The debate concerning which form of life insurance is the best form will likely never end. The truth of whether whole or term life insurance is better than the other is probably to be found in the middle. What may be good for some may be disadvantageous to others. We are not going to try to sway you fully to one side or the other with this article. The idea is to provide you with the pros and cons of whole life insurance over term life insurance.

One of the most advantageous aspects of whole life insurance is arguably its permanence. As long as you keep your premiums up to date your policy will never expire and you will always be insured.

Another one of the advantages of whole life insurance is that you will also build a cash value account with this kind of policy. A portion of each premium you pay will be put into this account and turned toward investments. All of the value of these investments is tax-deferred. Because you don’t have to pay any tax on the earnings until you withdraw them from the investment you can grow the account considerably faster than you’d otherwise be able to if you had to spend a good portion of the earnings in taxes. Once you earn interest on the money in the account, it is put into the balance and will allow you to earn even more interest. In this way, compounded interest works for you for once, rather than against you. The tax-deferment is even more lucrative when you consider how fast the compounded interest alone can magnify the balance.

The sole issue with a whole life policy is that the premiums will be higher than a term life insurance policy. If you cannot afford the premiums it will do you no good. This is a main argument against a whole life policy and many detractors will say that you’d be better served by using the savings between a term life premium and a whole life premium and putting it into savings yourself. The unfortunate fact is that even though a lot of people want a savings account, they don’t have the discipline to maintain one on their own. A whole life policy will ensure that you have a savings account and that you will always be covered by your policy.

The debate on whether whole life is better than term life and vice versa will be waged still, but at least you now know the disadvantages and advantages of whole life insurance so you can make the best choice for you and your family.