Introduction to Endowment Life Insurance Policies

Introduction to Endowment Life Insurance Policies
by Barry Waxler

Endowment Life Insurance Policies pay the full cash amount to your beneficiary should you happen to die unexpectedly. The good news is that they pay the full cash amount to you if you should happen to live.

The Endowment Life Insurance Policy was developed as a method of combining two different and important functions of sound personal financial management. The two functions are savings and risk management. Both functions are considered essential elements of a good financial plan, so it was rather natural to find a way to combine them.

The Endowment Life Insurance Policy works by requiring a rather larger than normal premium payment. This premium payment can be paid in many different ways including a single lump sum payment although it is normally paid much the same as a regular insurance premium. The premium payments are invested and during the duration of the policy continue to build cash value. The cash value continues to grow until a specified maturity date when the entire cash value is paid to the policy holder.

If the policy holder should happen to die during the life of the policy, the final value of the endowment, or the target value that would have been paid at maturity, is paid as a death benefit to the policy holder’s beneficiary. This makes Endowment Life Insurance Policies savings accounts that double as Life Insurance.

It is possible in certain Endowment Life Insurance Policies to exercise control over the investment choices. It is also possible to withdraw funds from the policy before the maturity date. Of course, the early withdrawals, called surrender values, may be much less than the true value of the policy should it be held to maturity. However, it is still possible to take the surrender value if economic necessity requires it. Another option is to sell the Endowment Policy to a third party.

There is a market for Endowment Life Insurance Policies. The market is made possible by the fact that surrender values are often so much less than the maturity values. The purchaser pays a bit more than the surrender value and assumes the premium payments and beneficiary rights of the policy. The purchaser’s investment will be recouped when the Endowment reaches maturity. Endowment Life Insurance Policies suffered a decline during the 1970’s and 1980’s as other forms of savings and investment became more popular and profitable. Today, the interest rates have made them attractive again and worth investigating as an Insurance option.