Your spouse could easily outlive you, and by having a permanent insurance you can be sure that he or she will continue to have the lifestyle that you worked for your whole life, even if you are not there.

This means a great deal of support to the family. The truth is that the premium for a permanent life insurance is more expensive than for a term life insurance, but the advantage is that it remains the same, it is constant, even if your health status changes, while term premium can grow every time you renew it. In a permanent insurance policy the cash value is different from the face value (death benefit). You can use the savings of the policy for many things: you may borrow money from the company against it, but make sure you pay it back, otherwise your coverage might stop, or the death benefit can be reduced; you can give up the policy and take the accumulated cash value; you can use the cash value to pay premiums.

There are more types of permanent life insurance:

• Whole Life or Ordinary Life Insurance - It provides you the safety of a guaranteed amount of death benefit, so if you like predictability, this is the right one for you. What more, it has a level premium, so you can be sure that it will never increase. Another benefit of a whole life coverage is that you can earn dividends, which is a kind of bonus outside the death benefit and the cash value.


• Variable Life Insurance - This combines death benefit with savings account that you can invest in stocks or funds. The value of this policy can grow more quickly but there are also more risks. The whole thing depends on the performance of your investments. If your investments do not perform well, your death benefit and your cash value may decrease substantially. Fortunately, there are some policies that assure you that your death benefit will not fall below a minimum level. This type of insurance is for people who like to assume certain risks in order to achieve higher profits.
  
  
• Universal Life Insurance - It doesn't have fixed premiums like whole life or variable life insurance; instead it offers adjustable premiums that give you the possibility of paying higher premiums when you can afford it and lower payments when your money is tight. Universal life insurance allows you to pay the premiums whenever you like and the amount you want, as long as you stick to certain maximums and minimums. Compared to whole life, it is considered a lower cost insurance, it gives you life coverage for lower rates. Another advantage is that it helps you accumulate funds like retirement income, college expenses, while it also provides a death benefit.
  
  
• Variable Universal Life Insurance - It has many features that make it appropriate for people who want maximum flexibility from their insurance. Even if your insurance would need some changes or adjustments over time, variable universal insurance gives you the chance to decrease or increase the amount of your life coverage. Or you can make a payment to increase the cash value of the policy. In case of an emergency, if you can't make a payment, you can skip that certain amount of payment cover for the policy's expenses with the accumulated cash value. So, by purchasing this type of insurance, you get the advantages of variable and universal insurance policies.

Buying an insurance policy can give you a great peace of mind, assuring you that it will take care of your loved ones even in the event of your death. What you should decide first, is whether you need a term or permanent life insurance.

To determine the amount of insurance a person needs, there are two ways: the "human-life approach" and the "needs approach". The first one makes a scheme of the individual's income through his or her remaining working "life expectancy". The needs approach examines all repeated and unusual costs to determine the amount of insurance coverage needed.