The Biggest Lie About Whole Life Insurance

 

Text from a potential client:  I was reading that for many whole life policies you don’t get the cash value upon death, is that true?

Thankfully, this is 100% NOT TRUE!  But it is true that this lie is perpetuated around the internet as gospel and people hear or read this so often that they believe it to be true.  

So here’s quick explanation to put this lie to rest and this will help you understand how a Whole Life policy works.

Lets first understand a Whole Life policy operates on a contractual guaranteed basis to accomplish what you want to have happen.  I’ll come back to this.

Second, let’s have a thought exercise to help in learning.

Imagine if you will that you have a retirement goal to accumulate $1,000,000.  How would you do it?

Option #1: Invest

At one end of the spectrum, the riskiest way is to invest because investments entail risk of loss.  While we all no doubt would like to accumulate $1,000,000 using the fewest dollars possible, investing offers no straight line to the end goal.  Look at any valuation chart of your favorite index.  Returns will zig zag and ride the market roller coaster.  There are no guarantees of arriving at $1,000,000.  Past performance be damned (if we’re being honest).

Option #2: Save

At the other end of the spectrum is the least volatile way to create a straight line to $1,000,000 and that is to simply save. To keep things simple, assume no yield on savings and no inflation.  Just save and you will get there but it will require the full $1,000,000 saved on your part in order to equal the $1,000,000 target end goal.  While this is the least efficient way to accumulate $1m, it is also the only “guaranteed” method.

How long it takes to reach $1 million is up to your capacity ($100 a month, $1000 a month, $10,000 a month, etc.) and your discipline level as the saver but with enough time, money, and discipline the $1,000,000 savings goal will be achieved.

There's one problem with both options though.  One unknown variable with both the investing and savings option is mortality which is why I wrote “guaranteed” a couple paragraphs above.  You might die prematurely before you ever reach $1,000,000.  There’s no guarantee you’ll live long enough to save (or invest) enough to equal $1,000,000.

This is where Whole Life insurance comes in.  In order to make certain what you want to have happen, will happen, you require insurance on your life as a hedge.  Only a Whole Life can guarantee you reach your investing/savings goal, even if you’re not alive to realize it.  (The main problem with Term and Universal is that you likely will outlive both because of the fatal design flaw built into those policies... increasing future premiums.)

Whole Life accomplishes an inevitable outcome at the most basic level.  Think of it as a guaranteed savings vehicle with a death benefit attached.  As you pay premiums (save money), you get closer to your end goal. If you pass away before reaching the end goal, the insurance company is on the hook for the difference between the cash value and the death benefit, called Net Amount At Risk.  This is the insurance part of the policy.

Only with a Whole Life policy are you contractually guaranteed the premiums will equal the death benefit at your time of death, or if you live long enough, at the end of the contract (up to age 121).  In layman's terms, if you save the money, you'll reach your goal no matter what.  

Each year as you age you get closer to the cash value equaling the death benefit.  This is called Endowment.  Only a Whole Life policy is guaranteed to endow (cash value equaling the death benefit).  

Here’s the major takeaway:

What people don’t realize about how Whole Life policies work is that the cash value is the present value of the future death benefit.  Read that again please.  Let it sink in.

For proof, look at the death benefit in the final year of any Whole Life illustration.  At the bottom on the left side is the Guaranteed Ledger. Each year the Total Cash Value is increasing and getting closer to the guaranteed Total Death Benefit.  Scroll down to age 121. You'll find the Cash Value now equals the Death Benefit.  This is contractually guaranteed with Whole Life and every Whole Life policy operates the same way or it's not a Whole Life policy.  I've lost count of how many people have a Universal policy thinking it's Whole life...  (The Non-Guaranteed Ledger below on the right includes Dividends.  Dividends are icing on the cake, if you will.)

When you understand that the Whole Life premiums you are paying are creating cash value and that the increasing cash values  represents the present value of the death benefit, you’ll realize the insurance company can’t keep the cash value because the cash value is 100% entwined and part of the death benefit payout.  Actuarial science and contract law makes this a mathematical certainty that the premium paid into the policy will accumulate internally to equal the death benefit.

What you’ve accomplished with your deliciously boring Whole Life policy is to guarantee that you will save your way to $1,000,000 via premiums (some call it “forced savings”) and if you aren’t alive to reach the goal, your beneficiary will be recipient of the $1,000,000 tax-free death benefit.  It’s boring because you know with certainty this will happen.  No luck, skill, or guess work required.  And I'll add a Whole Life policy has been an extremely peaceful and stress-free way to organize my life.

In a nutshell, it’s a guaranteed savings vehicle with a death benefit attached.

Now repeat after me:  

The life insurance company can’t keep your cash value because the cash value is part of the death benefit.

The life insurance company can’t keep your cash value because the cash value is part of the death benefit.

The life insurance company can’t keep your cash value because the cash value is part of the death benefit.

The life insurance company can’t keep your cash value because the cash value is part of the death benefit.

The life insurance company can’t keep your cash value because the cash value is part of the death benefit.

The life insurance company can’t keep your cash value because the cash value is part of the death benefit.

The life insurance company can’t keep your cash value because the cash value is part of the death benefit.

The life insurance company can’t keep your cash value because the cash value is part of the death benefit.

The life insurance company can’t keep your cash value because the cash value is part of the death benefit.

Cheers,

John Montoya

Term, Universal and Whole Life Insurance: Price is What You Pay, Value is What You Get

Here’s a simple explanation of life insurance in order of product history with some anecdotes sprinkled in from my life experience.

