There's more to life insurance these days than just your grandmother's old whole life policy. Here's a quick overview of the kinds of life insurance available. Yes Named for its ability to conform to your changing insurance needs, universal life has lost some popularity in recent years. The largest market share, according to the study, is held by traditional whole life, at 33 percent.
Universal life is designed to be flexible life insurance.
As long as you pay enough in premium to keep the insurance part of the policy in force, you can vary the frequency and amount of your premium payments and, as a result, vary your death benefit. For instance, you can decrease your coverage to coincide with your declining mortgage. If you want more insurance, you might need a medical exam, even if you had one when you originally bought the insurance. It depends on your age and the amount of coverage you're buying. You can also put excess money into your universal life policy.