Life Insurance
About Life Insurance

The Raging Debate

If you have ever looked into getting life insurance, you know first hand that there is a raging debate between whether a person should by term life insurance or permanent life insurance.  The truth is there is no one-size-fits-all insurance.  In one instance, it may make sense for an individual to purchase one type of insurance that may not be appropriate in another instance.  It truly depends on your stage of life and what you are trying to accomplish with your finances.  As such, Shepherd Insurance Sales™ does business in the fields of both term life insurance and whole life insurance.  For detailed information on the different types of life insurance, click here.


Life Insurance and Financial Planning

Many times you will find that life insurance is sold in conjunction with financial planning.  The reason for this stems back to the first life insurance policies.  In the beginning, life insurance was used as a systematic way that a person could build savings to be used in the case of the death of a loved one.  Essentially, the first life insurance policies were whole life policies.  A person would pay into their policy and allow the holder of the policy to use the money at his discretion, with the understanding that the owner of the policy would be given the money upon the death of the insured person. 

Later, life insurance evolved to the point that the holder of the policies (insurance companies) agreed to pay the policy owner an interest rate and a guaranteed death benefit, in exchange for the use of the money.  Because the policies earned an interest rate and built cash that was accessible, life insurance was much more than simply a death benefit.  It was actually a way of building wealth.  In a sense, the owner of the policy was actually creating his own bank that he could borrow money from.

As economies progressed and stock markets were born, people began to see larger interest rates in the stock market than in their life insurance policies.  Therefore, people began to invest in the stock market and not in their insurance policies.  Term life insurance was developed as a way for investors still have a death benefit while allowing them to invest their money in the stock market.  Thus, the "buy term and invest the difference" theory was born. 

Life insurance has always had ties to financial planning.  Whether it be through the systematic savings of whole life insurance, the buy term and invest the difference theory, or any of the other life insurance products that fit somewhere in between (universal life, variable universal life, etc.), a good financial plan has always been deeply rooted in life insurance.
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