Why Is A Flexible Premium Life Insurance Policy Better Than Fixed Premium Permanent Life Insurance? 
Its really not a question of what is better . Its a question of knowing how to use the flexibility built into the product . Universal life insurance can accommodate flexible premium payments . At the same time , it makes available premium guarantees . If you overuse the flexibility of the product , you can lose the guarantees . A certain payment commitment must be made to the company if you want them to guarantee the coverage for a specified amount of time . If you overfund , then underfund , then stop paying , then start paying again , odds are you wont get the guarantee you want for the time you want . But if you are smart about it , you can have your cake and eat it too . You can take advantage of the flexibility of the product to come up with a creative funding strategy . So the flexibility is really best utilized in the design stage . Then , when you come up with a payment schedule that is suitable , you make your payment commitment . You stick with the program . What kind of payment strategies could you employee with this product ? The options are many . You could fund the policy with a single premium . Make a payment in year one , and then not make any at all . But you still get a lifetime guarantee . You could go to 10-year pay , or a 20-year pay , or 30 years pay scenario . Pay the premium for that period only , but still get a lifetime guarantee . These strategies allow you to on the one hand , not pay for your life insurance for the rest of your life . At the same time , they still give you the lifetime guaranteed coverage you want . Of course , you need to consult with your broker and the company to calculate the correct amounts needed to limit your payments but also get the guarantee . Then again , you could just go the route of continuously paying a premium on a yearly basis . You would have to keep paying , but the premium here would be much cheaper than the first two scenarios . So what is your priority ? Would it be the lowest annual outlay , or paying the premium for the shortest duration ? The flexibility of universal life gives you additional interesting options . You could structure the coverage for a defined amount of years . It could be 10 years , 20 years , or 30 years . The premium and the death benefit could be guaranteed for that amount of time . After that , you lose the guarantee . Why would somebody do that ? Why wouldnt they just buy term insurance ? Well , in many cases underwriting concessions are made for permanent insurance that you dont get with term insurance . The price for universal life could actually be lower than term insurance . As a matter of fact , sometimes carriers will offer only universal life insurance and not term insurance . The flexibility of this product can really enable you to make your life insurance work to your best advantage . You just have to know how to use it . 