Level Term PlansThe
5 year term policy
is a good plan with very low rates. The premiums are level throughout and so is the face amount. This plan is is front end loaded though. What the life insurance actuaries do is to calculate premium costs for each year over the 5 year period and charge you an average each year.
You have therefore paid too much for that year if you died in the first year. If you died in the fifth year you paid much too little for your insurance policy in that year. So you see that these premiums cannot be considered pure insurance premiums at all.
The premiums for all
level term policies
are calculated this way. The longer the
term insurance plan
the higher the premium because the average premium cost will be higher as the insured gets older. The annual premium for a 15 year term policy will be higher than that of a 10 year term policy. A 30 year term plan will cost more than a 20 year term plan.
These term insurance rates are all fair rates as the life insurance companies guarantee that your premiums will never increase during the term period and the face amounts of the policies will never decrease.
Permanent life insurance rates are calculated in a similar manner. As they are for longer periods the average cost is much higher. With these plans the life insurance companies try to compensate with
cash values
and
dividends.
Cash Values are guaranteed but dividends are not.