 

 

 

1. Term is the oldest.  No cash value.  Death benefit has a level cost (premium) for a “term” period.  After the term period (common example: 10, 20, or 30 years), the premium increases annually at an ever-increasing cost.  Hypothetically, one could pay the rising annual premiums to age 95 or 100 (per the contract) but effectively no one ever does because premiums become too outrageous.  Benefit is the temporary cheap death benefit.

 

2. Whole Life was introduced after Term around 150 years ago because customers wanted a permanent death benefit.  Whole life covers the “whole” or entirety of one’s life up to age 121, if you live that long.  There is cash value.  Premiums are guaranteed level for the life of the contract.  Overage of premium is returned to the policy holder as a dividend.  Cash values guaranteed to increase because cash values must eventually equal the death benefit on the last day of the contract in year 121.  This is called endowment.  Only a Whole Life policy can guarantee endowment.  Benefits (short list): level premiums for life, guaranteed cash values which can be accessed while living for any reason, guaranteed death benefit for life.

 

3. Universal was introduced about 40 years ago.  It separates the cost of insurance from the interest component so that the cost of insurance adjusts once a year for the life of the contract.  This is known as Annual Renewable Term. Universal policies has the illusion of being cheaper than Whole Life because the cost of insurance at time of policy issue is very inexpensive.  But as the insured ages, the cost of insurance increases annually to better price the mortality risk (closer to dying).  What was once very cheap becomes extremely expensive by late 60’s getting exponentially more expensive into 70s, 80’s and beyond if there is still enough cash value to support the rising costs internally without the policy owner having to come out of pocket to offset the cost of rising premium.  Benefit:  cheap at first, “permanent” death benefit.

 

 

Universal is “Permanent” much like how a term policy could be considered permanent.  Technically, if a person were willing to pay the increasing cost of premium every year to age 95 (or the end of the contract), both a term and universal policy would be permanent, indeed.  

 

The reality is altogether different.  Because only a Whole Life policy locks in a guaranteed level premium, it is the only life insurance contract that is in effect permanent.

 

Hucksters (Dave Ramsey) and life insurance salesman with limited training will recommend Universal making the common mistake of thinking it is cheaper than the Whole Life but the reality is, like term insurance, being cheap is temporary.  Eventually, the price of the insurance policy will catch up to its true cost.

 

 

Having worked at Nordstrom in my college years selling expensive but high quality men’s dress shoes I learned a valuable lesson:  Price is what you pay, value is what you get.

 

I learned it was easy to buy the $80 dress shoes that would hold up for maybe 6 months but it was smarter to spend $220 on shoes that would last 4-5 years or longer. 

 

I approach life insurance the same way.  Term insurance certainly has a place.  For my money, I want a guaranteed convertible term policy so I always have the option to covert to a Whole Life policy.  But when purchasing permanent life insurance, I want the best value I can get.  That only applies with Whole Life because I know the guarantees with Whole Life make sure the premiums are locked in.  I’m transferring the risk of ever being unable to afford the policy as I age and I have cash values that won’t be cannabalized by rising mortality costs like with Universal policies.

 

 

I think of Whole Life as similar to a 30 year fixed mortgage.  When I’m shopping for a home, I’m going to choose the financing option that will provide a level payment until the home is paid for.  It’s common sense if you’re going to live in the home for a longer time.  Sort of like shopping for a life insurance plan and planning to be alive for as long as possible… I’d never choose a 1 year adjustable mortgage when buying my home.  In mortgage terms, that’s essentially a Universal Life policy.

 

We all know what happened in the Great Financial Crisis from 2007-09.  The movie The Big Short chronicles it extremely well.  A few individuals saw the writing on the wall with all gimmicky artificially low interest rates that were set to adjust much higher after the initial term expired and they bet against the housing market making millions, even billions, in the process.

 

Why do you think life insurance companies love to sell term and Universal policies?  They know they are going to be let off the hook of paying a death benefit because people will either outlive the term policy and won’t be able to keep up with the rising cost of insurance.  Like a home going into foreclosure where the bank repossesses all equity and the house, the life insurance company will keep all the premium (term) paid or in the case of Universal, surrender what’s left of the cash value.  The death benefit is temporary is both cases.

 

Takeaway: a death benefit can only be guaranteed if the policy owner can afford to pay the premiums or there is enough cash value and/or built up death benefit to pay up the remaining policy premiums to achieve endowment.  Only Whole Life makes this possible because the premium is calculated and guaranteed by the underwriters to cover a level cost of insurance for the life of the policy.  

 

Price is what you pay.  Value is what you get.

 

 

Additional note:

 

 

Since Universal policies subject the interest credited to either money market like rates (Universal), or mutual fund like securities (Variable Universal), or even ETF like funds with caps and participation rates (Indexed Universal), there does exist for the possibility for the excess premium (cash values) above the rising cost of insurance premium to accumulate and stay ahead of future mortality expenses.  However, as noted, because the rising cost of insurance is never locked in beyond a year at a time with Universal policies, the risk of the policy performing as one hopes for when making the purchase always resides with the policy owner, never the life insurance company.  The insurance company bears no risk for non-performance because the interest component is unbundled from the cost of insurance.  The risk of the universal life policy performing, because cash values aren’t guaranteed to increase to eventually equal the death benefit like with Whole Life, is left to uncertainty.

 

 

 Thank you,

John Montoya

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