3 Hidden Benefits of Permanent Life Insurance

December 6, 2016 10:16 am Published by

It’s a quiet, snowy night in December. The lights of the new tree are reflected in your husband’s glasses as he creates one of his famous desserts in the kitchen. You’ve got your feet up, a small glass of red wine in one hand, a magazine in the other. Your youngest child is busy with his iPad, the other one is locked away in her room. Teenagers, right?

That’s ok. Everyone helped with the tree, they can do their own thing and you can do yours. 

Everything is in its place, the holidays are still a few weeks away, and you can relax and rest easy. Peace of mind is an important thing, right? 

Alright, you can probably see where this is going. This blog focusses on life insurance and investments after all. Every parent wants to know their family will be provided for if something tragic should happen. That’s the obvious benefit of permanent life insurance – paying off debts such as loans and taxes in the event of a policy holder’s death, corporate liability situations, and estate planning circumstances.

However, while you’re relaxing with the knowledge everything is taken care of, there’s a couple hidden benefits of permanent life insurance policies you should know about. 

Benefits you can enjoy while you’re still around. 


  1. Tax free growth

    The simplest hidden benefit of a permanent life insurance policy is the ability to grow your funds at competitive rates without any tax implications. Tax-free growth is pretty popular for obvious reasons, right? Right. The last thing anyone wants is to invest at a limited rate of growth with tax consequences…oh wait, that’s a bank GIC! You want to know, as you take a sip of your wine, that everything you’re setting aside will be growing tax efficiently for you and your beneficiaries.


  2. Tax Free Transition to Beneficiaries

    And once those beneficiaries are ready to inherit funds from that insurance policy? It’s important that this step be as seamless as possible. Life insurance policies can be structured to not only accumulate tax free growth, they can also be built to transfer to your beneficiaries without any probate or income tax as well. Unfortunately for many families, they discover much too late that their inheritance comes with a much larger cost than they were prepared for.


  3. Using Funds During Your Lifetime

    With certain life insurance products you can also gain access to the accumulated cash values within the life insurance policy to use during your lifetime.  In other words, permanent life insurance is not used strictly as life protection only. When you choose to invest your money in a permanent life insurance policy, the entire purpose is to make a reasonable return on your investment and cover your risks. So as you look at your youngest on his iPad, content his distant future is provided for, you can also consider the option of withdrawing funds against your policy to pay for your oldest’s university tuition in the not-too-distant future.

Your Life’s Security 

“An investment in an insurance vehicle should ideally be viewed as a ‘security.’”

That’s Norm Ayoub with the HighView Financial Group in an article from a couple years ago. The idea of providing security and protection for your family when you’re not available to do so yourself is important, but the fast pace of life dictates we need to be ready for large purchases, investments, and the near future in general during our lifetime. We believe it’s crucial to tailor each portfolio to the needs of individuals. 

This means that while it’s important to invest in a policy that suits your longterm needs, short term goals should be taken into account as well. 

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This post was written by Marco Faccone