great thing about permanent life insurance is that it accomplishes this goal for your whole lifetime, and although investing is secondary, you also get the key benefit of an investment component. A permanent life insurance policy has a kind of "savings account" built right into the policy, so you have the ability to tap into or borrow against the cash value your policy has accumulated over time.

Permanent life insurance is better than term life because term insurance only covers you for a predetermined number of years. Although term life plans carry much lower premium payments, the policies build up no cash value over time. Permanent life plans are also great because the cash value that you accumulate over time is not taxed until you decide to withdraw it. You can even sidestep those taxes by taking out a loan against your policy. This is great for people who make a lot of money because they can shelter their earnings in a permanent life plan when they have maxed out all of their other investment options.

A final advantage is the one you will have as you get older. Because it lasts for life, a permanent life insurance policy could be great for the elderly, people whose estates have no liquidity. This is also great for small business owners who have all of their assets tied up in their business. This is because the death benefit of a permanent life insurance plan is oftentimes greater than what these kinds of people would be able to save on their own.

One of the primary disadvantages of permanent life insurance is that it provides more coverage than most people may need. In addition, if you have not maxed out your other investment options, then a permanent life plan might not be your best investment. The goal of permanent life insurance is to provide growth and protection for investors, but most should really seek out those characteristics in separate plans.

Additionally, because premiums for permanent life plans tend to be very high, you may be tempted to buy less of a death benefit than you really need. For example, a permanent life insurance policy for $1 million for a 40-year-old woman in great health may cost her as much as $13,900 a year. On the other hand, that same woman could land a $1 million term policy for 20 years for about $750. That's a massive price difference, so cost may essentially be the biggest disadvantage of permanent life insurance.

Finally, permanent health insurance plans may not be very transparent, so it may be difficult to figure out how much the policy is actually worth as an investment. Some financial experts point out that a good solution to this problem may be to buy a term policy and invest the rest of your money through other avenues. The first place to start is to ask for life insurance quotes and evaluate which option is right for you.

When permanent life insurance originated, companies only offered it in the form of whole life plans with fixed payments and non-flexible premiums. This guaranteed that consumers would have a pre-set cash value that would be guaranteed and a premium payment that would stay level over the years. It was inevitable that consumers would demand greater flexibility, and as a result, universal life insurance was created.