Convert term life insurance to whole life insurance

by Guest » Fri Jun 07, 2013 12:39 pm
Guest

Can I convert my term life insurance with Met to whole life? I’m a husband with two kids and have been working in a library now for 23 years. I’m in Florida.

Total Comments: 1

Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 10:15 pm Post Subject:

You'll have to read your contract to know for sure. Some provisions limit conversion to persons under age 50 or 55, some do not permit it after a certain number of years of owning the term policy.

Most likely, however, if eligible to convert, your option will not be to a whole life policy but to a universal life policy. There are some inherent hazards in that to be aware of, not the least of which is the annually increasing cost of insurance.

You are in your mid-40s or early 50s, and the cost of insurance begins to increase rapidly at this point in a person's life. If you are truly interested in a whole life policy, and you are insurable as a standard risk or better, you might just want to apply for a new whole life policy with any company you prefer.

Understand that a whole life policy will appear to be more expensive than a universal life policy of the same face amount of insurance, but the WL policy premium will not change over time. A "non-guaranteed" UL policy is likely to increase in cost in the future, and could end up being hugely more expensive than a WL policy. Many insurance companies are beginning to rethink the guarantees they have added to UL policies in the past 5-10 years and are likely to stop offering them soon.

Work with a local independent agent to get a better idea of what your options are.

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