As insurance consumers become more knowledgeable about the different product options, they also become more cognizant of the multiple choices of Life Insurance Plans to choose from. Due to the complexity of selecting the write plan, FireLife has an Certified Financial Planner (CFP) review all Life Insurance request to ensure proper selection based off of our client’s needs.

FireLife has over fifteen years experience in the Life Insurance business, and we our proud of our reputation for finding the best plan for each client’s budget. We do not represent a “select few” carriers like many of our competitors. Instead, we analyze the entire marketplace for each client. This unprejudiced approach strengthens our role as advisor and upholds our fiduciary duty as consultant and broker.

Term Insurance Plan

Term insurance is like leasing a car. You purchase death benefits for a specified period --usually 5, 10 or 20 years. When the period is over, it's like turning in the leased car. The deal is done and you walk away. Term insurance pays a specific lump sum to your designated beneficiary if you should die during the term of the policy. The policy protects your family by providing money they can invest to replace your salary, and to cover immediate expenses incurred by your death. Term life insurance is best for young, growing families, whose financial needs are especially high but who often have limited resources to cover those needs.

Term Insurance Quote

Please fill out the Term Life Insurance Quote form

Permanent, or "Cash Value," Life Insurance is like buying the car you plan to drive forever. As long as you pay the premiums, permanent insurance stays in force as long as you live. It provides protection for your dependents by paying a death benefit to your designated beneficiary upon your death. In addition, a portion of your premiums are deposited into a tax-deferred cash value account that you can use while you are alive. There are four basic permanent policies, they are: Whole Life, Universal Life, Variable Life, and Variable-Universal Life.

Whole Life Policies

Whole Life Insurance is permanent life insurance protection for your entire life, usually to age 100. A Whole Life policy is contractually guaranteed not to lapse, provided that you pay sufficient premiums each year to keep the policy in force. Besides permanent lifetime insurance protection, Whole Life Insurance features a savings element that allows you to build cash value on a tax-deferred basis. A portion of the premiums you pay build up the savings element of the policy and are invested by the company. The interest rate return on your investment is added to the savings portion of the policy. This is how the policy builds cash value. In addition to crediting your policy with interest, "participating" policies issued by mutual insurance companies may also give you the opportunity to earn dividends. Dividends are a NON-guaranteed return of part of the premium intended to reflect a company’s favorable operating experience.

Advantage:

Whole Life Insurance has a savings element (cash value) which grows tax-deferred. If the contract is set up properly in advance, you might build up enough cash value to stop paying premiums by a certain age, or to borrow from the cash value (take a policy loan) during your lifetime on a tax-advantaged basis. Unlike Term Life Insurance, whose premiums eventually rise after the initial guarantee period, Whole Life Insurance premiums will not increase during your lifetime (as long as you pay the planned amount and repay any policy loans).

Disadvantage:

You are not allowed to choose separate investment accounts, i.e., money market, stock or bond funds; the insurance company controls how and where your premium dollars are invested. Whole Life Insurance offers no premium flexibility or face amount flexibility; the plan you buy today remains fixed for life. It is therefore important to plan carefully, because Whole Life Insurance is not very good at adapting to insurance and/or retirement plans that change significantly.

Whole Life Insurance Quote

Please fill out the Whole Life Insurance Quote form.

Universal Life Policy

Universal Life (UL), also called "Flexible Premium Adjustable Life Insurance," entered the life insurance market in the early 1980s as a more flexible version of Whole Life Insurance. Like Whole Life, UL features a savings element that grows on a tax-deferred basis. A portion of your premiums are invested by the insurance company in bonds, mortgages and money market funds. The return on the investments is credited to your policy tax-deferred. A guaranteed minimum interest rate applied to the policy (usually around 4%) means that, no matter how the investments perform, the insurance company guarantees a certain minimum return on your money. If the insurance company does well with its investments, the interest rate return on the accumulated cash value will increase. Universal Life allows you to choose from two death benefit options. Option A pays the death benefit out of the policy's cash value; the more cash value you build up means the company is on the hook for less insurance (and therefore costs less). Option B pays the face amount stated in the contract, plus any cash values you accumulated over the years (costs more). Many UL policies today offer a no-lapse guarantee: as long as you pay the minimum designated premium, the policy will stay in force to age 100 (or even to age 120). However, paying the minimum guaranteed premium is rarely sufficient to build up significant cash values.

