Life Insurance: Which Policy Is Right for You?

(ARA) - No one likes to think about needing life insurance, but the security and peace of mind it can provide makes it well worth the planning. It can be a daunting task to begin, but it’s an important step in taking care of your family’s future. Often, even when people realize their need for life insurance, they may struggle with deciding which kind of policy best fits their lifestyle and pocketbook or budget. It’s easy to just go with what, on the surface, seems to be the most affordable, but that can cause family members to come up short later on. While term policies will cover final expenses and living expenses like mortgage payments and education, other needs like the protection of accumulated assets and long term financial security may not be covered. Initially, permanent policies may come at a higher cost, but offer the broadest coverage for your family.

“By working with a licensed financial professional, consumers can identify the right mix of term and permanent insurance to help them address their immediate and future needs while being sensitive to their unique budget concerns,” says Jim Avery, president of Individual Life Insurance for Prudential Financial.

A balanced approach that blends term and permanent life insurance can cover both short and long-term needs in an affordable way. This blend of coverage can also be less expensive for consumers in the long run, because they are not buying all permanent coverage now, or buying a term policy now, for a temporary need, and then going through the process again at a later date for more comprehensive, long term coverage. Some permanent policies even allow the inclusion of a “layer” of term protection at a competitive rate.

This blended approach includes a portion of permanent insurance, which means insurability is locked in. That is, if a client’s health deteriorates, the coverage is still in place. This protects consumers from the possibly prohibitive cost of a new policy, or of being denied coverage at all. A balanced approach also offers consumers the possibility to converting part, or even all, of the term coverage to permanent coverage without an additional medical exam. And the permanent policy may offer the added benefit of accumulating cash value.

“Many people buy only term life insurance because they feel it’s all they can afford or because tomorrow’s needs seem too far away or too vague. As a result, they may put tomorrow’s critical needs on hold unnecessarily,” adds Avery.

Prudential Financial’s life insurance companies offer a variety of competitive life insurance options to assist consumers in achieving a balanced solution. For more information, or to find a financial professional in your area, log on to www.prudential.com.

Life insurance is issued by The Prudential Insurance Company of America, Newark, NJ and its affiliates.