Permanent Life Insurance has 3 main types: Whole, Universal, and Indexed Universal Life Insurance.
Whole Life Insurance provides you with the certainty of a guaranteed amount of death benefit and a guaranteed rate of return on your cash values. And you’ll have a level premium that is guaranteed to never increase for life. Another valuable benefit of a Whole Life policy is the opportunity to earn dividends. Dividends give you the opportunity to receive an enhanced death benefit and cash value growth.
Universal Life offers adjustable premiums that give you the option to make higher premium payments when you have extra cash on hand or lower ones when money is tight. Universal Life also allows you, after your initial payment, to pay premiums at any time, in virtually any amount, subject to certain minimums and maximums. You also can reduce or increase the death benefit more easily than under a traditional Whole Life policy.
Indexed Universal Life provides death benefit protection and the opportunity to build your cash value based on the increases of market indexes. Even if these indexes dip, you are still safe with a guaranteed minimum interest rate. Some key features include death benefit protection, greater growth potential than traditional universal life policies, guaranteed not to have a negative index crediting rate even in a down market, and flexibility on how you want to pay your policy premiums.