Advantage:

Universal Life gives you the flexibility to adjust the death benefit as your needs change, as well as the flexibility to pay smaller or larger premiums - depending on your financial circumstances. This is often an important feature for families who may have fluctuations in their ability to pay.

Disadvantage:

If your premium payments are too small for too long, the policy could lapse, leaving you without insurance protection. Also, if the insurance company does poorly with its investments, the interest return on the cash portion of the policy will decrease (but never below the minimum interest rate guaranteed in the contract). In this case, cash values will probably fall, forcing you to pay more premium in the later years.

Universal Life Insurance Quote

Please fill out the Universal Life Insurance Quote form.

Variable Life Policy

Variable Life Insurance - also called Variable Appreciable Life Insurance - provides permanent protection to your beneficiary upon your death. This type of life insurance is "variable" because it allows you to allocate a portion of your premium dollars to a separate account comprised of various investment funds within the insurance company's portfolio, such as an equity fund, a money market fund, a bond fund, or some combination thereof. Hence, the value of the death benefit and the cash value may fluctuate up or down, depending on the performance of the investment portion of the policy. Although most variable life insurance policies guarantee that the death benefit will not fall below a specified minimum, a minimum cash value is seldom guaranteed. Variable is a form of whole life insurance and because of investment risks it is also considered a securities contract and is regulated as securities under the Federal Securities Laws and must be sold with a prospectus.

Advantage:

Allows you to participate in various types of investment options while not being taxed on your earnings (until you surrender the policy). You can apply interest earned on these investments toward the premiums, potentially lowering the amount you pay.

Disadvantage:

You assume the investment risks. When the investment funds perform poorly, less money is available to pay the premiums, meaning that you may have to pay more than you can afford to keep the policy in force. Poor fund performance also means that the cash and/or death benefit may decline, though never below a defined level. Also, you cannot withdraw from the cash value during your lifetime.

Variable-Universal Life policy

If you like to sit in the driver's seat, this is the type of policy for you. Variable Universal Life Insurance blends the features found in Variable Life and Universal Life, offering a choice of underlying investment accounts, flexible premiums and adjustable death benefit. The amount of the death benefit may rise or fall, depending on the success of the underlying investments you choose. Because the stock market has traditionally performed well over long periods, VUL offers the opportunity to build up significant cash value. But stock markets fluctuate in the short term; if you die when values are down, VUL policies guarantee that a minimum death benefit will still be paid to your beneficiaries. VUL gives you more control of the cash value portion of your policy than any other insurance type. This means that the policy-owner assumes all the risks inherent in the underlying securities investments. VUL products are therefore regulated by Federal securities laws and the SEC, and must be sold with a prospectus.

Advantages:

Variable-Universal Life offers premium and death benefit flexibility, as well as the potential to increase cash value based on the performance of your choice of underlying funds. Because VUL is tied to the performance of various securities markets, it may provide an important hedge against inflation. This can help keep the value of your life insurance policy from eroding due to rising costs of living. VUL allows you to withdraw money or to borrow from the policy during your lifetime.

Disadvantages:

VUL is more expensive than other types of Permanent Life Insurance. Premiums must be high enough to cover the cost of insurance, mortality and expense charges, and expenses associated with the underlying funds. You must have at least a basic understanding of stocks, bonds and securities. You must read and understand the prospectus before investing. If you buy a VUL policy, you will be responsible for managing the underlying investment accounts. The policy's success is dependent on the investments you make, and may lose value.

Variable Life Quote

Please fill out the Variable Life Quote form.